I was looking forward to reviewing Richard Harland's World Shaker. As an author, Harland manages to combine being one of the nice guys of the business with world-class storytelling.

This novel would probably be technically classed as Young Adult as it has adolescent antagonists overcoming adult opposition and conflict, which is one of the 'rules' of the YA category. However I think its appeal goes beyond that.

This is steampunk, alternative history. We have a European society where entire populations are housed within monstrous, steam-powered leviathans which roam the globe. The vehicle housing the cast of this novel is the remnants of English society. The vehicle itself was built some 150 years before in the reign of Queen Victoria. We still have a Queen Victoria on the throne, and an Albert as her consort.

Harland has recreated the social divides we associate with the Victorian era, with the upper part of the vessel being the upper class who run everything, with everything a certain point in the structure merely being referred to as Down Below. The denizens of those lower decks are considered sub-human, living in a hell of furnaces, engines and steam. Nobody from the Upper goes Down Below. The only people from Down Below who come up are those who are literally captured and enslaved. The divide between the two is such that it is popularly believed by the Upper Decks that those Down Below are a different species of human.

Like pretty much all of Harland's work that I have read, there is a darker edge to it, particularly in respect of how some of the upper's treat their servants captured from Down Below (although I think my original description of enslave was more accurate).

The pacing of the novel is good as is the imagery created by the narrative. It is easy to get a mental picture of polished wood and brass, white linens on the tables and all the other trappings we associate with Victorian upper-class society.

The ending was a little too neat for my liking but it was quite fitted to the way that the plot had unfolded.

This is an excellent read that is not just for a YA audience or steampunk devotees.