A
sinister glowing policeman is killing men in Whitechapel,
while a plague that turns people into shambling zombies is
decimating the population. It is 1901 in a parallel London
where bold new inventions run on steam, and an airship has
just crashed, killing everybody on it. But where is the pilot?
Dashing investigator Sir Maurice Newbury is on the case with
his indefatigable new assistant Miss Veronica Hobbes.
Originally published in 2008, this is a good example of steampunk.
Dirigibles, early cars, robots and more combine with the supernatural
for a fairly well-realized alternative world. Starting out
in India with an attack by zombies, this one hits the ground
running, although it doesn’t keep up the pace as well
as it might. The main characters are sketched in and by the
end of the book still remain shadowy; a problem I imagine
will be fixed in later books. This elusive quality partly
serves to whet the reader’s appetite for more and is
an important element of the mystery side of the book, although
as it is obvious whodunit early on this is an adventure rather
than a mystery. Much of the enjoyment derives from the descriptions
of how this world differs from ours and the situations the
characters find themselves in. Some tauter plotting, characters
to care about and a few twists and turns would make a good
idea even better, so I look forward to seeing how the series
develops. |
