Friday, May 8, 2009

Worldshaker - Richard Harland


There are many (great) things I could say about Worldshaker, which is a fantastically rolicking steampunk novel for young adults. Personally I am just feeling happy to tuck something of the steampunk genre under my belt. My lack of steampunk experience was starting to weight heavily on my conscience. There was steam! There were pistons! Cranes! Tailcoats!

But one of the things I enjoyed most about this book was the inventive names Harland came up with for all his characters. Really, they were things of beauty! Not only did they tumble pleasantly from my tongue, but they gave all sorts of clues as to personality and class. 

Here are some faves:
Ebnolia Porpentine
Sephaltina Turbot
Wisley Squellingham

And then right down at the bottom of the class hierarchy (clearly they could not afford many letters for their names):
Riff
Padder
Fossie

And the outright bestest Worldshaker name, for a much put-upon Menial, is: Wicky Popo. Wick-ee Po-Po. 
I think he might have taught me contract law at Monash University back in the early 00's. 

2 comments:

  1. Um, cool.
    Could you maybe spoil it for me?
    Just say who Col ends up with: the gorgeous lovable girl or the bitch?
    And does Col retain his spot as the successor for Supreme Commander? Just wonderin'.

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  2. Nup, no spoiling from me! I would like to say though, if I was casting Col in a movie of Worldshaker, I would go for Tobey Maguire about five years ago.

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