The Great Eastern - by Howard A Rodman (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

From the shipyards of London to the ports of New York, from the undersea abyss to the halls of empire, The Great Eastern is a sweeping tale of invention, rebellion, and the war between creation and destruction.

A vast iron ship. Two legendary captains. A battle for the soul of an age.

In the mid-nineteenth century, the world stood on the brink of transformation. Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the audacious engineer, dares to build the largest vessel ever conceived--the Great Eastern, a ship so immense it might stitch continents together with telegraphic wire. But beneath the waves lurks Captain Nemo, haunted genius of the submarine Nautilus, sworn enemy of empire and progress alike. When Nemo discovers Brunel's plans, he vows to destroy both the ship and the world it represents.

Into this collision of titans steps another ghost of literature and legend: Captain Ahab, dragged from his watery grave, driven by obsession and vengeance, and drawn inexorably into the struggle between Brunel's vision and Nemo's rage.

At once a thrilling sea adventure and a subversive reimagining of classic myth, Howard A. Rodman's audacious novel resurrects larger-than-life characters to tell a story that is as strange and wondrous as the century that gave birth to them.

Review Quotes

"Between the pages, there is a sense of literary audacity that earns every risk it takes... But beneath the adventure--and The Great Eastern is, among other things, a genuinely propulsive thriller--runs a more searching set of questions. About what empire actually costs. About what obsession does to a man when its original object is taken away. About whether any death, literary or otherwise, is ever truly final."--Hassan Tarek "CrimeReads"

"A weird and wondrous adventure, chock full of rich, commanding prose detailing the clash between arrogant geniuses of considerable ego, and the historical ripples such a clash imparts. Reminiscent in all the best ways of Robert McCammon's Matthew Corbett books."----Chuck Wendig

"An absolutely ingenious premise propels this audacious adventure into surprising and thrilling territory, where history twists and braids itself like the transatlantic cable at the heart of this epic narrative. Howard Rodman's powers of invention, connective synthesis, and grim humor are matched only by his literary ventriloquism and psychological insight. Seems to me this kaleidoscopic tall tale is a ready-made binge-read!"----Steven Soderbergh

"For anyone with a weakness for Herman Melville, Jules Verne, 19th century nautical hijinx, or just a helluva great story, The Great Eastern is for you."----Jake Gyllenhaal

"Here be port of embarkation for the SS Rodman as it sets sail above and below the waves of modern imagination. First mate Melville is in the crow's nest, eyes full of blue sky and white monsters, and navigator Verne is submerged in deep whirlpools of the teardrop hull no seafarer has plumbed. Not another scrivener alive or dead but Rodman - lyrical and witty, erudite and passionate, dare we say rapturous, dare we say obsessed - could have charted let alone helmed this singular, exhilarating flying-dutchman of an epic."----Steve Erickson

"Howard Rodman's The Great Eastern is a book of confabulations, real and imagined. Surprises on every page. A splendid and notable achievement."----Ricky Jay

"Seriously, this is the sort of thing that readers of China Mieville or Alan Moore or Eleanor Catton should gobble up (it also has hints of my beloved George MacDonald Fraser, but I realize that's not a name anyone throws around anymore). A historical phantasmagoria and ripping adventure done as a game of hide-and-seek. It's like twelve of your favorite movies at once, in full sensurround."----Jonathan Lethem

"The novel The Great Eastern is the ultimate confluence of the nineteenth century, its technological advances, anti-heroes, and crimes. Howard Rodman's swashbuckling adventure pits Herman Melville's Captain Ahab against Jules Verne's Captain Nemo in a very real struggle for the future. Rodman weaves his sly picaresque around the actual story of the British engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, builder of the century's greatest ship, and its mission to lay down the Transatlantic cable forever linking the great colonial powers of the time."----Walter Mosley

"Three cheers for Howard Rodman's ripping steampunk adventure, The Great Eastern! Outrageous linguistic brio gives pleasure line by line, while the story, an epic battle between two 19th century archvillians-Captain Nemo and Captain Ahab-keeps the pages flying. A tour de force fantasy where science meets human obsession."----Janet Fitch

"Wildly inventive and richly imagined historical fiction that mashes up fact with the fantastic to create a singular, original reading experience. I loved it."----Mark Haskell Smith

About the Author

Howard A. Rodman is the author of the novels Destiny Express and The Great Eastern. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Black Clock, and elsewhere. As a screenwriter his films include Joe Gould's Secret; August with Josh Hartnett, Rip Torn, and David Bowie; and Savage Grace with Julianne Moore and Eddie Redmayne. On television, he's written for Fallen Angels and staffed on HBOMax's The Idol.

He's a vice president of the Academy for Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and a past president of the Writers Guild of America West.Rodman is one of seventeen members of the Screenwriters Hall of Fame, and was knighted by the Republic of France as an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

As an academic, Rodman is professor and former chair of the division of screenwriting at USC; as a journalist, he's published hundreds of articles beginning with his tenure as editor-in-chief of the Cornell Daily Sun. In 2011 Rodman organized the nationwide Fantômas centennial, and remains on the steering committee of NOIRCON. Those who lived through the post-punk era in lower Manhattan may have seen him play guitar with the bands Arsenal and MADE IN USA. A proud son of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Rodman currently lives in Los Angeles.