Unnatural History

Pax Britannia #1

by Jonathan Green

In the closing years of the 20th century the British Empire's rule is still going strong. Queen Victoria is about to celebrate her 160th birthday, kept alive by advanced steam technology. London is a fantastical sprawling metropolis where dirigibles roam the skies, robot bobbies enforce the law and dinosaurs are on display in London zoo. Welcome to Magna Britannia, a steam driven world full of fantastical creations and shady villains. Here dashing dandies and mustachioed villains battle for supremacy while below the city strange things stir in the flooded tunnels of the old London Underground. In two scant months the nation, and all her colonies, will celebrate 160 years of Queen Victoria's glorious reign. But all is not well at the heart of the empire of Magna Britannia. A chain of events is about to be set in motion that, if not stopped, could lead to a world-shattering conclusion. It begins with a break-in at the Natural History Museum. A night watchman is murdered. An eminent Professor of Evolutionary Biology goes missing. Then a catastrophic overground rail-crash unleashes the dinosaurs of London Zoo

Genres: Steampunk, Fantasy, Alternate History, Science Fiction, Fiction, Mystery, Adventure

336 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 17, 2007

About the author

Jonathan Green is a writer of speculative fiction, with more than seventy books to his name. Well known for his contributions to the Fighting Fantasy range of adventure gamebooks, he has also written fiction for such diverse properties as Doctor Who, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Warhammer, Warhammer 40,000, Sonic the Hedgehog, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Moshi Monsters, LEGO, Judge Dredd and Robin of Sherwood.

He is the creator of the Pax Britannia series for Abaddon Books and has written eight novels, and numerous short stories, set within this steampunk universe, featuring the debonair dandy adventurer Ulysses Quicksilver. He is also the author of an increasing number of non-fiction titles, including the award-winning YOU ARE THE HERO – A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks.

He has recently taken to editing and compiling short story anthologies, including the critically-acclaimed GAME OVER and SHARKPUNK, published by Snowbooks, and the forthcoming Shakespeare Vs Cthulhu.

To find out more about his current projects visit www.JonathanGreenAuthor.com and follow him on Twitter @jonathangreen.

Reviews

[CAW · Rating 2 out of 5]

A cross between James Bond and Spiderman with dinosaurs, this should be awesome, right? That's...about as far as this book gets. The setting is cardboard, the characters interchangeable with their archetypes and the dinosaurs don't even hang around for more than a couple of chapters.

The "hero" is an arrogant sod called Ulysses Quicksilver (stop groaning, I like my pulps) with an inexplicable Spider Sense, ability to magic his bloodstone-topped swordcane into his hand even when clinging to the underside of a helicopter dirigible and the power to dissolve any threat that occurs around a scene break, at one point causing the poor villan, Kane (described as a reactionary-revoloutionary-Bolsheivik-anarchist, presumably because the inexplicable Victorian Stasis doesn't allow him to be a Commie Nazi), to have a perfectly good gun and airborne bullet blinked out of existence. Someone should tell Mr.Green that killing the tiny seedlings of tension he'd sown makes for a boring read.

I finished because I thought he couldn't possibly make the promised explosions and mutated lizardmen boring. He did. To his credit, though, the indestructable Mr.Quicksilver, Gentleman Adventurer, does occasionally limp a bit and is even mentioned in passing to have contracted dyssentry from messing about in sewers, though how he bypassed septicaemia and potential gangrene from having open wounds in the same environment is hastily bypassed.

The most disturbing thing, however, is that the supervillans' nefarious plot is ('ware spoilers here, guys) to make a better life for the poor and disenfranchised of the Empire. This is mentioned often enough that one starts to question whether the author actually thinks this is the sort of cause that usually attracts batshit insane terrorists. I was minorly creeped out...not helped by the fact the "heroes" tote around a Magical Negro Neandertal who acts like a friendly gorrilla and gets generally treated like dirt despite saving the heroes' lives a few times...or the fact that the villainess' chief crime in Ulysses' opinion appears to be that she was once a low-class prostitute, causing him to call her a bitch to her face. So much for "gentleman". (This is the only woman in the story, by the way.)

