The Translated Man and Other Stories

If theres such a thing as steampunk noir, these wonderfully gritty, mesmerizing and moving works perfectly embody the sub-genre. Think some junkie, near burned out Harry Potter as a dying yet noble master detective inhabiting some dark, dystopic alternate world rife with political intrigue, a permanent war economy and racism, and you have just a starting point. Make no mistake: Mr. Braak can write very, very well. This is stand-out dystopian, alternate universe noir fiction.

is a decaying city patrolled by press gangs and brutal police groups. Petty magicians and insane scientists engage in dangerous experiments. The disease afflicted MC charged with suppressing these abominations takes a drug that induces disturbingly regular hallucinations. I like the characterizations, especially that of the city.

I read this some time ago but its imagery, characters and unique themes come to mind over and over. So often books like this veer off into faeries and wizards, which is where I stop reading. But Chris Braak builds a believable and enjoyable world for his characters to act within. He does this quite skillfully, never beating the reader to death with endless description or forced passages. If you just want to take a trip and enjoy a world that is immediately recognizable but still delightfully foreign to our own, and ride shotgun with some memorable characters, this book is for you.

Chris Braaks Translated Man is pretty good! His fictional world is a fresh and eclectic mixture. It has a dark 1800s feel, with a hint of a modern British gritty cop drama. Imagine if the discoveries in physics and chemistry for the last 200 odd years never happened. Now imagine the scientists of this world marched on anyway without the periodic table of elements, without quantum mechanics, etc. Take this world of dark stone streets, airships, and Aether, throw in a few non-human races, a few man-made abominations, and a good murder mystery, and youre just starting to get the picture. If you really want to get the picture, read book! There was a typo or two. And yes, Translated Man may not turn the highbrow heads at the Atlantic or the New Yorker. Very little science fiction or fantasy ever does. But Translated Man is a crisp, well-spun yarn, and a darned good read! Theres a lot of drivel in the world of sci-fi and fantasy, and the bottom line is: this isnt it.

Theres a passage here that has stayed with me since reading it 7 years ago, filed prominently in my brains storage of macho stories. When the young deputy witnesses the kind of trauma that tends to wreck a man, he feels a minuscule sliver of himself self ripped away, then quickly filled with cold steel, able to feel that much less but operate that much stronger. I recall thinking Hmmmm, thats pretty badass. Dang.

This book was interesting, dark, and extremely imaginative. Even with the fre-quent ran-dom hyphen-ations, I could hardly put it down! I wanted to transport myself there to look around--the visuals were just that incredible. Looking forward to reading the next book. Good work, Mr. Braak.