Back in April I blogged about a book called Boilerplate: History’s Mechanical Marvel. I noted at the time that it would not be in the shops until October, but that time is now passed and I have my own copy. It is just as wonderful as Jeff VanderMeer promised.

The book is a “mockumentary” which purports to tell the story of a mechanical man invented in 1893 as a replacement for human soldiers. Our heroic robot (or automaton as he would have been called in those pre-Capek days) has all sorts of adventures, including joining Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, saving the life of Pancho Villa, helping put down the Boxer Rebellion and so on. The history (and I have had Kevin check this for me) is excellent, as is the digital work that allows Boilerplate to appear in so many period photos.

If you don’t want to believe me, here’s Richard Bruton telling you what a fabulous book Boilerplate is. He has a bunch of pictures too, but not the one I really want to be able to show you: the fabulous mock Alex Toth sketches for a proposed tribute cartoon series featuring Boilerplate, geek girl “Tina Tuneup”, and “Spigot” the mechanical hound (who look rather like Velma and Scooby).

I’m definitely nominating this book for a Hugo. Given that it is mainly fact and art, I think it fits best in the Best Related Work category — or at least that’s where we can nominate it without too many people getting upset.

Further information is available at the official Boilerplate web site, and in this video.