Possibly - I hope this is the case - this is due to Green being a writer of crapsack-world Warhammer 40K novels, in which case Glory To The Empress! since he's used to writing opression as a favoured way of life. It does however mean he's never looked up steampunk (a movement about reclaimation of the power of craft and machines by the people) and instead gone "steampunk...that's worship of Victoriana and imperialist ideals, right?" It may be noted that he's also never looked up difference engines, Neandertals, aeronautics, dirigibles, megolasaurs, velociraptors, reins, hydrogen, British Swearing, quantum theory, DNA, russet...

Saved from the Single Star of Doom because the dinosaurs at least existed and because I have read a book that was worse.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never know how to start these sorts of reviews.... Anyway this book was a free download (I suspect to encourage readers to get in to the series of loosely connected books - now that they first 6 of them have been collected together in to two omnibus editions.

But what of the book - well I will have to admit that some of the plot devices were a little easy to spot including the big reveal at at the end - but to be honest this book is not about ground breaking story lines or award winning dialogue.

No this was about caricature players (both villains and heroes), breakneck set pieces and massive amounts of a steampunk from a London about to celebrate 160 years of Queen Victorias reign. The results are a fast paced race through the city to decipher what is going on and to stop one catastrophe happening on the back of another.

As usual it is hard to describe the book without going in to the storyline - but what I can say is that every plot device is used to great effect. In fact so much so that certain events immediately played out in my mind like scenes from a film in fact the chase through the city is very reminiscent of the Venice chase in the League of Extra Ordinary Gentlemen film. However rather than feeling cheated or bored with what could essentially be repeats I didnt care as I was too deeply wrapped up in what was happening on the page - so if you like your action fast, your characters not necessarily two dimensional but certainly playing to a certain stereotype then you cannot go wrong with this book. I for one will be looking for others in the series to follow what Ulysses Quicksliver gets up to next.

[Olethros · Rating 3 out of 5]

-Si se compra el concepto, hasta entretenida. Pero hay que comprarlo.-

Género. Ciencia-Ficción.

Lo que nos cuenta. Ulysses Quicksilver reaparece tras mucho tiempo para, primero, evitar que su hermano se haga con la fortuna familiar y, segundo, enfrentar unos misteriosos eventos que amenazan con hacer tambalear los cimientos del Imperio Británico, líder de la geopolítica mundial a finales del siglo XX merced a su avanzada tecnología. Primer libro de la serie Pax Britannia.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com....

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

First of all I like to quote some sentences from the blurb:

"Pax Britannia is an exciting new science fiction series, set on an alternative Earth where the British Empire still reigns"

"Action and adventure in a new Age of Steam!"

And to be honest the story contains action, adventure and steam.

we follow the first adventure of Ulysses Quicksilver which mostly take place in an alternative London. There is an Overground instead of the Underground. The zoo of London harbours dinosaurs. There are colonies on Moon and Mars. Charles Babbage's differential machine is in use. Airships reign the air.
And it's the year of Queen Victoria's 160th birthday.


who remained me a bit of Indiana Jones. Don't expect philosophical thoughts.

The whole book is an enjoyable read and has a good flow. For me as an non native English speaker it was not difficult to read.

I will definitely read the next volumes. Two mor are available.

For detailed information please look at:
http://www.abaddonbooks.com/

So if you like partially incredible adventures - think of Indiana Jones - and a world full of steam then give it a try.

[ᴥ Irena ᴥ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although there aren't any surprises in the book (I mean, you can see the truth right away) and the ending is a bit cartoonish, I like this book.

It's the end of the twentieth century and Queen Victoria is still alive. There aren't clear black and white sides in this story. On one side you have outdated Magna Britannia, its agents, aristocracy, and on the other "the more shameful aspects of Imperial life had continued to deteriorate. At this time London's slums were darker, dirtier and more over-crowded than even the visionary Charles Dickens could have imagined in his most despairing hour, its streets filled with the dissolute and the destitute, the gin-sodden inheritors of the darkest days of the Empire". Of course, there are those who wish to change things, so a simple break-in and a murder in the museum become much more.

[Abhinav · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can read the full review over at my blog:

http://sonsofcorax.wordpress.com/2014...

