Teslamancer

Science Fiction is fun in so many ways and one of the most entertaining games to play is to think about if. What is Nickola Tesla invented a way to harness an all-powerful energy? Would such power be safe to use, not only for an individual, but for a nation? This was an era of World Wars; more powerful weapons could mean even more death. Teslamancer is the second in Matthew Donald’s Teslanauts series that suggests that Tesla’s technology was so powerful that a secret organisation has worked through history to protect humankind from its own innovation. 

Maverick Teslanaut, Raymond Calvert, has been working for the shadowy underground team for a couple of years and has really started to find his groove. With the aid of his colleagues, Raymond is getting the most out of his suit that allows him to work at super speed. The Teslanauts have been stamping down on unwanted use of Tesla technology all over the globe, but they may have met their match with a new group determined to bring the tech to the wider world and dominate it. The head of the organisation is someone pupils of history will know all about. 

I read a lot of fiction and plenty of it is staid. Once in a while you come across a book that is kinetic and a little haphazard, as if the author wants to get three books crammed into one. Teslamancer is certainly one of these books and reminded me of the manic style of Matthew Reilly. Reilly has gone onto be a bestseller and perhaps Donald may too, but while Reilly writes for adults, Teslamancer is classed as juvenile literature. 

Aiming a book at the 12–18-year-old range is tricky. This is a group that ranges from short trousers to the pub. The characters in the book are in their early 20s, adults, but as this is a book for children, the characters are at best naive in places. Death is treated in an odd manner. This is a book set post-WW1 and has people fighting one another with deadly technology, but the Teslanauts are always capturing the enemy. This just does not ring true. Then a scene occurs that tackles death, in a big way, but it is almost told as an aside. It is as if the book is tonally slightly off. 

The book is trapped between the confidence of being an adult novel and the practicality of being a book for kids. In my opinion Donald should have binned off the child book angle and focused on creating a fun, flashy pulp novel. The story and characters do not come across as child friendly, just patronising. No death, but the characters have sex. Is the book in or out of the juvenile literature tag? The setting would also be tricky for teens, they will most likely know the main bad guy from the remix of a 1970s disco hit that was released in the past few years, not from an in-depth history of the Romanovs. 

In terms of ambition, Donald should be lorded. The concept of Tesla tech changing the face of history intrigues, but why hamstring the story with hiding it? I do not think technology of this nature could be hidden. Donald introduces a deeper, even more shadowy layer of masked characters that repair destroyed cities and wipe memories. The concept is just naive and moves the science fiction into science fantasy. Was making the book for teens an excuse for not developing ideas? 

There is an interesting seam that could be mined in the series, are the Teslanauts not becoming authoritarian themselves? Who are they to determine who gets tech and who does not? Does creating a city of masked people, including kids, sound like a Utopian regime to you?  

There are strange decisions throughout Teslamancer and it had me scratching my head, but I did also enjoy it. The action was kinetic and there is an enthusiasm in the book. I do think that it is a flawed title that will have adults and teens dismissing it alike, but for a science fiction reader that likes to unpick ideas in a book, there are enough contained within to last ten books.