19th
century London. A dark gentleman. Underground Alchemy. Violence.
I
am always sceptical of new books, considering that a lot of the literature I
read is older than my own parents, but here is a young novel that feels as if
it would rather be old – whilst not letting go of its attachment to
overly-emotional younger readers. Luckily this queer tight-rope act just about
succeeds in its aims, creating a memorable and enthralling work, remaining
faithful to the past by playfully altering it at every turn. Michael-Israel
Jarvis, previously of Gravedigger and
Land Rising, is now attempting to
corner the Young-Adult Fantasy market with this dark little tale about a brutal
murder, kidnapping and pseudo-science in a twisted version of Victorian Britain.
It’s his best and strangest work yet.
As
is obligatory in Young Adult fantasy, the protagonist is a young lad with a
heavy burden on his shoulders. Edward Sax has just murdered his uncle. Stabbed
him brutally to death, to be specific. He is then picked up by a mysterious
gentleman, finely-dressed, of odd visage, and for some reason very interested
in Edward’s fate – he knows all about the murder, and offers to keep Edward
safe if the boy murderer would enter his employ. This is Osric Fingerbone,
alchemist and deadly-dark-gentleman-for-hire extraordinaire, and together with
his new apprentice they delve into the darkness of the Undercity in search of
Edward’s missing sister, Eleanor.
The
world this all takes place in is quite good; familiar, but with a nasty little
edge to everything. An alternate 19th century Britain which seems to
have undergone something of an Anglo-Saxon revival – the city of Londun rather
than London, and Anglund rather than England, Brystol and Norwych as ditto –
Frankia rather than France. You get the picture. The main differences can be
found in the Undercity, the sewers and ruins beneath Londun inhabited by a its
own society, as well as the lowest of human – and not-quite-human – life. The other
major difference to account for is Osric’s chosen profession of Alchemy. The
mixture and distillation of chemicals to create life-altering substances is the
driving force behind this plot, allowing people to extend their lives long
beyond their normal confines, give themselves temporary new abilities or, in a
more sinister vein, to change and alter the human form in ghastly ways. I’ve
dealt with alchemy in a number of places in recent months, such as its brief
appearance as a one-off McGuffin in Harry
Potter, and when Paulo Coelho briefly touched on it in his piece of
superstition proselytizing, but here it takes on the form of a Fantasy
plot-device – a chemical version of magic, if you will. It underpins and feeds
both the world and the story of Osric
Fingerbone, and does so quite well – not only accounting for some of the
stranger aspects of Osric’s world, but doing so in a relatively logical and
nicely rule-constricted way.
Whereas
in his previous books Jarvis had perhaps allowed the story to run on for longer
than necessary, and for the number of characters to become unwieldy, in Osric we find a shorter, much more
concise novel with a manageable number of entities to keep track of. The story
never runs out of steam and the plot draws you on page by page. The chapter
headings are quite effectively used, not to give the chapters dramatic names
which only serve to give part of the plot away, but instead just to name the
location. If the scene takes place in a train carriage several miles away from
Londun, it jolly well tells you so right at the start of the chapter. If the
character has no idea where they are, then the chapter heading helpfully gives
no clue about it.
Osric
Fingerbone himself is charismatic enough to hold a book together by himself,
but surprisingly it is our main protagonist Edward Sax, ‘the boy murderer’ and Robin to
Osric’s Batman (to make a quaint
allusion), who has a bit more character to him than one would expect. Rather
than being just another feeble Alex
Rider-style reader wish-fulfilment insert character through which we have
to experience a better character, Edward Sax has a certain sharp personality to
him, a genuinely unpleasant backstory, and a functioning dynamic with the other
characters particularly in regards to Osric Fingerbone. Meanwhile the other
characters in the story all have their uses to the book as a whole;
particularly the strange denizens of the Undercity whose twisted sense of
honour provides one of the more memorable sequences.
Overall,
Osric Fingerbone and the Boy Murderer is
good. The characters are all there, the plot is intriguing, the pacing
excellent, the dialogue convincing, and the world is a detailed and unnerving
place. There’s not really much more I can add that won’t spoil the book or lead
me to try and make vague comparisons to Sherlock
Holmes or the gothic/horror of the Victorian era, so by all means go out
there and buy yourself a copy Jarvis’ latest work.
Bibliochemy
Jarvis, Michael Israel. Osric Fingerbone and the Boy Murderer. Taravatara Publishing (2014)
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