Steampunk isn’t exactly something that I’ve had much of an experience with. I can remember a few random examples here and there, nothing substantive. In fact, I think I’ve only read five steampunk novels to date, one in 2012, two in 2013 and two this year. Very, very slim pickings indeed here. As a genre, Steampunk doesn’t fascinate me all that much, not as much as straight-up science fiction (usually space opera at that) or epic fantasy, so that is perhaps one of the reasons why I haven’t explored the genre further and kind of what I am attempting to do with my “25 Series To Read in 2014” challenge. Then again, if more books are like Jonathan Green’s Unnatural History, then I’m willing to go further.

Unnatural History presents a steampunk-ified Victorian London where Queen Victoria is indeed still alive and is approaching her 160th birthday. The action centers on hero-adventurerer Ulysses Quicksilver of the Quicksilver who is noted the world over for his many adventures. His return after a particularly long adventure, one in which he was presumed dead, sparks off a new adventure entirely for him and he has to stop his nemesis Jago Kane from perpetrating yet another atrocity against the empire that he loves and is sworn to protect, Magna Britannia.

The premise of this novel is that Queen Victoria is approaching her 160th birthday and that she now rules over Magna Britannia, an alternate historical version of the British Empire that now stretches to the moon itself and covers most of the globe as well. Among the Queen’s many loyal servants is Ulysses Quicksilver, a hero and adventurer of great renown who works for the government. Presumed dead for a significant span of time during his last adventure, Ulysses returns unexpectedly and is almost immediately presented with an assignment to investigate the disappearance of an eminent professor of evolutionary biology and the murder of a nightwatchman at the professor’s place of work. Of course, it all spirals down into a conspiracy of massive proportions intended to bring down Magna Britannia and all that stands between Magna Britannia and its doom is Ulysses himself and his trusted butler Nimrod.

First of all, Unnatural History is an extremely fun and fast-paced action-adventure, the kind that I really do enjoy reading. Ulysses himself is quite the dashing hero, sometimes a cliche, but often a true well-realized character as well. He is smart and cunning, proficient in his line of work and also honest to a fault. Jonathan Green has characterized him well indeed, presenting just the kind of hero and protagonist that a story like this needed, in just the right amounts all the time. There are some moments where I was less than convinced by what Ulysses did, but such moments were rare indeed in the novel. His interactions with the people around him, especially Nimrod and his own younger brother Bartholomew, are what define him in the end and I liked seeing that side of him. He can be a real hard-ass at times but there’s definitely a softer side to him.

In short, there are a lot of sides to a character like Ulysses and he made this novel a most fun read.

The other characters, such as Nimrod and Bartholomew, or Genevieve Galapagos (daughter of the missing Professor) or Jago Kane (Ulysses’ nemesis of old) and Uriah Wormwood (a senior minister of Queen Victoria’s Magna Britannia) are all pretty decent as well. I loved Nimrod and Jago the best, although the latter was often a cliche, as was Genevieve, at least well into the first half of the book that is. There’s a right mix of characters here, whether the execution is well-handled or not, and I gotta say that they all do lighten up the story quite a bit, especially towards the final third by when Ulysses has been frustrated by his enemies again and again and has progressed little in his mission for Queen and country.

[Milou · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I could pick this book up on my Kobo for free, my hopes weren't too high. Still I gave it a shot, and I am glad I did.

Sure, this isn't a literary masterpiece. The characters are simple and shallow, the 'romance' is cheesy, the plot is predictable and we basically fall from one action scene into the next. And it was all just a lot of fun.

Our main character is described by everyone (including himself) as the dandy adventurer in service of the crown. And that is what he is (and nothing more). A bit of an ass, especially to women (he loves his damsels in distress) who throws himself headfirst into danger for Queen and country. And our female character may be even less developed. I did enjoy the butler though... are there any butlers out there that aren't great characters though?

The world this book was set in was one of its biggest merits. It all takes place at the end of the 20th century it has all the elements of a standard steampunk Victorian London, but with advanced technologies and mind-sets (such as women in pants, cars and mobile phones). I really like it, but wish for more explanation on the how. 

Overall a fun and quick read that has many flaws, but if you don't take it too seriously it can be a great comfort read for when you just want something easy.

