Smoke

Let me start by saying Smoke gives me strong vibes of Philip Pullman's ‘His Dark Materials'. The key basic concept (what if sin was visible as a plume of smoke rising off the sinner?) is very much like the idea of Dust explored by Pullman. Vyleta takes it to further extremes by making children born to sin and unable to control their sinful ways (very catholic!) and puts in a class stratification based on the ability to control ones sin and limit the amount of smoke.

Such concepts always have a very moralistic vibe that can verge on preachy. Fortunately, Vyleta largely avoids that. There are several tropes that the story falls into though, with the coming of age of school age children, a very obviously signposted love triangle and the familial bonds leading to strange outcomes.

Ultimately there is a playful anti-hierarchical story of rebellion providing the drum beat to this tale, heavily layered with its overt moralising. An entertaining enough read and one that I am happy to have experienced. Pullman pulls of the theme slightly better, but this was a worthy effort. I will probably read the sequel at some point.

Smoke is set in an alternate 19th century England, where people's sinful thoughts and feelings are manifested in different types of smoke emanating from their bodies. Society is ruled by the noble elite, who supposedly do not smoke, while everyone else is doomed to be stained by the evidence of their unworthiness.

Three of the main characters are boys in an elite school where they are supposed to learn to control their smoke–their clothes are inspected each day for evidence of failure, and punishments are meted out. The fourth main character, Livia, is the daughter of a highly prestigious family who has nearly mastered her smoke when the three boys from the boarding school arrive at her home.

It's hard to categorize the story. It is partly a mystery, because the main characters learn that what they have been taught about their history and religion is not true. They are led to question what smoke really is, and how England's powerful elite have turned it to their benefit. It is partly an adventure story or a quest, because the three friends set off to try to learn more about some of the mysterious aspects of their society and to uncover any wrong doing if they can. There are aspects of romance and horror, too.

The characters' view of the nature of smoke becomes more nuanced as the story progresses. The friends meet coal miners who are not phased by being covered with soot, and one in particular who says he looks forward to sharing his sweetheart's smoke on their wedding day. Later in the story there is a character who truly doesn't smoke–he is unable to–and he is pitied.

I'm not sure questions are answered by the end of the book, but it's imaginative and well written. I really enjoyed reading it.

For a book with such a richly imagined setting and premise, Smoke's plot and characters fell completely flat. There was not a single character who did not seem like they had been pulled from a catalogue of hackneyed person-types (the tormented antihero, the rebellious daughter, the heart-of-gold best friend, the vicious bully, the aged extremist, etc., etc.) and the plot felt as formulaic as a children's cartoon (two best friends + the love interest + somebody out to get them = some chase scenes and a mystery to be solved).

It always makes me sad when something so ambitious fails to fulfill itself.

Thank you to HarperCollins for the advance reading copy.

I had no idea what this book was about when I purchased it; I bought it because it's author is Dan Vyleta.

Had I known the subject matter and not the author in advance, probably I would have been scared off - a Victorian world where people's emotions produce smoke which can affect others.

I thoroughly enjoyed what Mr Vyleta has done with this concept. It had me gripped.