Reviewed by Chris
TITLE: Raise the Red Flag
AUTHOR: Eric Del Carlo
PUBLISHER: DSP Publications
LENGTH: 191 pages
RELEASE DATE: January 23, 2018
BLURB:
In an 1867 that never was, the American colonies are finally gearing up to revolt against oppressive British rule enforced by advanced technology. British airship captain Hamilton Arkwright is captured by the rebels when his vessel is commandeered. The insurgents are also aided—reluctantly—by young Jonny Callahan, a thief and ne’er-do-well who would rather carouse on the streets of New Orleans than fight for independence. When the two seemingly opposite men are thrown together on a harrowing journey across the war-torn colonies, they must grudgingly rely on each other for survival. Despite their efforts to resist, the attraction between them threatens to throw a wrench in their plans to remain enemies.
They battle their way through American guerillas and a demolition-derby-type highway to reach the decimated streets of Chicago, where British forces are preparing to commit a war crime of enormous magnitude. Though affection has grown between them during their mission, they are still on conflicting sides, and they may have to choose between loyalty to their causes and their love.
REVIEW:
I had, on reflection, got a bit carried away with my review of this book. For whatever reason there were certain aspects of the story that struck just the right–or, well, wrong–cord with me, and on the heels of a rather stressful week, I went a bit nuts. Luckily I was able to request a bit more time to pull this review together, so you are not all stuck reading the five-page essay I have stored on my computer. I would like to say straight up, that I don’t think this is a horrible story. It is absolutely not the story for me, but I can easily see others enjoying it. Yet for the reasons I go into below, I left this book more frustrated with the plot and the world building, than I have been with any book in recent memory.
If you haven’t read the blurb, this story is set in an 1867 where the British never lost the American Revolution, the world is full of steampunk-machinery, and Jonny Callahan–thief by trade, lover by nature–just wants to be left the hell alone. He doesn’t get his wish. He is basically blackmailed into helping the a group of American revolutionaries high-jack a British military airship. One captained by Hamilton Arkwright, a jackyank (an American colonial who joins the British military), on his first command. Both end up kidnapped by the revolutionaries and on the run from both sides, all the while having to decide just where they must fall in this new revolution.
Before I go into just why this story didn’t work for me, I would like to reiterate that I never hated this book. I wanted to strangle it at times, but that it was able to invoke that level of ire in me, all the while never making me hate either the characters or the writing, is something I’m rather impressed by. Perhaps it is that there was so much in this book that almost worked, that set me on edge. I really liked Jonny’s rather amoral take on the world. He wasn’t one of the bad guys, he wasn’t one of the good guys, he just was a guy who didn’t see much point in risking his neck for pointless endeavors. He was out for himself, but then again, who isn’t? Hamilton also was very well written. He was very good at making the reader see the side of an American colonial who grew up in a family of British military men, and yet has never stepped foot in Britain. Hamilton was by far the one thing that kept me reading this book. I needed to see what he choose, ultimately, in the end.
It is just the way the book went about making that final push that drove me bonkers. Because of his loyalty to his command and his Queen, there needed to be one hell of an incentive to make him choose anything but continuing to fight on the side of the British. So the book in the end basically made the British out to be sadistic bastards who have zero people in the military hierarchy with more than two brain cells to rub together, as well as a urge to get their genocide on. The words “well that escalated bloody quickly” come to mind whenever I think about the climax of this story. Because in what can’t be more than a week of fighting between the British side and the American side, the Brits decided to basically destroy three–maybe four–huge cities…for reasons I can’t even begin to fathom. It’s was like if one day people dumped tea into a harbor, and the next Britain is nuking New York City. All I could think was that they bloody well should hope that no one in those cities had high-placed relatives in England, or else their gooses are well and thoroughly cooked. The need to make the British be so evil, out of nowhere, only seemed to happen because the story was almost over and Hamilton couldn’t make up his bloody mind (not that I blame him as I was honestly on the British side for almost the whole story as well). And don’t get me wrong, the Brits have done some rather horrible things (like most countries) in battle, but the rush from zero-to-bloodbath was entirely unbelievable.
But it by far and away the convoluted history of this story that frustrates me the most. It has long been a pet peeve of mine that authors of stories which take place in alternate universes or timelines, fail to realize–or just don’t care–that by changing one part of history, society, politics, or the economy, there are bound to be rather distinct ripple effects on all the others. And while I am fully prepared to waive away a good deal of logic for stories that can build up interesting worlds or compelling plot…this book provided neither.