[George Wilhite · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am rating this four stars based on its originality within the sreampunk genre and in the context that it is escapist entertainment. It isn't four stars stakced up against a more literary writer in terms of the writing but it does what is does very well--keeps you reading, entertained, and wanting to read more of the series.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was reminded recently that one of the joys of this genre we love is that there is such variety out there.  Sometimes you want to read a book that’s just fun, that doesn’t take too much thinking about but is great entertainment. For me this was one. It takes a huge load of steampunk and Victoriana tropes, mixes them up and adds a James Bond-ian hero into the mix to tell a fast-paced, exciting story that’s not to be taken too seriously – and is great fun.

To illustrate this, let me quote Jonathan’s summary of his created world from the Introduction of the omnibus edition of this book:

“It’s the end of the 20th Century and Queen Victoria still reigns supreme, maintained by a Babbage-esque creation. The British Empire still covers most of the known world as well as the Moon and the nearer planets. However, on these worlds sedition and discontent are growing with the Martian separatist movement gaining in power and influence all the time. Everything you have read in Victorian gothic novels is true. People can be brought back from the dead, there are dinosaurs still living in remote parts of the world (and London Zoo!), and Darwin’s theory of evolution has been proved correct by a number of unstable, experimental scientists. Aristocratic vampire bloodlines hold sway over Eastern Europe and have sunk their claws into the Russian royal family (Russia being a princeling state of Magna Britannia), steam and clockwork robot-drudges work alongside the down-trodden under classes, whilst reasoning engines help the ruling classes maintain governance of this over-populated world. Railways bestride the world and there are cities on the ocean-bed. With much of the world united under British rule scientific advances have continued, in a retro-scientific fashion, beyond what we have achieved in our own world. Having mastered space-travel mankind is now tinkering with temporal-travel.

Into this setting we throw suave dandy and rogue Ulysses Lucian Quicksilver, sometime adventurer and agent of the throne, who works for shadowy masters desperately trying to maintain a regime that has lasted for over 150 years and which is falling apart from within, and who may not be all that they seem. He fights the arch-felons of the underworld... assisted by his unshakeable manservant Nimrod, as the clock of Big Ben counts down to the year 2000, and the end of the world.”

This book, as it is the first, introduces us to Ulysses and his faithful sidekick and servant Nimrod as they attempt to discover the disappearance of Professor Galapagos following a nasty murder at the Natural History Museum. Ulysses is asked to investigate, both by the London Constabulary, with its useless Inspector Allardyce, as well as by the mysterious Dark Order, the secret society which Ulysses is also working for. This brings him into contact with the seemingly lovely Genevieve, daughter of Professor Galapagos, and also leads Ulysses to meet his long-time nemesis again, the anarchist Jago Kane. As the story unwinds, we discover with Ulysses that it is a tale of weird science and really about mad science involving evolutionary regression, with Neanderthal like creatures and dinosaurs existing in this age of discovery and technological miracles. The rise of the Darwinian Dawn, as a terrorist group determined to bring down the empire of Magna Britannia, has its echoes elsewhere in history, I’m sure.

 

If the audacity of that enthusiastic precis by the author above doesn’t make you want to read the book (Dinosaurs in London! Zeppelins! Clockwork robots! Time travel!) then this is not for you.

If I was being picky, I guess I could say that there are moments when the language is a tad too contemporary – it is quite disconcerting to read of an old-fashioned character uttering the modern expletive “bullsh*t”, for example, although this is the late 20st century, after all!

There are also places in the plot when there’s too many plates spinning at once and when there’s one coincidence too many. And there’s always those pesky issues of empirical subjugation though colonial expansion and the male dominance of society, although these are addressed in the book.

At times it did read like the ramblings of a Brexiteer set in a steampunk world – which may be a point, although this was first published back in 2007:

“To maintain the intrinsically corrupt status quo. Magna Britannia is morally and ethically moribund. After 160 years under the yoke of the corrupt, bloated ogre that is the British Empire, it is time for a change, in order to beat the social and moral stagnation and corruption that has infested this nation like a life-stealing cancer, and to welcome in a new age of freedom from the shackles of industrialism and Imperial rule. The old must make way for the new, so that social evolution can pursue its natural course.” (Chapter 9)

But really the energy and the sense of wonder created is so enormous that I was happy to forgive such things. Unnatural History is great fun, ridiculously fast paced and was a great tonic for the January blues. Just don’t think about the plausibility too much…

[Mkittysamom · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book reminded me of but it was also different. Of course Professor Challenger is also referenced from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Although I thought it was a little weird this takes place in the 1990’s. So it seems to be mystery and steampunk. I enjoyed more than I thought I would. For a horror fan there was some gore, and a monster.. sort of.. I guess you just have to read it but no it’s not a gorilla if that’s what you are thinking lol!

