Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
It is 1863, but not the one it should be. Time has veered wildly off course, and now the first moves are being made that will lead to a devastating world war and the fall of the British Empire. Caught in a tangled web of cause, effect, and inevitability, little does Burton realize that the stakes are far higher than even he suspects. A final confrontation comes in the mist-shrouded Mountains of the Moon, in war- torn Africa of 1914, and in Green Park, London, where, in the year 1840, Burton must face the man responsible for altering time: Spring Heeled Jack! Burton and Swinburne's third adventure is filled with eccentric steam-driven technology, grotesque characters, and bizarre events, completing the three-volume story arc begun in The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack and The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man. From the Trade Paperback edition.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The third adventure featuring investigators Burton and Swinburne (after 2011's The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man) takes them back to Africa to seek the source of the Nile, a magic gem, and a way to fix history. The adventurers and their supporters display their eccentricities as they chase their opponents across the continent. Substantive engagement is left to the last minute, but a twist ending delivers a surprising punch. Hodder's "biopunk" Victorian trappings include genetic engineering of animals and plants, and mysticism from an extinct race of reptiles. The high stakes derive from the notion of a universe of limited resilience, which can only handle so many time line changes before it cracks. The subsequent cognitive dissonance, relativism, and rapid obsolescence feel more slipstream than steampunk. Hard SF fans may get impatient, but everyone else will be well entertained.
