The Demi-Monde: Winter. Rod Rees

[Boneman]

The year is 2018. America has built a huge computer simulation to create a wholly realistic cyber-milieu, in which they can train and evaluate their armed forces in situations that are the most accurate, convincing and challenging kind – the Demi-Monde of the Title. A circular world, thirty miles across, with five equally-sized sectors, which are racially and religiously distinct –designed as such to provoke tension between them, to provide the constant war conditions the US Army needs, so their soldiers can experience realistic, unpredictable warfare. So far, so Matrix. Plug ‘em in and they are plunged into a scenario that envelopes them totally, and allows for utterly realistic training in unforeseen circumstances – the kind of situations they will meet on the battlefields in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq – the wars fought without rules, which the US Army is not particularly good at.


In order to make the simulation as lifelike as possible, the programme inserted was heuristic – it learns by itself. Which makes for even more realism, as the computer has taken over and optimised the functions and actions of the ‘Dupes’ – the simulated occupants of the world created, which the plug-in soldiers will face. The Dupes are all modelled on real people. And their leaders are exact copies of some of the most psychotic people in history: Reinhard Heydrich, Henry VIII, Maximilien Robespierre, Lavrenty Beria, Ivan the Terrible, Aleister Crowley, and so on. Because the computer programme now runs itself, these figures can do whatever they want. And it isn’t nice.


And now the lunatics have started taking over the asylum. The programme is self-governing, and self-supporting, and is also self-protecting. Some of the leaders have become self-aware, and fully understand what they are. They have taken to capturing the plug-in soldiers, and have closed the access ports that lead to and from the real world, trapping them inside the Demi-Monde. Knowing the programme could be shut down at any moment, they have somehow managed to entice the daughter of the President of The United States into the Demi-Monde, and she has become lost. The authorities in the real world cannot shut the computer down, or the President’s daughter will die. The matrix it definitely isn’t.


Enter our heroine. For reasons that are never fully explained, Ella Thomas, a young, black jazz singer, fits the exact profile of the person needed to mount a rescue mission into the most dangerous place ever created, and extract the President’s daughter.
The Demi-Monde: Winter, is the first of four books, and writer Rod Rees stated on his blog of 1st July 2011, that he was ‘well on with the fourth and final book of the Demi-Monde series’ which will be of great comfort for those who hate to have five years or more pass between successive books in trilogies, quadrilogies and series.


It is extremely well-written and enjoyable book, and I suspect Rod had a lot of fun bringing in the varying historical figures into one story; Archie Clement, a pro-confederate guerrilla leader in the American Civil War, has joined forces with Heydrich, Beria, Crowley and Matthew Hopkins, the original Witchfinder, and the scenes between them do not seem forced in any way. At one point Ella gets to see her heroine Josephine Baker perform in a club, and speaks with her.


Rod uses slight twists on words that make recognisable and amusing counterpoints to the original: the Fourth Reich has become the ForthRight; HerEticalism is the official religion of the sector of the Coven, developed by Empress Wu – China’s only female emporer; HimPerialism is an unwavering belief in male supremacy, and Suffer-O-Gettism is a contraction of Make-Men-Suffer-O-Gettism, the militant wing of the HerEticalist movement.


The story flows well as Ella attempts to find the President’s daughter, and the way she interacts with the people she meets along the way. Her closely-observed actions make her a very likeable heroine, and the descriptions of the battles create very good tension. Separate chapters have different third-person points of view of the important characters in the book, and three storylines become interwoven in a way that is not distracting. There are occasional jumps of points of view within chapters, as Rod attempts to keep us informed of what is going on simultaneously. But he bleeds knowledge to us in slow, measured doses, and we begin to understand that all is not what it seems – Ella has subtle experiences that presage so much more to come in future books, and we’re given glimpses of who may be the true antagonist; just enough to excite our interest, without being clumsy.


I would have liked more explanation of how the President’s daughter was inserted into the Demi-Monde: the description of Ella’s experience showed that it was quite involved, and I questioned how it could have happened so easily, with nobody noticing. There are allusions to it within the book, but nothing satisfying. I fully expect an explanation in later books, but it seemed strange that Ella did not ask her how it came about, in the three weeks they spend together.


And Rod has cleverly solved the dreaded ‘info-dump’ problem. Naturally, the Demi-Monde has to be explained to Ella, in order that she be convinced to participate, so we find out enough to understand it. In a way strongly reminiscent of the original ‘Dune’ series, each chapter begins with a quote from different sources: the Demi-Monde Product Description Manual; the University of Berlin papers studying the Religions of The Demi-Monde; The ForthRight Law Gazette Decrees and so on. It’s entirely possible to read the whole book and skip these, as they do not wholly impinge upon the story. But they add a richness of understanding to background events, that means a narrator or the characters in the book do not have to talk about them, and this allows the story to progress so much more naturally.

They say write about what you know. Rod has travelled extensively in his life in Africa, Bangladesh, the Middle East, Russia, Iran, and has obviously drawn on these experiences in his writing. And his wife is a Jazz-singer.


The book is being described as a ‘Steampunk Thriller’ which I think is a big mistake, as it has elements of steampunk, but is so much more than that. It’s a science fiction thriller, character-driven, a believable (fantastical) world and a developing love story running through it. ‘Steampunk Thriller’ may limit his exposure in the market, and that would be a shame. It’s only out in hardback at the time of writing this, but the paperback is due later this year. I’m looking forward to the next one.


Since this appears to be one continual story told in four books, my one carp might be the necessity for three cliff-hanger endings for the three story threads. I’m certain the next book will pick up where we’ve just left the characters, and it jarred with me, that all three ended so abruptly. Oh, and a bigger map of the Demi-Monde world would have helped.

[chopper]

a thoroughly nice man he is, too. "Your first sentence should have action. Or sex. Or death. Or possibly both, if you can manage that."
(Not quite a direct quote, but close enough....)

[Boneman]

You're not kidding - he sent me a very nice email, thanking me for the review, and saying he'd pass my comments about the 'steampunk' label to his publishers. The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced it's wrong for his book to be put there.

Personally, I walk right past the 'steampunk' section in Waterstones, don't even consider them, which means I would have missed this altogether, if it hadn't been for Alt.Fiction...

[chopper]

Originally Posted by Boneman

Personally, I walk right past the 'steampunk' section in Waterstones, don't even consider them, which means I would have missed this altogether, if it hadn't been for Alt.Fiction...

but you'd miss out on stuff like Morlock Nights and Infernal Devices, both by K Jeter and recently reissued by Angry Robot (did you get either in your goodie bag?).

[Boneman]

Originally Posted by chopper

but you'd miss out on stuff like Morlock Nights and Infernal Devices, both by K Jeter and recently reissued by Angry Robot (did you get either in your goodie bag?).

No I got a book by some bloke called Ian Whates... and an interesting magazine... but I will maybe browse awhile next time I'm in Waterstones. But doncha think it's quite a niche market to be lodged in? (When SciFi/Fantasy is already a niche market, in some people's view.) The Demi-Monde is such a 'large' novel that I think it does it no favours to be lodged there. But time will tell, I guess. Hopefully Rod's writing will shine through, whatever label they put on it. I wonder if Dune would be labelled steampunk now?

[chopper]

there's good and bad stuff, to be sure. and there's some very lazy labelling too. the best steampunk plays around with the conventions and tropes of early 20th century literature, rather than "set it in london and stick an airship in it".