Anti-Ice

by Stephen Baxter

A new element has been discovered in a hidden vein near the South Pole. Anti-ice is harmless until warmed, when it releases vast energies that promise new wonders and threaten new horrors beyond humankind's wildest dreams.

Genres: Science Fiction, Steampunk, Fiction, Alternate History, Science Fiction Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, Ebooks

289 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Stephen Baxter is a trained engineer with degrees from Cambridge (mathematics) and Southampton Universities (doctorate in aeroengineering research). Baxter is the winner of the British Science Fiction Award and the Locus Award, as well as being a nominee for an Arthur C. Clarke Award, most recently for Manifold: Time. His novel Voyage won the Sidewise Award for Best Alternate History Novel of the Year; he also won the John W. Campbell Award and the Philip K. Dick Award for his novel The Time Ships. He is currently working on his next novel, a collaboration with Sir Arthur C. Clarke. Mr. Baxter lives in Prestwood, England.

Reviews

[Kuszma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Na, hát ez tényleg egy kiköpött Verne-regény. Itt van ez az ifjú angol diplomata, Ned Vickers, akiben kevesebb a Sherlock Holmes, mint a doktor Watson, ha értitek, mire gondolok. (De azért ha kell, megtalálja a tökeit.) Aztán itt van a XIX. századi Európa a kontinentális villongásokkal, a porosz-francia acsargással, meg a hűvös britekkel, akik az "európai egyensúly" szerelmesei, és nem haboznak lekeverni egy maflást bárkinek, aki ezt az egyensúlyt veszélyezteti. Megtehetik, mert ebben a párhuzamos univerzumban szert tettek az "antijég" nevű miatúróra, amit úgy kell elképzelni, mint a maghasadást: lehet használni békés célokra is, felturbózva a gazdasági fejlődést, de lehet belőle bitang bombákat is gyártani, amelyek úgy söpörnek el egy várost, mint a sicc. És hát ugye az ember már csak olyan, hogy ha valamiből lehet bombát csinálni, akkor csinál is belőle bombát, az Úr nagyobb dicsőségére. (Amiből még nem tud bombát csinálni, abból pálinkát főz. Így megy ez.) Az ilyen bomba pedig marha félelmetes dolog ám. Egyetlen dolog jut eszembe, ami nála is félelmetesebb: a nemzetek ostobasága. Amikor pedig a kettő frigyre lép, hát az maga a testet öltött katasztrófa. Mert ugyebár a Pókember is megmondta (vagy valamelyik rokona, most elbizonytalanodtam), hogy a nagy hatalom nagy felelősség. Viszont a nemzeti politikus az az állatfajta, akinek célja a minél nagyobb hatalmat összekombinálni a minél kisebb felelősséggel. Ami ritka rossz kombó, hogy a ragya hűljön rájuk.

Világos, mire megy ki a játék: Baxter az atomháborús paranoiát, illetve az ezzel kapcsolatos morális kérdéseket visszavetíti egy fiktív történelmi korba. Szerintem ügyesen - ide a bökőt, hogy Verne boldogan örökbe fogadta volna ezt a regényt. Más kérdés, hogy Dan Simmons nem biztos.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stephen Baxter to me is one of those hard science fiction writers who comes up with some amazing ideas and then sets about blowing your mind with them. Anti-ice is no different, from its discovery to the final pages of the book what you have here is an alternate history story driven by an extra ordinary discovery.

Stephen Baxter first caught my eye with his Time ships book after realising it was linked to Well's The Time Machine (okay I can see I am starting to get distracted), anyway Baxter has always been able to take his knowledge and understanding of science and technology and weave them in to a compelling story, Anti-ice is no different. I will at this point say that alternate history stories really have not caught my attention although I have nothing against them, this book however didn't feel like those stories and as such didnt turn me off it.

I will at this point have to say that although this is the edition I have on my book shelf there is an alternate edition which to me I always connect to this title (which has caused me on a couple of occasions to "loose" this book).

So to me Stephen Baxter has some amazing ideas and is still going strong in a sub-genre that by its very nature is always changing after all what we think as hard science fiction today could be something totally different tomorrow.

