Weekly Reader: Champagne Charlie and The Amazing Gladys by B.G. Hilton; Steampunk Science Fiction Delivers Crazy Good Fun
By Julie Sara Porter
Bookworm Reviews
Spoilers: B.G. Hilton's historical fiction novel, Champagne Charlie and The Amazing Gladys is sort of what would happen if a Steampunk Convention spilled all over the place. There are top hats, goggles, gears, telescopes, 19th century costumes, early aircraft, submarines, hot air balloons, mad scientists, illusionists, music hall performers, amateur noble detectives, and aliens from the Moon and Jupiter everywhere as far as the eye can read. It's a cornucopia of Victorian Adventure Steampunk fun. It flies off the rails and things get extremely crazy but it's one of the most enjoyable books that I read this year.
Edward "Champagne Charlie" DeCharles is the son of Admiral DeCharles late of the Royal British Navy and his wife, a society matron with a colorful past. On one of his nights out of carousing and drinking, Charlie strikes up a conversation with the hansom cab driver who later that night turns up murdered. Charlie takes it upon himself to investigate the murder.
Meanwhile, "The Amazing" Gladys Dunchurch, a magician's assistant's boss, Abu bin Abdulla, better known by his real name, Gruffydd Pritchard, is missing. It might have something to do with his wand which both Gladys and Gruffydd insist is really magical.
After that, well, it gets a bit complicated to explain. Just that there are Irish pirates, an insane nobleman who wants to destroy the moon, and space aliens who look like a combination of humans and bats get involved. Charlie and Gladys team up for their separate investigations which actually end up tied together while being caught in the middle of all of this oddball weirdness.
This book is extremely crazy like Hilton wanted to throw as many plot points and tropes into the book to see what sticks. It should be a mess but somehow it works together. The messy convoluted plot adds to the charm and oddity to the book. It echoes the Victorian Adventure Novels of the era so effectively that one could swear it was written then. Remember the books like Around the World in 80 Days, War of the Worlds, Lost World, The OZ books, and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland are pretty out there. Champagne Charlie and The Amazing Gladys fits right in with those works perfectly.
The book is a great read with a lot of thrilling exciting details. It's the type of book where a priest joins in interrogating a kidnap victim. Sounds like a typical suspense until he flexes his bat wings and you remember what a weird world that you are reading about.
The book is filled with such touches like when an aristocrat monologues about his plan to destroy the moon. Of course logic dictates that would be impossible during the time period. (Not to mention how such a conquest would destroy the lunar cycle, weather, and result in the deaths of billions on Earth.) But evil villains bent on destruction don't exactly think logically about their plans do they?
Much of the book involves the strangest stories spread during the Victorian Era. For example, the subplot involving Bats and Badgers like aliens actually was inspired by an article which described aliens on the moon that looked like badgers and bats. The article went viral but was later proven to be a forgery.
Champagne Charlie and The Amazing Gladys is written to be the good kind of weird reading where the plot makes it seem like it could have happened in history. You just missed reading about it in school
Part of the reason that the book works so well is the lead characters. Charlie and Gladys have a winning relationship that develops throughout the strangeness. Despite being surrounded by odd plot developments, they are written so believable like these things happen to them all the time. A day flying on an early biplane to face pirates bent on taking Ireland from the English and stopping alien Bats and Badgers from conquering England is just a typical Tuesday for them.
Charlie and Gladys are on opposite sides of the economic scale. Charlie is a titled nobleman surrounded by wealth and privilege. Gladys is an Australian immigrant who would rather work in the Halls than accept the few menial jobs that a poor woman could do in the 19th century such as service.
The duo get into arguments but build a friendship that builds on their strengths. Charlie may be as much of an upper class twit as Bertie Wooster but like Bertie, he has a large heart. How many aristocrats would go through such trouble to find the murderer of a cab driver?
Gladys hasn't had as many advantages as Charlie has and they contribute to her cynical mistrustful nature. She has been held back by her illiteracy, but she is a brilliant woman whose sheer gutsiness and observational skill contrast with Charlie's kindness and connections to higher circles.
Refreshingly, Charlie and Gladys do not become a romantic couple. In fact they get involved with other people (both also good characters in their own right). They are more like a brother and sister which adds to their constant teasing but eventually loyal repartee.
Besides the plot and characters, the theme of illusion plays a strong part in the book adding to the strangeness. Magic and science fiction combine as if they were the same energy, which technically they are. The science aspects are technological in a way that an old novel or sci fi movie are. That's why Gruffydd's wand proves to be necessary to the Bats and ultimately to the mission. Energy is energy and whether it's science or magic works. It's part of the illusion that science can be mistaken for magic and vice versa.
The constant theme of illusion runs throughout the book where no one is what they seem. The Bats and other aliens disguise themselves as typical English citizens, some more successfully than others. One of the characters was an amateur detective and has settled into upper class respectability.
As part of his magic career the Welsh Gruffydd assumes the role of a Middle Eastern sorcerer, Abu bin Abdullah. This is no doubt based on William Ellsworth Robinson, a white English stage magician that pretended to be a Chinese sorcerer, Chung Ling Soo, who died onstage during the bullet catching trick (which involved him catching a bullet with his teeth-gee I wonder what went wrong?).
Gruffydd hiding his ethnicity and sexuality (he is gay and has clandestine affairs with men) adds to the characters pretending to be something that they are not.
Champagne Charlie and The Amazing Gladys is a great book with a bizarre plot, great characters, and a winning theme. Combined these facets make it just like Gladys, amazing.
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