Product Description

A hugely engaging adventure set in a Victorian-style world -- a fantastical version of Dickens -- that will appeal to fans of Susanna Clarke and Philip Pullman. Two orphans are more than they seem. And one megalomaniac will stop at nothing to find them! When Molly Templar witnesses a brutal murder at the brothel she has just been apprenticed to, her first instinct is to return to the poorhouse where she grew up. But there she finds her fellow orphans butchered, and it slowly dawns on her that she was in fact the real target of the attack. For Molly carries a secret deep in her blood, a secret that marks her out for destruction by enemies of the state. Soon Molly will find herself battling a grave threat to civilization which draws on an ancient power thought to have been quelled millennia ago. Oliver Brooks has led a sheltered life in the home of his merchant uncle. But when he is framed for his only relative's murder he is forced to flee for his life. He is accompanied by Harry Stave, an agent of the Court of the Air -- a shadowy organization independent of the government that acts as the final judiciary of the land, ensuring that order prevails. Chased across the country, Oliver finds himself in the company of thieves, outlaws and spies, and gradually learns more about the secret that has blighted his life, but which may also offer him the power to avert the coming catastrophe. Their enemies are ruthless and myriad, but Molly and Oliver are joined by indomitable friends in this endlessly inventive tale full of drama, intrigue and adventure.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18268 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 592 pages

Review
'An inventive, ambitious work, full of wonders and marvels' Lisa Tuttle, The Times 'The characters are convincing and colourful, but the real achievement is the setting, a hellish take on Victorian London ! the depth and complexity of Hunt's vision makes it compulsive reading for all ages' Guardian 'Wonderfully assured ! Hunt knows what his audience like and gives it to them with a sardonic wit and carefully developed tension' Time Out 'Studded with invention' Independent 'Rich and colourful ! keeps you engrossed ! a confident, audacious novel' SFX 'Like a magpie, Stephen Hunt has plucked colourful events from history and politics and used them for inspiration ! Hunts tells his full-blooded tale with lip-smacking relish, revealing a vivid, often gruesome imagination ! T'he Court of the Air' brims with originality and, from the first, its chase-filled plot never lets up' Starburst 'The best book of 2007 ! Think Joan Aiken for grown-ups, with echoes of Susanna Clarke ! hugely enjoyable' Historical Novels Review

Interview with Stephen Hunt

The difficulty for many writers is finding the time to balance writing and working life, how did you go about retaining some kind of self-discipline?

I think the trick to approaching this as an author is to take the same approach as we're all meant to use for exercise ... a little a day, every day, goes a long way. Writing is also a great way to get rid of your dead time. Rather than sitting on the train staring out of the window and getting annoyed by the person next door's iPod on full blast (like they can afford a state-of-the-art mpeg player but can't splash out the extra tenner on a decent set of ear phones), tune in to that fantasy world swimming around your head instead. The plus point to this approach is that you'll never get annoyed waiting half an hour for your train again! It's a blooming bonus.

You have some extraordinarily vivid and imaginative descriptions, particularly those of your steam-powered robots, the Steammen and an incredibly brilliant vacuum-powered transporting device known simply as 'the atmospheric'. Is your room littered with sketches for the technology of The Court of The Air or did it come vividly to you as you imagined the world of Middlesteel, the Undercity and Shadowclock?

To be honest, a lot of this just comes down to being well-read and plundering history as much as possible. The early Victorians did actually have a working atmospheric-like system for mass transport running as a small-scale model, but the economics of financing it killed the system's roll-out. Could have happened, though. That being said, I have always suffered from an overactive imagination (aka just making stuff up); it's good to find an outlet for it that allows me to do okay out of it, rather than just annoying co-workers on my various day jobs with my flights of fancy.

Your Steammen, unlike many conventional science fiction robots, are more spiritual and humane than many of their human counterparts did you feel that this was something worth stressing in the light of recent technological progress?

I think technological progress will take us there anyway. Maybe not this century, but if we could peek forward a little to say a thousand years times, I think we would be truly blown away by what's lurking around the corner for humanity. But back to the mundanities of the 21st century and the here and now, it was just a great way to have some fun with the clunking stereotypes of the robot in the Court of the Air.

Droids that are more humane and spiritual than humanity? Looking at what we're doing to the world, it sometimes doesn't feel like that would be too much of a leap.

How important is it to be writing good science fiction in Britain? Do you think that there's enough support out there for rising talents in the genre?

I don't think there's any problem with the volume of native talent in the UK. What there is lacking is a paying market for short genre fiction with any sort of readership picking up those magazines, which has traditionally been the way genre authors used to develop their work into novel-length quality. On the flip side, the web has taken up the reins of this role, albeit with some terrible quality judgements on what does or doesn't get published. The internet isn't usually a paying market, though. You're working solely for the love of the written word, and it often feels as ephemeral as the photons the net runs along.

Do you have any recommendations for budding writers?