[Toby · Rating 2 out of 5]

In amongst all the brain hurting, thought provoking hard science fiction that I have thus far experienced from the pen of Stephen Baxter I noticed that he was a damned fine storyteller. He seems to have a knack for exploring fascinating ideas and populating his stories with interesting characters. Anti-Ice doesn't quite live up to my earlier experiences however.

An alternative history novel set in Victorian Europe, the discovery of a new fuel source which kick starts a new industrial revolution and leaves The British Empire as the dominant force in the world. Ordinarily I'd avoid such obvious steampunk tropes but Baxter has a good track record and so I went in with an open mind.

Interestingly he seems to have chosen to write in the style of the period, at least to my minuscule knowledge of the adventure stories of Wells and Verne it is anyway, which whilst being an interesting novelty became quite tedious relatively quickly. His characters, especially the protagonist, had no depth to them and I struggled to sustain interest in them. Ned Vicars is such a dullard of a man, your stereotypical Victorian English gentlemen braggart and buffoon, on such narrow shoulders a narrative should not be hung.

After such heavy work as the first three books in the Xeelee sequence it must have been a pleasant change for Baxter to attempt an exercise in frivolousness but it certainly wasn't pleasant to read for this fan.

[Profundus Librum · Rating 4 out of 5]

Baxter eme könyve modorában, nyelvezetében és kissé nehézkesnek ható elbeszélési módjában és sutácska karaktereivel is sikeresen idomul a klasszikus vernei hagyományokhoz. (Mintha csak egy új, régen elveszett majd varázslatos módon meglelt Verne-művet olvasnánk.) A tudományos, ismeretterjesztő részek – például az űrrepülésről, a csillagászatról vagy a giroszkóp működéséről szólóak – megalapozottak, nem légből kapottak, ahogy azt Baxtertől megszokhattuk már, aki egyébként matematikai és mérnöki diplomával is rendelkezik. Az antijégen alapuló technikai fejlesztések is akkurátusak és hihetőek… lennének, ha létezne az antijég.

Bővebben a blogon:
http://profunduslibrum.blogspot.hu/20...

[Miles Atkinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those books that initially defy classification. It has elements of alternative history, science fiction and steampunk, but each is woven into the story in a way that rarely if ever clashes. SOME SPOILERS MAY FOLLOW

To summarise - the asteroid dubbed the Little Moon enters Earth orbit during the late eighteenth century - a piece of it apparently lands on the edge of Antarctica, where it is discovered by a British expedition some fifty or so years later. Put simply, the yellowish icy material which appears to make up most of the Little Moon explodes with great force and violence when heated above zero degrees celsius. It is dubbed 'anti-ice'. The energy can of course be released slowly and, as the technology to do this develops, it supercharges the Industrial Revolution.

The parallels with atomic power are forcefully made - especially when British troops in the Crimea use an anti-ice shell to obliterate Sebastopol. The conflict between the military and scientific applications of anti-ice is played out across the rest of the book, with the military winning out in the end. One of the main characters has his design for a rudimentary rocket ship appropriated by the British government. Out of what they assume to be the best of motives they use an anti-ice weapon to forcibly end the Franco-Prussian war and impose a 'Pax Britannica' across the continent.

"And in silos under Kentish fields sit the Gladstone shells - one for every European city".

As in our reality - so too in this alternate one. The technology cannot be kept secret and British arrogance is going to get its comeuppance. The epilogue (written in 1914) looks forward bleakly to a war infinitely more devastating than any humanity has hitherto experienced.

[Notme · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book. Steampunk (before there even WAS such a genre). Now, as the steampunk novels go, they either lean towards alternate history or fantasy. This one is definitely alternate history. No magic, werewolves or vampires. Just a solid alternate history plot, not overly improbable and totally engrossing. A well-deserved 5 stars for me!

[Jon]

This was the first novel by Baxter that I read, and I rather liked it. The blurb on the back cover says it was written in the style of Jules Verne, so I racked my brain to think of another author to compare it to - finally, came up with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He wrote several interesting pseudo sf adventures in the same sort of style that Baxter has produced here.


Anti-Ice is one of those alternate history novels that have been gaining in popularity lately. The novel rests on the idea that the British Empire discovered, in the mid 1800's, an extremely powerful energy source (parallel with nuclear power), which they use to fuel their vast industrial and military power.