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I quite liked the book. Yes, I agree with some of the other reviews that it felt formulaic. But it was well-rescued with Green's excellent research into some great atmosphere, in-period setting details and mannerisms, and decent action descriptions.

The narrative was bogged down by just that, though: I found it a little too action-heavy and light on anything else. Also, in many spots the prose felt a bit amateurish. The author has plenty of books under his belt, including RPGs--which is awesome!--but I felt some of the descriptions were sort of repetitive (even down to words themselves), for example.

But overall it was an exciting read. Normally I'd never in a thousand years pick up something with dinosaurs in victorian England in its synopsis, but here I was glad I did.

[Andrew Lawston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unnatural History is the first book in the steampunk-flavoured alternative history series Pax Britannia. Author Jonathan Green has crafted a vision of contemporary Britain where Queen Victoria still reigns over a British Empire that covers a quarter of the world.

The police are staffed largely with automata, airships crowd the skies, and London Zoo's Challenger Enclosure is stuffed full of dinosaurs. Against this backdrop, dandy adventurer Ulysses Quicksilver is engaged to investigate an apparently routine break-in at the Natural History Museum.

With de-evolved apemen and fanatical revolutionaries facing off against Neanderthals and men with swordsticks, Quicksilver's investigations escalate quickly.

The pace is quick, and the action exciting. Quicksilver is not a bulletproof hero, and gets thoroughly smashed up on a number of occasions. His principal ability appears to be his sheer dogged tenacity to get the job done even when battered to a pulp.

Unnatural History is also interesting in that it encourages the readers to side with the agent of a British regime that is, by any standards, pretty dodgy. Quicksilver is fighting for a British Empire replete with social division and mass poverty that dwarfs even the Britain we know. The revolutionaries often seem to have a bit of a point, and it's a tribute to Green's writing that you're still rooting for the elitist Quicksilver to trounce the filthy little commies.

If I had a gripe, it would be that I really am sick of seeing airships crowd the skies of alternative history novels. It's something that should have passed through cliche, beyond self-parody and into "just don't" territory about twenty years ago.

But here at least the inevitable airship actually does something, and drives the story forward, rather than being lazy writer shorthand for an alternate history.

This is an effortlessly entertaining pulpy read, and seems to be pretty much perenially free on Amazon Kindle. Do take a look, chaps.

[Raj · Rating 2 out of 5]

In a few months Britain and her colonies will celebrate the 160th anniversary of the rule of Queen Victoria, but there are those plotting to bring down London and the Empire with it. It's up to Ulysses Quicksilver, gentleman adventurer and Agent of the Throne, to trace the plot from its source at the break-in at the Natural History Museum to its horrifying conclusion.

This is a steampunk type book set in a 1990s where the British Empire never ended and Queen Victoria is still on the throne and first in the Pax Britannia series by an author more well-known for his adventure game books. The idea in this book was sound but the execution felt clumsy. The writing style felt like a new author still finding his feet, even though Green is by no means a novice. Quicksilver is likeable enough, but he seems to be walking through a land full of cliché, from the unflappable butler to the moustache-twirling villain and femme fatale. An all-round 'meh' then: could do better.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me a couple of days to finish this as I kept being interrupted by my cat, and to be quite frank it was easy to be interrupted. As the first in the Pax Britannia series I would have liked a bit more explanatory text but perhaps, and I suspect this was the case, the author was making it up as he went along. The plot was fairly easy to follow and anticipate, and the characters were a bit two-dimensional even the hero, Ulysses Quicksilver.
Having said all that it was good escapist stuff and I never took it seriously at any point. Definitely a holiday read and good for killing time. Will I read any more of the series? I have Book #2 on my Kindle and will start it at sometime this month, perhaps this one will have a bit more depth. As an example of steampunk? Well this is the first steampunk I have read since my fascination with the novels of Michael Moorcock in the 1970s and it doesn't come up to scratch. So only a three star.

