Synopsis:
After diamond power promises to replace steam, an unemployed labourer and a thieving noble unite to foil an international plot and avert a war.
Alf Wilson resents the new technology that cost him his factory job, especially as his clockwork leg bars him from army enrolment. He daren’t confess his unemployment to his overbearing mother. Desperate over the rent, he ends up in a detention cell with a hangover.
Impoverished Lord Richard Hayes maintains his expensive parliamentary seat by a mixture of charm and burglary. During a poorly planned break-in, he inadvertently witnesses a kidnapping. To cap it all, the police arrest him for the crime. At least he’s using a fake identity. The real criminals make off with not just the professor who discovered diamond power, but her plans for a diamond-fuelled bomb.
When Rich encounters Alf in the neighbouring cell, he sees an opportunity to keep his noble reputation intact. He persuades Alf he’s a secret agent who needs an assistant. This chance association will take them to the oddest locations. But law-abiding Alf’s first assignment? Break Rich out of jail.
Review:
The Diamond Device is a fun, caper-filled series of misadventures, featuring two very unlikely heroes who form an equally unlikely friendship. And they don’t know they’re heroes until everything is said and done.
The book begins with Alf (short for Alphonse, which he feels is too fancy of a name.) He’s a factory worker, recently laid off from his job due to the implementation of diamond-powered automatons. Most of his coworkers were able to pivot their career paths and enlist in the army, but Alf has a prosthetic leg, which makes him ineligible. So instead of doing the sensible thing after a terrible day and just going home, Alf goes to the bar, winds up in a fight, and then in jail.
Enter Rich (or Lord Hayes.) Despite his fancy title and the wealth it implies, he’s broke and resorts to burglary to cover his bills. He winds up in a jail cell next to Alf. The two don’t like one another at first, but Alf reluctantly agrees to help Rich get word to his maid about the incarceration when he’s promised payment in return. It turns out that Rich’s maid went to school with Alf, and she convinces him to help her break Rich out of jail.
Things only get more complicated from there, and more misadventures soon follow.
I’m still not entirely sure how to categorize this book. It has some Steampunk elements—there are airships, Alf’s prosthesis is a clockwork design, and steam-powered carriages are prevalent. The diamond-power lends itself to light fantasy, though I picked this title up a few years ago due to SPSFC (a sci-fi competition.) I didn’t really feel it was sci-fi though… The story is more about the capers, the would-be heists, and the relationships between characters, and I’m not sure if it fits into any one genre nicely.
I found this to be a quick read with a touch of humor, and overall, it was just a lot of fun.
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