The hero of our tale, Ned Vicars, is a newly commissioned diplomat on His Majesty's service. He attends the christening of a land-liner (think Titanic on wheels) powered by anti-ice, a symbol of the power of the Pax Brittanica. However, the peace in Europe is about to be shattered by Prussian militarism and French saboteurs.

There's plenty of action in this amusing tale, but the real meat of the story is the political commentary in the dialog between characters. This story may just stir up some thoughts about why the U.S. is often despised by allies and enemies around the world, and definitely make you wonder what the results of destroying the nuclear balance of power established during the Cold War might be.

[Richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

An homage to Jules Verne that worked for me until it suddenly didn't. After a promising beginning, the plot devolves into a series of applications of anti-ice with the barest bones of a narrative to weave them together. The protagonist remains stubbornly uninteresting, with his only distinguishing trait being an infatuation with a love interest, and that only manages to make the book even less interesting.

Anti-Ice precedes Steampunk as a defined genre (well, as a marketing category), but it shares many of the limitations that plague its successors. A pastiche of 19th century storytelling can be amusing enough as a short story, but it becomes very hard-going when stretched out to a novel, and by 80 pages I had had enough.

[Andrew Spink · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable steam-punk style sci-fi alternative history. Stephen Baxter nicely catches the flavour of the period, and it definitely had the feel of a book by Jules Verne or H.G. Wells. That is a complement. I understand now why he wanted to write a sequel to The Time Machine, The Time Ships, which was also very good, albeit without incomparable clarity of text from H.G. Wells himself. Anti-Ice is great fun and definitely worth reading.

[Behizain · Rating 4 out of 5]

¿Y si los ingleses hubieran descubierto en el siglo XIX una sustancia (el antihielo) con un potencial energético similar a la actual tecnología atómica? En esto se basa esta estupenda ucronía de estilo verniano que parece simplona pero tiene una conclusión que te hace pensar que la historia de Europa desde mediados del siglo XIX habría sido diferente en la forma pero parecida en el fondo.

[Carmelo Medina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me ha encantado, me ha transportado a una novela de Julio Verne si el magnífico escritor estuviera hoy en día vivo. He disfrutado los tópicos ingleses y el sabor steampunk de la novela como pocas veces. Le hubiera puesto 4 estrellas, pero es tan bueno homenaje a Verne que merece las 5.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Baxter is a true marvel of science fiction.
Fans of Jules Verne will enjoy this take on an alternative history of war in Europe. Seen through the, often naive, eyes of a young diplomat, the parallels with the beginning of the more modern nuclear age and cold war are unmistakable.

[Adam Hegedus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Storytelling at its best with technical details which seem very reasonable, the reader could believe it's true however we know it's not. The characters were a little naive but the world which were described by the author compensated for everything. I enjoyed reading this novel very much.

[Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel is very influenced by H G Wells.It takes place in VIctorian England where people use phrases that are long since gone.Excellent if your a fan of Wells.Enjoyed reading every page.

[Fredric Rice · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was wonderful, what a fascinating idea and carried out so wonderfully.

[Marie Flower Panda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Le premier homme à marcher sur la Lune n’était pas Neil Armstrong en 1969 mais Ned Vicars, jeune diplomate anglais en 1870 ! Voilà ce qu’on peut apprendre à la lecture d’Anti-Glace. Ce livre a été reçu dans le cadre de La Voix des Indés, une opération littéraire ayant pour but de mettre en avant certaines maisons d’édition qui passent souvent inaperçues lors de la rentrée littéraire. Merci donc à Libfly pour m’avoir permis de participer à cette opération et aux éditions Le Bélial pour l’envoi de ce livre !
Ce roman à la tonalité très steampunk nous propose une réécriture intéressante de l’histoire du XIXème siècle. Suite à la découverte d’une nouvelle matière au potentiel hautement énergétique, l’anti-glace, le Royaume-Uni a pu étendre sa domination jusque dans les moindres confins du monde, exacerbant les tensions entre les deux autres grandes puissances que sont la France et la Prusse. Ned Vicars, un diplomate anglais, va malgré lui se trouver embarqué au milieu de ce conflit qui va le mener bien au-delà de la Terre.