[Richard Wright · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this more than I did. I've enjoyed novels from Abaddon Books enormously in the past, with some of their stand alone zombie novels (from Simon Bestwick, Gary McMahon, and Paul Finch) among the strongest of that sub genre that I've read in the last few years. I've enjoyed Green's short fiction for the Warhammer Universe too. Unfortunately, though I was keen to find a steampunk series that would plug the gap between George Mann releases, this one fails for me. It's like the novelisation of a shallow, effects driven summer blockbuster, all larger than life action sequences, with little sense in the plotting or motivation underlying it all. It's purple-prosed, comic book fun, I suppose, but not for me.

[Jenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dinosaurs, sewer chases, zeppelins, robo-cops..it was awesome.

[Teo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've known Jonathan Green's work from the Warhammer 40K universe. Contrary to some of the reviews readily dismissing and describing the entire WH40K literery output as "crapsack", it was precisely the author's work there that made me want to read what he's doing outside of the realm of Space Marines and warp demons. Oh, and if anyone thinks that WH40K can be so easily brushed aside as crap, they've clearly never read anything by Dan Abnett, Aaron Dembski-Bowden, or Graham McNeill.

Anyhow, Jonathan Green's WH40K stint made him well-versed in the art of writing pulp. And the Pax Britannia series, the first of which is this novel "Unnatural History", is pulp to the core. And it's not that good, to be honest.

There are issues, and the complaints mostly default to everything being pretty much generic. The characters barely break the mold of the archetypes that they are. The plot is built on firm foundations of proven tropes and cliches. But, that said, it's a fun world nonetheless.

The year is 1997, and coal-powered machines and steam engines never went out of fashion. In this alternate Earth, the British Empire aka Magna Brittania encompasses much of the known world. What's more, humans have colonized Earth and Mars, as well as the depths of the oceans. It's a peculiar literary brew where the technology of yesterday achieves the lofty heights of tomorrow.

Our hero is Ulysses Quicksilver, a true James Bond clone - a slick, well-to-do nobleman dandy, loved by the the ladies, hated by his rivals. He works as secret agent of the Empire and does the good work for Queen and country, across the globe.

On his way, he encounters damsels in distress, missing scientists, villainous revolutionaries and corrupt politicians - all working together on a big plot against the Queen (the Queen being Victoria, which is now celebrating her 160th birthday). And also, dinosaurs. And mutant abominations.

Green employs that familiar descriptive, but fast-flowing style we usually see in classic pulp literature. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but it is mine - and I think it fits the material. Chapters are a thrill-ride after thrill-ride, even though some are fairly predictable. Originality is not the keyword here, but fun - pure, unadulterated fun.

It's clear from the ending, which I will not spoil, that "Unnatural History's" main purpose was to serve as a jumping-board into the realm of possibilities that is the Pax Britannia world. And my suspicion wasn't wrong. I've only read the 2nd book in the series at the time of this writing, but already the plotting has much improved, the characters have become more complex, and the whole thing seems to slowly be heading towards something larger than life.

"Unnatural History" is just an okay piece of literature, but it's the beginning of something that promises to be much, much better. So, if you love adventures and you love pulp, you shouldn't miss this!

[David Latham · Rating 3 out of 5]

A What If novel, mixed with adventure and a good dose of Sci-fi.
Queen Victoria is still on the throne. Kept alive by science. About the celebrate her 160th jubilee. The British Empire is going strong, but stagnant in it's superiority. So much so, it has finally reached the moon and Mars. But with the wonders of continuous scientific advancements and steam power Londinium the great Capital of Maga- Britannia is a dystopian hell-hole for those unlucky enough to be born into the wrong class.
I liked this one. The speed i read through it suggests it was good. But I did get readers fatigue. I love the concept of a perpetual Victorian age of the late 20th/ 21st century. But I am not a huge fan of continuous adventure stories. Of one action scene followed by another and another. I guess for me, by the time you get to your third life and death scenario, even if the character acknowledges this fact, it's still a 3rd "page turning" action scene.
Younger me would have loved this. Older me, finds it a bit tedious. I can't say much about the characters beyond the basics. I wouldn't be as unfair to say they're 2.D but i couldn't really tell you about them either. There's the hero, adventurer, maverick. The loyal side-man/ butler, the obligatory Femme fatale, scheming villain and (drum roll) a secret society for future books.
I don't want to be unkind. But this was a plot filled with the cliché action scenes - like the author had an eye, with fingers-crossed, on it being made into a movie.
I do appreciate that for the most part, the main character is a man of his space and time. He's not one of these characters that surprising, being raised in this world acts more like the reader. He is an agent of the Throne. For Queen & Country type. Which in the context of the book having a strange feeling that our hero is supporting an oppressive- authoritarian regime. One in which he (for now) believes in and supports...
I repeat. Love the concept. I love the steam-punk/ Victorian mix.
I'll read the next one, eventually, one day...

