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Pax Britannia: El Sombra #3
Pax Omega
Doc Thunder's last stand against a deadly foe whose true identity will shock you to your core! El Sombra's final battle against the forces of the Ultimate Reich! The Locomotive Man in a showdown with cosmic science on the prairies of the Old West! Jackson Steele defends the 25th Century against the massed armies of the Space Satan! A duel of minds in the mystery palaces of One Million AD! Blazing steam-pulp sci-fi the way you crave it! From the Big Bang to the End Of Time - eleven tales from Pax Britannia's past, present and distant future combine into one starspanning saga set to shake the universe to its foundations or destroy it!
320 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
October 29, 2025
I can't tell you how much I loved this book. It hits every single note in my pulp-fiction loving body in such a way that nothing short of Indiana Jones does. This and its prequel are pretty much the entire aim of my life.
November 29, 2023
Wow. This whole trilogy is a gem. This is one is a series of related short stories, or vignettes, that make up a related narrative, and yet are self contained in a way. This tells the story of the alternate timeline in which the trilogy takes place. It's a ten thousand foot view taking in the history of the universe. Wow.
January 22, 2019
I enjoyed it enough to look for other books in this canon, but was sad to find out that they're all written by different people.
March 19, 2017
Unfortunately, it seems to be the end of the series (which I quite enjoyed). It starts out quite strange (and honestly, boring as hell, had to put it away two times before finally continuing past the 2nd story). Most other stories are ok to read, but not as good as the original Quicksilver stories. Much pulp and all, not bad but also not great.
March 4, 2012
Now before I begin this review I have to admit that I was one of the two guys who won the Genre for Japan auction to feature as a character within these pages. So I was already pre-disposed to liking the novel. That being said, even I wasn't prepared for how amazing this book was.
The story begins at the dawn of time and travels forward touching on the time of the Dinosaurs, the Eighteen Hundreds, the old West, Modern Day, the 25th Century and One Million AD.
It goes without saying that if you loved El Sombra, and went crazy for Gods of Manhattan; then this book is required reading. Unsurprisingly Pax Omega is a direct sequel to the two previous books, but it all serves as a prequel and a preview of what's to come in the main Pax Britannia series. As well as being so much more. I won't spoil it for you.
I don't want to give too much away but I wasn't expecting the revelations that Al Ewing gives in the novel, but they blew my mind.
With a book where there are such massive jumps in time, you could almost expect a disjointed series of vignettes. Ewing though manages to craft an engaging tale that has a different style of prose for each section. I'm not really doing Pax Omega justice; suffice to say the pacing and storytelling are woven so expertly that you'll not be able to put it down.
I hate to draw comparisons between authors but Al Ewing is without doubt the next Alan Moore or Grant Morrison. He has incredible ideas that while being completely bat sh*t aren't too dense to get your head around.
Pax Omega for sheer content is value for money and is a loving pastiche of Superhero story and Space-Opera. Al Ewing's love for genre fiction shines through and I without reservation recommend this book and its predecessors.
Review written while trying to control a 1 year old.
The story begins at the dawn of time and travels forward touching on the time of the Dinosaurs, the Eighteen Hundreds, the old West, Modern Day, the 25th Century and One Million AD.
It goes without saying that if you loved El Sombra, and went crazy for Gods of Manhattan; then this book is required reading. Unsurprisingly Pax Omega is a direct sequel to the two previous books, but it all serves as a prequel and a preview of what's to come in the main Pax Britannia series. As well as being so much more. I won't spoil it for you.
I don't want to give too much away but I wasn't expecting the revelations that Al Ewing gives in the novel, but they blew my mind.
With a book where there are such massive jumps in time, you could almost expect a disjointed series of vignettes. Ewing though manages to craft an engaging tale that has a different style of prose for each section. I'm not really doing Pax Omega justice; suffice to say the pacing and storytelling are woven so expertly that you'll not be able to put it down.
I hate to draw comparisons between authors but Al Ewing is without doubt the next Alan Moore or Grant Morrison. He has incredible ideas that while being completely bat sh*t aren't too dense to get your head around.
Pax Omega for sheer content is value for money and is a loving pastiche of Superhero story and Space-Opera. Al Ewing's love for genre fiction shines through and I without reservation recommend this book and its predecessors.
Review written while trying to control a 1 year old.