Pour commencer, il faudrait que je m’attarde un petit peu sur le livre en lui-même. Les éditions Le Bélial proposent de beaux ouvrages : la qualité du papier est très bonne, il est épais et très agréable au toucher. D’ailleurs, au premier abord, je pensais l’ouvrage plus volumineux. Du coup, il se lit assez rapidement.
Vient ensuite l’histoire. Le style d’écriture de Stephen Baxter est ici très soutenu, ce qui ne m’a absolument pas dérangée, bien au contraire. En effet, le récit est écrit à la première personne du singulier : c’est Ned Vicars lui-même qui nous fait profiter de ses aventures. Par conséquent, le style apparaît en conformité avec le personnage et l’époque, c’est-à-dire l’Europe de la fin du XIXème siècle. Reprenant l’histoire telle que nous la connaissons, l’auteur l’a modifiée pour y intégrer la découverte de l’anti-glace (comparable à l’énergie nucléaire) et ses conséquences sur les rapports politiques et commerciaux entre les grandes puissances. Nous avons ainsi l’occasion de croiser plusieurs grandes figures de l’époque tels Bismarck, Mac Mahon ou encore Gladstone.

Le prologue est très prenant et donne envie dès les premières pages d’en découvrir plus. Mais j’ai un peu été déçue par la suite… L’intrigue est un peu longue à se mettre en place. Il y a de nombreuses descriptions, toutes très précises, qui permettent de bien se plonger dans l’ambiance et d’imaginer tout ce qui entoure notre héros. Cependant, si elles ne desservent en rien le récit, il y a trop peu d’actions. Or, arrivée à la moitié du livre, je commençais à m’en lasser, d’autant plus que les nombreuses explications scientifiques devenaient de plus en plus lourdes. L’auteur nous montre surtout qu’il a de très bonnes connaissances historiques et développe bien tous les enjeux politiques et économiques liés à l’anti-glace. Mais il néglige grandement l’aventure en elle-même ainsi que le développement de chacun des personnages. Ceux-ci sont peu nombreux. Ned Vicars, le héros, est un jeune homme volontaire qui ne se laisse pas abattre facilement. Embarqué dans cette folle aventure spatiale, sa présence permettra à ses compagnons de ne pas perdre espoir. Josiah Traveller est le cliché même du scientifique : égocentrique, il est totalement passionné par son travail. Blasé du monde duquel il est issu, il n’accorde quasiment aucune importance à son entourage. Holden est un journaliste bedonnant qui, bien que sympathique, n’en possède pas moins des idées bien arrêtées avec un patriotisme frôlant l’extrémisme. Enfin, Pocket est quant à lui l’image même du parfait valet : loyal et attentionné envers son maître scientifique, il est également transparent… Tous ces personnages sont influencés par les différents courants de pensée de l’époque. Bien qu’il ne soit pas réellement nécessaire de connaître dans les moindres détails les évènements et les courants de pensées de cette fin de siècle, je pense que pour pouvoir réellement saisir les différents enjeux de cette histoire, leur connaissance peut s’avérer utile.
En dépit de ces quelques points négatifs, j’ai continué ma lecture assez facilement parce que l’histoire était assez intéressante. Même si j’attendais davantage de merveilleux et d’explorations (le livre se voulant un hommage à l’œuvre de Jules Verne, en particulier De la Terre à la Lune), le fait qu’il soit très bien écrit m’a permis de me laisser emporter facilement.

Au final, Anti-Glace m’a un peu déçue. A la lecture du résumé, je m’attendais vraiment à un grand roman d’aventures aux nombreux rebondissements et découvertes. Or, ce n’était pas vraiment le cas. Malgré cela, c’est un roman agréable à lire, en particulier, grâce à la très belle plume de l’auteur.

http://drunkennessbooks.blogspot.fr/2...

[Pickle · Rating 3 out of 5]

for a short book it dragged on for an extra 20 pages with a pointless plot but overall it was enjoyable.

[Djj · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short, clever Jules Verne like narrative positing what might have happened had England harnessed nuclear-like power in the 1800s, the titular anti-ice. More of a trifle than hard core scifi. But a fun read.

