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Books by Ian Tregillis
The Mechanical
by Ian Tregillis
· published 2015 · read 2020-09-30
★★☆☆☆
The Mechanical by Ian Tregellis is a case of the scenario being better than the implementation (though not as bad as it could've been). The scenario: in the late 1400s, a Dutch alchemist manages to create quasi-robots, the titular Mechanicals. With this power, the Dutch take over the world in place of the British. In roughly our time, the only remainder of non-Dutch Europe is a French resistance in North America. The Dutch are extremely Calvinist and say that machines can't feel or think, while the French are naturally Catholic and have decided that the mechanicals do have souls and enslaving them is bad (mostly to spite the Dutch, I think). Also, their spymaster is called Talleyrand (and happens to be female and one of the POV characters). Which is very cool.
Bitter Seeds
by Ian Tregillis
· published 2010 · read 2021-12-03
★☆☆☆☆
Nazis, but they have supermen, vs British war mages who will gladly sacrifice children. Unpleasant all around. Nobody is sympathetic, nobody is even interesting, everybody is terrible, and I haven't met flatter characters in ages. Didn't enjoy anything about it.