The first time I read this story I liked it, but was a little underwhelmed by what I thought was too simple a story. This book is rated for 10-13 year-olds, and the vocabulary and chapter length has been modified to accommodate this young audience. As a result, Col seems a little too naïve, and in places the text feels ideologically heavy handed to me; if I had written my review after my first reading, I would likely not had much positive to say. By the time I read Harland’s text I had already read Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan (a work of YA literature that has been very well received by adults) and Cherie Priest’s Boneshaker (an adult work that could easily be read by teens), and I felt that Worldshaker suffered in comparison. A second reading, however, caused me to pause and reconsider my original criticism about this work; while I still believe it to be somewhat lacking the maturity level of other YA authors in this genre, I think adults will enjoy this book if they understand the concerns I have pointed out and read the text with a little patience. Steampunk literature is well-known for exploring concerns about class, the mass-produced and non-unique nature of modern technology, and the environment, and Richard Harland’s book wastes no time establishing itself within the genre in an approachable manner that should be enjoyable for both children and adults.
The book opens with the 16 year-old Colbert “Col” Porpentine being awakened by warrant officers searching his room for a ‘filthy’ girl who has escaped. Within the next few chapters the reader learns that Col is the child of a wealthy, high ranking family who lives aboard the huge vessel Worldshaker; at two and a half miles long, three quarters of a mile wide, and over thirteen hundred feet tall, the ship is home to “ten thousand people and two thousand Filthies” (29). Europe has been destroyed ecologically by the industrial revolution and a series of wars, and the reigning monarchs and nobles of Europe have withdrawn to massive steam-powered ships on which they can continue their privileged lives, navigating both on sea and land, leaving destruction in their wake. The British have retreated to the Worldshaker and recreated the society they left behind and, although at first glance this world looks peaceful and well organized, it doesn’t take long for the reader to lean Col’s world is deeply corrupted and seething with personal and social politics.
The biggest issue within the book is the division within the classes; the Worldshaker uses the class system established during the first Queen Victoria’s reign and, two hundred years later, preserves the customs and traditions of Victorian England with little change. Society aboard the ship has become intensely stratified, and these distinctions are rigid: There are the ‘best families,’ the nobles and gentry who serve Her Imperial Highness Queen Victoria; the artisans and middle-class tradespeople who provide consumer goods and services; the Menials, who are ominously described as ‘modified’ Filthies and form the servant class of the vessel; and the Filthies, the lowest class of workers who live in the bowels of the ship and feed coal to the boilers. Col’s classmates mimic these class divisions by imposing them within the microcosm of their school school: There are the children of the best families, who reign supreme over the rest of the school; the blockies (destined to become the ship’s officers), grindboys (the children of supervisors or tradespeople, and destined to eventually replace their parents), the climbers (children of the professional class, who aspire to join the best families), and the crawlers (also the children of the professional class, but without the connections and wealth to be upwardly mobile). The frustration the reader experiences with this class system mirrors Col’s increasing realization of the damage his society is inflicting on others, and nowhere is this more obvious that in his emerging friendship with Riff.
Riff is fourteen years-old and it is her escape from the warrant officers that sets the events of the story in motion. She is a Filthy who has been brought up from the bowels of the ship to be ‘modified’ into a Menial, but manages to hide herself in Col’s room. Col has been raised to believe that Filthies are not human, unable to acquire language or feel pain, and their ‘modification’ into Menials makes them happier and healthier. His meeting with Riff reveals that this is not the case, and triggers a stunned reevaluation of what he has been taught and, as Col spends more time in the presence of the intelligent and spirited young woman, he learns of the terrible cruelties his society not only permits, but encourages. In a defining moment he listens to his grandmother Ebnolia tell a restrained Riff, “Let me show you the wire they use for sewing [….] not only for the tongue, but all parts of the body. They’ll sew you up inside, where nobody can see. You have far more movement than you really need, you know” (323). This is followed by a description of the “gold buttons” known as “limiters, to limit your mind […] you have so many more thoughts than you really need. When you’ve been limited, you’ll still have lots of nice small thoughts, but no nasty big ones” (325). The level of society on the ship with the most power has lost the ability to challenge the ethics of their behavior and, although Col resists challenging what he has been taught, he comes to realize that his world is unacceptable and in desperate need of change.
Col comes to understand that a major part of the problem lies in the education, or lack thereof, in those around him, and this becomes another major issue in the book. He is sent to Dr. Blessamy’s Academy to study under Mr. Gibber, and the role of educational institutions in creating critical thinkers is thrown into sharp relief. The education that Col receives is a joke: in one scene the teacher, Mr. Gibber describes an acute angle as, “Clean, keen, sharp and wholesome.” By contrast, an obtuse angle is “wide open […] lax and undisciplined […] sloppy, slack, degenerate” (90). Col quickly learns that the education he receives is shaped to preserve the status quo of the class divisions and not for the progress of the individual or society as a whole. Further complicating and already difficult situation is how the educational challenges extend to girls and ‘lower’ social classes. For example, Gillabeth, Col’s older sister, is denied formal education altogether because it is unseemly for a young woman of her class to go to school. By contrast, Riff is denied access to education altogether because of her status as a Filthy. Both of these girls are intelligent, capable, and starving for knowledge, but are utterly denied.
Each of the girls uses their intelligence, but in highly different ways: Gillabeth schemes against her brother, eventually revealing her ambition to be the first Supreme Commander of the Worldshaker, while Riff educates Col about the injustice of his society and reveals the extent of the damage the ship causes every time it has to cross land. For the first time “Col remember[s] the three hundred and forty rollers, each weighing right hundred tons. Of course Worldshaker would mash everything it rolled over! Of course it would leave a trail of destruction! Why had he never thought of it before?” (227). Riff is able to teach Col what Gillabeth has already learned, that his way of life “means cruelty and bullyin’ and tramplin’ on anyone weaker. Some get crushed underneath, some crushed inside” (228-9).Col is deeply horrified over the needless destruction of the land and the living, and has to face his part in the consequences: Even though the decisions are made by others, he has to accept responsibility for changing how things will be done in the future. Eventually his sister is made to see how such a transformation will help to improve her life as well and, although the siblings don’t implicitly reconcile, there is a sense of hope for the future.
This is the saving grace of the book: It delivers the message of steampunk, its philosophy of respect for self, others, and hopes for the world, all in a way that tweens can engage with and understand. Harland even introduces an age appropriate whiff of romance between Col and Riff: As Col spends more time with Riff he learns to see the world through her eyes and challenge the assertions that have been developed by the generations who have lived on the Worldshaker. He learns to recognize the injustices of the class distinctions, and the cruelty with which the Filthies and Menials are treated, and begins to develop compassion, empathy for others, and a sense of social justice as a result. He also begins to see the shallowness of the feelings of those in his social class, and there is the gradual emergence of deeper, more complex feelings for Riff including jealousy, then the desire to be admired, followed by protectiveness towards her and a sense of joy when in her presence. Additionally, as Col’s relationship with Riff develops, he also becomes a better and more caring individual, more willing to make sacrifices necessary for change.
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