[Olivermagnus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unnatural History is the first in a steampunk series called Pax Britannia. It's set in 1997, where Queen Victoria is about to celebrate her 160th year on the throne. The British Empire still spans the globe; and Magna Britannia has taken up a large part of the world.

Our hero, Ulysses Quicksilver, is a staunchly loyal agent of the Crown. He's also an adventurer, bon vivant and womanizer. At his side is his loyal butler, Nimrod, and later Simeon, a Neanderthal. He has been asked to investigate the disappearance of the evolutionary biologist Professor Galapagos, which leads him to the London Zoo and its menagerie of living dinosaurs, as well as a terrorist organization called the Darwinian Dawn.

""Unnatural History" is a mixed bag when it comes to genres. There are some horror elements, but also the classic adventure novel and a little historical fiction. The author shows a real flair for dramatic action sequences, including a dino-rampage which is vividly detailed.

I thought this was a fun story, in the vein of those classic adventures written by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Ulysses was a wonderful mix of James Bond, Indiana Jones, Sherlock Holmes, and Doctor Who, all set in a steampunk London.

Don't get me wrong, this book has lots of flaws. It's campy and cliché-ridden. It's definitely not a literary masterpiece. The characters are simple and shallow, the romance is cheesy, the plot is predictable and we run from one over the top action scene to the next. But if you don’t take it too seriously, it was a lot of fun.

[Richard Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in a steampunk England that rules the world with its airships and inventions, an England that has colonies on Mars and the moon, this is a colorful and creative action story. Ulysses Quicksilver, a wealthy investigator and adventurer, is a fun if uninspiring main character who barrels into danger without a lot of thought for survival, assisted by his reliable man Nimrod. Somebody has discovered a way to de-evolve humans, regressing them through apes and reptiles, and this becomes a threat to Queen Victoria's 160th jubilee that Quicksilver has to take care of...

It's strange and funny and sometimes great fun, though much of the novel feels bloodless and distant. Without connecting with the MC, who I liked but didn't quite *get*, it's hard to care a lot about what happens. For good or bad, it feels like a comic book without the pictures. I bet it'd make a great graphic novel...

This is the first novel in an omnibus, and I like it well enough to plow into the the second and presumably the third--eventually. Not today. But I nearly gave it 3 stars instead of 4; maybe 3.5 is closest to my actual rating. Translated into words: this is rather fun, worth finishing once you start, but if you have any misgivings going in you probably won't care for it. I'm sort of into steampunk right now (probably a decade behind at least) and so it's still worth for me to give it a go.

As always, YMMV.

[Mia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will be the first to admit I am a sucker for the steampunk genre. I love the aesthetic, the political strife, the character tropes – all of it. And this title delivers all of that! I personally loved the fun atmosphere and the relationships between the characters, especially the dynamic between the butler Nimrod and Quicksilver, even though the relationships can feel a bit trivial and convenient. This is not a serious book, though the concepts it portrays are, leading to a strange duplicity between the plot and tone. Personally, I enjoyed it as a fun romp through a dystopian world, and I wouldn’t expect more than that.

The science is interesting. I have a background in evolutionary biology, which this book references frequently enough to be a central theme. I can attest that the biology in this book is not 100% correct but it is close enough to be entertaining. I can say that if you enjoy sci-fi that toys with science and stretches it beyond its limits in entertaining ways, this will scratch that itch.

[Mark Ford · Rating 3 out of 5]

Is this aimed at spotty teenagers hidden in their coitus free bedrooms?

Was it written by a gawky, geeky victoriana nerd? Some of this writing could be from the 70's in its attitude to women.