Stick with it. Write and get better. Read constantly across every genre that's out there, even the ones that wouldn't normally appeal to you. You need to develop a very fine sense of your own worth while balancing this with an almost schizoid opposite-but-equal force of self-criticism. And forget about joining any writer's circles for any other reason than a drink down the pub with like minds. Writing is a solitary occupation – you need to climb that mountain with empty hands; anything other than locking yourself away with pen and paper is writing-avoidance ... and these, my children, are the devil's distractions (along with decent Saturday afternoon movies and a subscription to the SCIFI Channel).

You've mentioned before in interviews that you're not so keen on writing a trilogy based around the same characters, do your think a readership can be put off by seeing 'Book One' written on the spine of an sf or fantasy novel?

It certainly puts me off, now. When I was a student and had all the time in the world maybe that would have been a positive, though. I would have been looking at the book jacket in Waterstone’s and thinking, brill, after I've done this one, there's another twenty to go. Well, it beat sitting in lectures, didn't it?

In a world of excessive Star Wars, Da Vinci Code and J K Rowling clones, should more writers be steering clear of this subject matter in favour of something more original? What are some prospective stories that you might like to read should they ever get written?

The idea of writing to target a readership demographic is one I find very alien, maybe because I've always had a day job to fall back on, so any writing in my spare time had to be what I enjoyed creating rather than just whatever is selling right now. Better to create your own market, rather than following on the coat-tails of others. After all, there was no Da Vinci Code sub-genre before Dan Brown, and JK Rowling was following firmly in the footsteps of a hundred boy/girl wizard tales (even if, hats off to her, she did rather whiz up the sales numbers around this category).

You need to take your own risks and follow your own path. Any other road leads to unhappiness. If it came down to a choice between working on a building site or writing the first 'Eastenders the novel', I think I would say, dude, where's my hardhat?

Are you getting much time to do any reading yourself at the moment, if so, what are you reading?

I read less than I like, now, but I always have a few books on the go by my bedside. I'm currently cutting through Terry Pratchett's Thud!, the historical adventure Ratcatcher (another HarperCollins author, if I'm not mistaken), Alastair Reynolds’ Pushing Ice, an illustrated history of the Napoleonic navy, not to mention a whole pile of the latest magazines, of which I am also a terrible addict ... Wired, SFX, the Spectator, The Economist, .Net, New Scientist et al. And don't even get me started on the comic books and graphic novels drifting through the house at any one point in time!

Which titles would be among the books you've read that provide the most nostalgia for you?

I was lucky in that my father is a science fiction fan who began collecting pulps during his own World War Two childhood, the good stuff that the GIs and victory boats brought over as ballast. I was raised on the classics, man, HG Wells, EE "Doc" Smith, Fritz Leiber, A.E. van Vogt, Clifford D Simak, Michael Moorcock, Jack Williamson, Robert Heinlein, Clarke ... if it was SFF and published prior to the 1970s, I probably had access to it.

Can you tell us a bit more about your next project?

I'm following my own advice, and have just handed in my second novel, which is still awaiting a firm title, but fans of the first work will be pleased to know it's set in the Jackelian world with a few familiar faces from The Court of the Air, and it isn't a trilogy (or even a duology).

The second tome is more of a high-adventure affair with echoes of King Solomon's Mines and Indiana Jones, involving a u-boat voyage to find a lost city that is rumoured to contain the secret for humanity’s salvation, but in actuality holds a little more than that.

From the Inside Flap
Two orphans on the run, each with the power to save the world
...

When streetwise Molly Templar witnesses a brutal murder at the brothel she
has recently been apprenticed to, her first instinct is to run back to the
poorhouse where she grew up. But there she finds her fellow orphans
butchered, and it slowly dawns on her that she was the real target of the
attack. For Molly carries a secret deep in her blood, a secret that marks
her out for destruction by enemies of the state.

Oliver brooks has led a sheltered existence in the backwater home of his
merchant uncle. But when he is framed for his only relative's murder he is
forced to flee for his life, accompanied by a agent of the mysterious Court
of the Air. Chased across the country, Oliver finds himself in the company
of thieves, outlaws and spies, and gradually learns more about the secret
that has blighted his life.

Soon Molly and Oliver will find themselves battling a grave threat to
civilisation, an ancient power thought to have been quelled millennia ago.
Their enemies are ruthless and myriad, but the two orphans are also aided
by indomitable friends in this endlessly inventive tale full of drama,
intrigue and adventure.

---

Customer Reviews

There's a story in there somewhere
I've had this book for a long time, initially drawn to the synopsis on the back cover it has lingered on my shelf due to the not so positive feedback from friends and the reviews on Amazon. I finally decided to read the book and am glad that I did, however I am more pleased that I've finished it.

