I picked up For Steam and Country recently. It’s the first in a series of young-adult (YA) novels, “The Adventures of Baron von Monocle” by Jon Del Arroz.
It’s actually a popular YA/steampunk series, which is a genre I didn’t know existed. It is also part of a loose group of works being called “Iron Age,” similar to the platinum, gold, silver, and bronze age of comics. I don’t know a lot about this Iron Age movement, but many of the works I’ve seen overlap, in my opinion, with New Pulp. I see sword-and-sorcery works, traditional action/adventure stories, and the like.
As noted, this is part of a series, now up to six volumes so far. There are also some short stories as well, but not clear on their sources.
The series is set on an alternate world whose highest tech is steam. This means they have steam-powered “horseless carriages” and steam-powered airships, these being heavier-than-air vehicles with large rotating turbines. Weapons are mainly swords, guns (I think at best semi-automatics), and cannons.
It’s not clear how much of the world has been discovered at this point. I would have loved to have seen a map in the book, but I have learned he has a website on his world that does have some maps. For this first story, it’s set on the continent of Areth, more precisely the Rislandian peninsula, which is divided by two nations. One is the “good guy” nation of the Rislandian Kingdom, under the fair rule of King Malaky XVI. The other is the expansionist Wyranth Empire, under the rule of the mysterious Iron Emperor, who are our bad guys.
We meet many of our main characters in the first few chapters. Our hero — heroine actually — is Zaira von Monocle. She is 16, and is the only daughter of Baron Theodore von Monocle, who has been missing for two years and is thought dead. Her mother is the late Liliana, a former duchess of a foreign land now ruled by Wyranth. And if you think she has been living the easy and pampered life of a baron’s daughter, you will be very wrong. She struggles to maintain her farm, bringing in crops to help support herself with little help. Her close neighbors include the young James Gentry, who dreams of joining the Knights of the Crystal Spire, the elite fighting force of Rislandia. And is he a possible love interest? Or not?
We soon meet Matthias du Gearsmith, her father’s lawyer (though there seems to be more to him than that), and Captain Talyen von Cravet, who is the captain of the airship Liliana. Interestingly, when Rislandia built its first five airships, the king decided that the noblemen in charge of each one would be the actual owners of their airships.
So Baron von Monocle owned the Liliana, which is the only one remaining. And as he has been missing and presumed dead for two years, Zaira inherits it as she is now 16. But she has no idea how to command an airship. Visiting the airship, Zaira (and we) meet two important members of the crew: engineer Harkerpal and Lt. Commander Marina Willett.
But things aren’t so simple. Wyranth is invading. And Wyranth soldiers seem to be trying to take Zaira. Zaira takes the Liliana on a short cruise but it almost ends in disaster as they are attacked and she crashes the ship. Well, maybe it did end in disaster. She is clearly over her head. But with the way things are going with the invasion, Zaira tries her best to help out, especially when her father may be alive but imprisoned. And there is a mystery around the cause of recent earthquakes and the weird behavior of the Wyranth soldiers.
Zaira makes a good heroine. There has been a problem in recent years with people creating poor female protagonists. There are several terms for these characters, such as “Mary Sue” and the like. Some people so want their female protagonists to be “strong” that they are actually unrealistic and often unpleasant and unlikeable. They fail to understand that heroes can not be flawless and do need to overcome their doubts and uncertainties. And that men and women are not the same physically or emotionally. We see this in Zaira. Early on she often just wants to go home to her farm as she has no knowledge of airships or combat or any of that. It’s only when faced by the threat of the Wyranth, as well as wanting to find and rescue her father, that she finds the strength to overcome her doubts and uncertainty. And in doing so she is able to inspire others. Even when she makes mistakes. Which she will.
Now, as this is a young-adult novel, the level of violence is dialed down. People do get hurt, do die, do get killed. The Wyranth are not nice people. But things are dialed down to a “PG” level instead of an “R” level, if you will. And that is fine. And any good young-adult work can be enjoyed by adults. Just look at Harry Potter.
At the end of the novel, the invasion of Wyranth is ended. The baron is rescued, which you should read to find out how. Some of the mystery of the soldiers’ actions and the earthquakes is revealed, though not fully explained and will be gone into in future works I believe. Clearly, this is a world with some level of mystery to it, and a past history that even some of the inhabitants don’t know. I’m sure all of this will be subjects to be explored in the future.
There is also the problem with the ownership of the Liliana, as both the baron and Captain von Cravat will have new roles (in more ways than one) that preclude running the airship, and Zaira really doesn’t have a noble title herself. So the king solves the problem by granting Zaira the title of baroness in her own right, and she can remain owner of the Liliana. She decided to go by the title of “baron” as a way of confusing the enemy, with the approval of the king (who we also learn is a childhood friend of Theodore). Oh, yeah, and James Gentry does become a knight, or at least will be an apprentice knight. I’m sure we’ll see him in future works, and the fifth volume is all about him.
This certainly sets up the upcoming novels, some of which have Zaira and her airship traveling to other lands, again dealing with the Wyranth and more. At the end of the book, there is a chronology of the prior 20 years, and it seems that some short stories are being noted, but I have no idea where they may be found. I hope this chronology will be updated as the books go along.
I will be looking into the rest of this series, and if you want a fun steampunk adventure series, this is one to check out.
