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As Bartholomew Quicksilver is about to have his elder brother, world traveler Ulysses, declared dead by a member of the law firm of Mephisto, Fanshaw and Screwtape, Ulysses turns up. It's 1997 and Queen Victoria is about to celebrate 160 years of ruling Magna Britannia. Bartholomew is understandably miffed. Ulysses had been in a mountaineering accident the year before. He had been discovered by Buddhist monks who took him to their monastery, high up in the Himalayas, brought him back to health and trained him in some of their survival techniques. After a good night's sleep, Nimrod, the butler, brings Ulysses breakfast, cooked by Mrs Prufrock. All the servants had stayed on while Ulysses was considered missing. They had faith he would return. The Britain described in this book is one that HG Wells and Charles Dickens would have recognized. There is the combination of extreme poverty and pollution and extreme wealth. There are automobiles and horse-drawn hansom cabs; electrified factories with computers and robots but gas-lit streets. A monster murders the night watchman at the Natural History museum. Then an attractive young woman comes to Ulysses to ask for help in finding her father, an eminent professor of Evolutionary Biology. And finally, the Overground (which replaced the Underground) crashes down onto the Zoo, releasing all the dinosaurs into Central London. This is a book I bought because I was bored with the ones I had. Apparently, this is the first book in a new series, set in a modern world where the Magna Britannia still rules. Although it purports to be the Victorian age continued long past its time, there are parallels to the modern world. Abaddon Books is a new publisher of fantasy and science fiction. If this is an example of their product, long may they reign.
Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, February 2007
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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