There is no doubt that the imagination behind its construct is admirable. The creation of the Fey and the Worldsingers are particularly interesting, however the trouble is that it is all very confusing. I found that the majority of the time I was only getting the gist of the story but not understanding the full picture. Whilst the Kingdom of the Jackals may be clear to the author it is not so for the reader. There is no easy access to this world and you are presented with different races, places and a complex history of it's time and people all of which are poorly explained. It seems the author assumes that you will fully understand and accept what is presented, however this is not the case.

I really tried to understand but found that I failed to keep up with it's relentless pace. I was unsure as to who was fighting whom and for what reason. The book would have served better had it been the climax of a series, with the reader already having a full understanding of the world the author created but as a first book it is a world unto itself.

Whilst I wouldn't tell anyone not to read this book I would suggest approaching it with caution and to read all the reviews on Amazon to get a good indication of what the book may hold.

Fizzing with invention
This is an excellent book, a real page turner, depicting an intricate war between (fairly absolute) evil and (more than slightly grubby) good. The fictional world is vividly constructed and utterly convincing. The Kingdom of Jackals and its enemy, revolutionary Quatreshift, rather resemble late 18th century Britain and France in politics and general situation - Jackals defended by its navy of trusty airships, Quatreshift bleeding as enemies of the people are liquidated by the Gideon's Collar. But both states have much more to them than that, and older things sleep (or not) deep beneath Jackals, waiting to be summoned.

Through this bizarre world we follow the adventures of Molly and Oliver, orphans, whose special talents make them targets for the underground evil. We also meet a race of noble steam powered robots, and a covert organisation - the eponymous Court - dedicated to preserving Jackals. It all culminates in an epic battle involving gods, revolutionaries, human and fey armies, the Steammen and more (with some echoes of Philip Pullman - but although this is emphatically not a His Dark Materials clone).

There is much, much more. My only reservation - and why I give it four stars rather than five - is that perhaps there is too much for all the elements to be knitted together properly. The Court, for example, really only plays a peripheral role, and other themes and characters (such as the Observer and her bullish colleague) don't really serve much purpose. I think the material could have been better served if it had been used for two or even three books. Perhaps there will be a sequel? (Refreshingly, there is no and-they-all-lived-happily-ever-after - once their temporary alliance to save the world end, the central characters pursue wildly different courses and are bound to come into conflict).

But please don't be put off by that minor quibble. Do buy this book, it's vastly entertaining and a rivetting good read.

Steamin' along with Mollie and Ollie
Two orphans find themselves on the run from the authorities. Molly might be called a feisty and defensive redhead. She has her reasons. As a baby she was unceremoniously dumped on the step of the Poorhouse. She's been in trouble almost ever since. The Beadle despairs of getting his graft from her as he sends her out on yet another job.

Oliver is also a strange boy. Found after five years inside the Fey mist he has been monitored ever since by the Worldsingers. Somehow he has always avoided being taken away to the Asylum or to become one of the Special Guard with a restraining torc. Oliver has his secrets not least his dreams being invaded by the Whisperer, a tortured fey-altered man secured inside the Hawklam Asylum. But it is only when the disreputable Harry Stave arrives that Oliver finds his old life is over and he is on the run whilst hardly knowing why.

The world presented through this novel is at once familiar and yet comprehensively different to our own. The opening pages did not give any clues to the environment we have entered. Teasingly, Molly is presented as little Orphan Annie complete with the defiant personality that marks her out as trouble with a capital T.

A great deal of thought has gone into creating a fantastical yet believable background to the adventures. The backdrop is at least as important as a character and it has to be a smooth transition from our world to theirs. This one packs in pneumatic towers, mechanical men and everyone's favourite aerostats. Our world is safe and boring in comparison for this is a desperate place where even the word constitutional monarchy is a vicious understatement of the ghastly truth. Hunt has included another favourite of fantasy writers the availability of crystal grids and the treatment of the land as a living entity and this conception of the background is a intricate and involving process so that we can drop painlessly into this world and feel almost comfortable.

So to the cast of characters who are linked by necessity and drawn to each other as the plot progresses. There are quite a few of them and teasing out the links takes thought. Supporting cast is neatly drawn and although time is short with them there is enough there to get a feel for who they might be. The main characters are harder with the necessary internalisation developing more towards the end of the novel. I feel they have a lot of growing to do and they may need some further time to do that.

I liked the world that this novel is set in. Its danger and despair tempered by the exhilaration of the battle. Hunt is not afraid to decimate his characters either and there is no mincing about with this. It is a gutsy and full-blooded story with some pretty nasty detail unflinchingly presented. There are some superb larger than life characters and also the quiet and unassuming steam-men on whom so much hangs.

Whilst this is a tale of derring-do it does not concentrate on swords and sorcery. There is some sparkling witty dialogue and coy politicking too. There is noble sacrifice and the bloody nose of defeat. I enjoyed it so much I read it twice. Both a tale of great adventure and a dark comment on the danger of fundamental politics; take from it what you want or what you need.