August 5, 2014
I was in the library with my son the other day, and stumbled across Al’s Pax Omega book. I hadn’t read any of the other Abaddon books, and generally keep thinking I should steer clear of sci-fi books (short story: used to love them, tried to get back in to them, found I couldn’t).
Anyhue, I love Al’s writing – there are some writers that just hit my exact funnybone, and I’ve been lucky to work with most of them, but Al’s stuff more than just hits my funnybone, it sort of batters it into submission. I love Al’s work.
So, picked up the book and settled in for a read over the weekend.
It’s a book that spans the beginning and end of the universe, with short stops in between, explaining, in suitably pulpy style, tales of how various characters from Al’s universe end.
Unknown to me, this book is a bit of a fill in the gaps for the other books he’s written in the Pax Britannia range (“swashbuckling steam punk fun”) – which didn’t stop it being enjoyable and satisfying in its own way, but certainly I felt like I really wanted to read the other books to see how some of these characters started (rather than just discovering their ends).
Read it in a peak reading period of a day and a half, it’s been some time since I’ve read anything that quickly (albiet by spending all day ignoring all other obligations).
It's a blast.
Anyhue, I love Al’s writing – there are some writers that just hit my exact funnybone, and I’ve been lucky to work with most of them, but Al’s stuff more than just hits my funnybone, it sort of batters it into submission. I love Al’s work.
So, picked up the book and settled in for a read over the weekend.
It’s a book that spans the beginning and end of the universe, with short stops in between, explaining, in suitably pulpy style, tales of how various characters from Al’s universe end.
Unknown to me, this book is a bit of a fill in the gaps for the other books he’s written in the Pax Britannia range (“swashbuckling steam punk fun”) – which didn’t stop it being enjoyable and satisfying in its own way, but certainly I felt like I really wanted to read the other books to see how some of these characters started (rather than just discovering their ends).
Read it in a peak reading period of a day and a half, it’s been some time since I’ve read anything that quickly (albiet by spending all day ignoring all other obligations).
It's a blast.
August 22, 2012
Al Ewing writes fucking great pulp, right enough.
Pax Omega spans the entirety of time, and deals with a series of characters from a variety of pulp genres, who come together in an incredibly entertaining pastiche of superhero stories (but it's a lot better than that sounds).
Apparently it's book 3 of a series, but I've not read them, and it didn't affect my enjoyment.
Sometimes I feel a bit guilty reading 'trash culture' books as I get that sort of thing more from comics. I should probably be reading Dostoevsky, or something? but how can I when John Simm was in a TV adaptation of Crime and Punishment, SPOILING IT?
Ahem.
Dense with fun, interesting ideas, I'd recommend Pax Omega to anyone that likes good comics but cannae find any as they're mostly shite.
Pax Omega spans the entirety of time, and deals with a series of characters from a variety of pulp genres, who come together in an incredibly entertaining pastiche of superhero stories (but it's a lot better than that sounds).
Apparently it's book 3 of a series, but I've not read them, and it didn't affect my enjoyment.
Sometimes I feel a bit guilty reading 'trash culture' books as I get that sort of thing more from comics. I should probably be reading Dostoevsky, or something? but how can I when John Simm was in a TV adaptation of Crime and Punishment, SPOILING IT?
Ahem.
Dense with fun, interesting ideas, I'd recommend Pax Omega to anyone that likes good comics but cannae find any as they're mostly shite.
May 4, 2012
I love story cycles anyway - a series of short pieces with different protagonists, moving through time to build up something more than a novel. Even better when the stories are this much fun - and when, while working admirably as steampunk romps, they also build up to a searing critique of steampunk, and of what would have had to be lost from the world in exchange for all those top hats with cogs on.
October 13, 2012
This just wasn't really for me. I do like it when different character threads slowly weave together but for me the segments were too disparate to hold my attention. It took too long before I saw any connections in what I was reading, and by that time my interest had been lost. There were some well written scenes and ideas, particularly towards the ends with the robots, but overall it was disjointed and Ewing was trying to put a lot of big ideas into a small space.
April 5, 2014
Not bad overall. Interesting to find out what happens to some of my favorite characters from Ewing's side of Pax Britannia. I think I would have enjoyed a story more along the structure of that followed by Gods of Manhattan. Still, it is what it is and I take what is offered in series based reading. Not bad for the initiated, but won't be of interest to anyone who isn't already a fan of Pax Britannia novels.
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October 17, 2016Fiction E951p 2012
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews