Review: Rowany de Vere and a Fair Degree of Frost, by Chaz Brenchley

Review: Rowany de Vere and a Fair Degree of Frost, by Chaz Brenchley

by Rich Horton

Chaz Brenchley is a delightful writer, an Englishman long resident in the US, born in the same year I was born. He's been publishing SF and Fantasy since the early '90s. I reprinted two of his stories in my Best of the Year books. Of late he's been publishing a series of "girls' school" stories, set at a boarding school in a crater on Mars -- the Crater School. The books are marketed as YA, and I haven't read them yet but I will get to them.

His new novella, Rowany de Vere and a Fair Degree of Frost, now available from the outstanding UK small press NewCon, seems to be set in the same world, as Rowany de Vere is a graduate of the Crater School. This version of Mars is a bit steampunkish -- it's a colony of the British Empire, complete with canals, airships, mysteriously maintained gravity and atmosphere (in all senses of the word), and also a setting for the Great Game -- the Victorian Era conflict between Russia and the UK. (This also seems to be the same Mars as in his story "The Astrakhan, the Homburg, and the Red, Red Coal", one of those I reprinted.)

Rowany, a newish recruit to the Colonial Service, has been tasked with escorting a Russian defector, Leonov, to safety. This is her first solo mission, and so it's not surprising when her charge complains that he's been met by a mere girl, instead of someone like the legendary Colonial Service man Mr. Colpert. But Rowany is who he's got, and she tells him that for now he's her Uncle Vasily, and they are going to meet her father. And they're off.

It's soon clear that (as was certainly expected) some Russian agents are on their trail. So Rowany takes them off to the fair being held on the canal (it's "Second Christmas") which means skating. And dodging through crowds, and finding a boy named Tommie to give them a bit of help -- then a long parlous skate, and an escape into the bad side of Marsport, where some feral children are happy to harass the Russians who are still following them -- then onto the train, only to find themselves followed by an airship ... and ...

But why tell more? It's a romp, a delight, with plenty of derring-do and narrow escapes and Rowany surprising herself with her cleverness, and a pretty conclusion complete with expected twist. This is lots of fun -- and Brenchley is ever great fun to read.