And so I am left to ask…how on earth does this world even exist?
I’m not just saying, “how does Steampunk exist?” because that is a facet of these types of stories I’m more than willing to go with. Steampunk machinery and physics work because that is the way they work. One does not pick up a steampunk novel without expecting certain things to occur. But I have to ask, in all seriousness, how does the societal, political, economical, and even geographical parts of this world function?
For example, this world takes place in an alternate 1867. One where the (first) American Revolution failed (though we are never given a clear explanation of why or when–which have a huge factor on my upcoming point). Britain still rules a big chunk of what we would consider the United States of America–though once again we are not given a very clear idea of how much. I do know that California is still under Spanish rule at this point–but I have no idea about the other parts of Southwestern America or well, most of the western coast and areas around it, to be honest–but at some points at least New Orleans (and the surrounding area one must assume) has traded hands form either Spain or France to Britain. Because the American colonies are under British rule, when the Empire abolished slavery, so too did the colonies. There are also several before-their-time technologies, like cars, or more steampunky technologies like the airships. There are several other smaller changes, but for the most part, these are the things that make the biggest impact on the world as a whole.
So I have to ask, if the first revolution failed (for reference, in our world most major events took place between 1765 and 1783) when did it fail? Was it quickly quashed? Was it a last-minute defeat? Did it happen before the French joined the fight in 1775?
I’m not just being pedantic or picking apart the story for no reason, either. Because while the revolution failing here in America would have had a huge impact on those in the colonies, it would also literally be world changing. Because depending on how fast it when down, and how badly it went down, it could have had a major impact on the French Revolution. The aid given to the would-be United States was kinda important in the lead up to the revolution across the ocean. Not only did it stoke the fires of the revolutionaries to see a successful revolt, but the funds sent to the colonialist helped increase the debt from the Seven Years’ War even further. And while I’m not sure that there was much at that point that could have stopped the French Revolution from occurring, the outcome of said war in France and how that outcome would affect the rest of the world is hard to deny.
Especially because out from the fire and blood of the French Revolution came Napoleon. And oh boy does he have an huge influence on the countries of the day. But for time sake, let’s just stick to how his presence directly affects the world that exists in this book.
Remember how I mentioned that New Orleans belongs to the British in this story? Well, I am deeply interested on how that happened. Mostly because in our timeline, America bought the fucking city–and whole hell of a lot more–in the Louisiana Purchase from France. Know who is not a huge fan of Britain at the time of the sale? France. I’d really love to see how that negotiation went down, seeing as at the time of the purchase France was just starting up the Napoleonic Wars…with Britain and other European countries. In fact that is one of the reasons the sale of land went down; it helped fund Napoleon’s armies.
And even if the French Revolution didn’t happen, and Napoleon never came to power, I’m not so sure how likely it would be that Britain would end up at the negotiating table. Because while the French were the ones in possession of the lands sold under the purchase, they had only recently come into possession of them through a treaty with Spain–brought about partly by the threat of Napoleon. And while relations in our early 19th century between Britain and Spain were not horrible, that is in part because of easing of tensions brought on by the two countries fighting Napoleon. Before the Napoleonic wars, Spain and Britain were not best friends–in fact they had been adversaries for over a century. Without a common enemy, I don’t really see Spain selling off a huge chunk of what I think if fairly expensive land to a country they at been at odds with, when not in outright war with. Especially because they would not need to fund armies/navies to fight a massive land and sea battle with the French.
Granted I am just guessing on a whole lot of that. I can’t really predict exactly what would happen or when, especially since we were not given a whole lot of information in the story itself. But I do think I have a pretty decent point in that major parts of the world building don’t make much sense. And if I can come up with these plot holes in a couple days, with only a couple hours of googling, I can’t see why someone who must have spent at least months on writing this story, could not see them as well.
I just found it endlessly frustrating the way the author chose to ignore the humongous impact the world they created must have on the plot they were writing. And by choosing to not only set it in a steampunk world, with (more) advanced technology than would have been available in our time, as well as nearly a century after the time of our own revolution, it made the errors all the more glaring. And I know that this is just a story, and I shouldn’t let it bug me so much, but you have no idea how hard it is to enjoy reading a book when all you can think about is how impractical, illogical, or just plain impossible, the world in which the story takes place is. I love steampunk for it’s alternate take on history, and I’m willing to take a few leaps-of-faith in regards to physics and world-building to make the story work, but when all I can focus on when I’m reading a story is what feels like hastily slapped together stage-dressing, then the book has failed.
RATING: 
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