I know it's set in a futuristic victorian world of steampowered spaceships and what-nots but Ulysses Quicksilver is a pretty hard character to believe in.

A mix of Austin Powers, Jason King, S. Holmes, Bond/Bourne and even Peter 'bloody' Parker.

It's cliche after cliche he even dares to use "showtime".

AaaaaaarrrrRgggghhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!

Quicksilvers a Dandy Gentleman Adventurer who dresses like a colour blind pimp complete with a sword cane and loyal servant.

Very cardboardy, one dimensional characters.

[Tara Wood · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yeah, I don't know about this. It's steampunk James Bond mixed with some healthy Conan Doyle fanboying, but also it's set in the 90's? Technology is stuck on difference engines, but somehow we also have lunar colonies, and I'm pretty sure a decent chunk of the core plot was cribbed from The Great Mouse Detective. A lot of those elements should have a lot of potential for a fun read, but somehow none of them fit together quite right, and you could probably replace the main character with a piece of cardboard and not lose much in the substitution.
Also, "de-evolution" as a plot device is a personal pet peeve of mine, so I probably wouldn't be looking on it favorably, even without all the other bits.

[Linda C · Rating 3 out of 5]

After being thought dead for over a year Ulysses Quicksilver returns to London. He did not recover what he was chasing but ended up at a remote monastery where learned some deadly martial arts. He is immediately put on a case to determine who killed the night watchman at the Natural History Museum. Quicksilver is an Indiana Jones type of character in a steampunk world of 1997 about to celebrate the 160th year of Victoria’s reign over a much bigger Magna Britannica empire. He also has the logical acuity and knowledge of a Sherlock Holmes with butler Nimrod instead of Dr. Watson.

Fun but really a mix of too many genres. Computer like gadgets, space travel, airships and balloons, automobiles and the resurrection of past species. A bit too much but lots of fun and a quick read.

[ulli_z · Rating 1 out of 5]

I realised too late that this is a genre piece - consciously clichéd and exaggerated characters and plot, purposefully inane dialogues, incongruous use of vocabulary, aimless comedy etc. You have to like this, and I really think books should carry warning messages in this respect, because the setting appealed very much to me, and I was under the delusion that it would allow for a little more depth. Silly me (perhaps). Only thing I really liked was the strong anti-hero aspect of the main protagonist.

[Oliver Kitchen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of fun in a throwback pulp fiction kind of way. The premise and setting were interesting and I had an easy time getting through it. The main character was like James Bond crossed with the lead in a victorian adventure novel.

I did have some questions about the technology levels though. This alternate history version of earth has mastered spaceflight also seems highly reliant on steam engines and I'm not sure how that works. They referenced The Lost World, so what other vintage sci-fi is in play here?

[Ellemir · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dieses Buch schlummerte schon eine ganze Weile auf meinem Reader vor sich hin und da wollte ich es mal erlösen. Tatsächlich fand ich es recht unterhaltsam, aber viel zu vorhersehbar. Der Schreibstil war angenehm, das Tempo zügig und das Setting (Steampunk-Version von London im 160. Jahr der Regentschaft von Königin Victoria) fand ich gelungen. Die Figuren waren allerdings sehr klischeehaft und nicht wirklich interessant geschildert.

Ob ich mir den Rest der Reihe ebenfalls zulege, weiß ich noch nicht so genau.

[Mustrum Ridcully · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good pulp steam fantasy feels like it was written some years ago

This has some of the feel of pulp sff in magazines of the 1950s in that it is all tongue in cheek with sort of stereotyped characters. But he moves his plot along nicely and uses the steampunk toolbox well for his set dressing. I liked it well enough to buy the next one in the series.

[Kenneth · Rating 4 out of 5]

The characters are little more than cardboard cutouts. The action set pieces become more than a little ho hum. At the same time, devolved prisoners, escaped dinosaurs, secret weapons factories in the sewers, zeppelins, this book has it all. I'll probably try another one, but I'm hoping the writing sharpens up.

[Steven Wade · Rating 4 out of 5]

History like nothing else.

Britannia is a grand setting for intrigue and betrayal. The stiff upper lip and the never say die attitude of a Bond like character is a grand romantic era. I love the Victorian setting and the steam powered technology. And the dinosaurs!