[Garciamrc7 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is amazing¡

[Lianne Pheno · Rating 3 out of 5]

Et en fait je suis déçue de ce livre. je pense que c'est plus parce qu'il n'est pas fait pour moi que parce qu'il est mauvais, parce qu'il est pas vraiment mauvais, il est juste d'un style qui ne me convient pas du tout.
Le pire c'est que ce style est bon, il fait vraiment authentique, vrai, on se croirait vraiment projeté à l'époque ou se passe ce livre en 1870. Mais ça rend les dialogues très long, pompeux et verbeux (typique de l'époque quoi).

On suis donc l'histoire de Ned un un jeune anglais aisé de 23 ans dont le père veut qu'il serve son pays, et plutôt que de l'envoyer à la guerre comme son frère qui en est revenu mutilé, il le fait diplomate grâce à ses fréquentations. Ned est un peu niais et tête creuse tout en étant particulièrement patriote. Il s'émerveille de la technologies anglaise, de la supériorité de son pays sur tous les autres.
Pour expliquer le contexte il faut aussi que je vous parle de l'anti-glace, ce matériaux trouvé dans l’antarctique, reste d'une comète qui c'est écrasée. Découvert par les anglais, ce matériaux a des propriétés extraordinaires, à basse température il se conserve inerte, mais si vous le chauffez, il devient instable et explose de façon très violente.
Imaginez à partir de la que les anglais ont le monopole de cette matière miraculeuse, ils la testent et sous la houlette d'un scientifique de génie (Josiah Traveller) fabriquent quantités de machines, du bateau au monorail, de la chaudière à toute sorte de moteurs et centrales .... ainsi que bien sur sous la forme d'un obus dévastateur .... Testé à Sébastopol en 1855, il a rasé la ville et tout ses alentours, brûlant à mort les soldats alliés se trouvant à plus de 3 miles de la ville. En gros c'est une sorte de bombe nucléaire bien avant l'heure.
La géopolitique de l'Europe (et du monde donc, vu que les colonies existent toujours à cette époque la) s'en est donc trouvé modifiée par rapport à notre monde.
L'histoire commence donc lors de la visite du prince Otto (...) Bismarck, chancelier de Prusse à la nouvelle grande exposition qui à lieu en 1870 en Angleterre. La France et la Prusse se déclarent la guerre et Ned va se retrouver embarqué dans des aventures extraordinaires.

Le livre manquait clairement d'action, ok s'imaginer les différences de politique et géopolitique de l'Europe est sans doute intéressant pour quelqu'un qui a des notions d'histoire et qui peut donc comparer la réalité avec la fiction, et comprendre les discussions enflammées entre un Diplomate, un journaliste et un savant tous de bords politiques différents, mais le commun des mortels qui n'a que peu de souvenir de ce qu'il c'est passé pendant le règne de Napoléon III s’ennuiera, ce qui a été mon cas.
La partie aventure est sympa ceci dit, et surprenante d'ailleurs, mais elle prend trop peu de place sur la totalité du livre et c'est dommage, voila.

[rixx · Rating 2 out of 5]

I finally read a book by *Stephen Baxter*! **Anti-Ice** seems like it should be very much down my road: Victorians! In space! Science! Alternate history!

… yeah, about that.

Spoilers up ahead.

Anti-Ice features a young ~anti-hero~ privileged idiot as protagonist. His character was one-dimensional, and served pretty well to tell the story, and also to invite info dumps. While the book wants you to believe that there was character development, there was none. He also falls in love with an **obvious French saboteur** after talking to her twice. Seriously. It's so obvious other characters comment on it. He never gets over it.

We also get the scientist with a conscience, the British patriot, the British butler, the French patriot, and we just about escaped having a Prussian cardboard cut-out.

Sadly, we don't get a plot. Well, except if you accept "Idiot goes to space by accident, discovers moon monsters, returns". Actually, that part of the story was *fun*, in a pulp-y sort of way. Like, there is no plot, but there are detailed descriptions of Victorians in space, which seems like a Jules Verne thing to do, and a lot of fun. Though Jules Verne would've been more realistic about things, seriously. Building a rocket that lives through both liftoff and re-entry? And air filtering, food, etc? Just like that, really? My suspension of disbelief took a big hit there, *and I don't even know all that much about rockets*.

Sadly, the book did not end there. We get another ~20% of info dumping on how the world developed after that. How the French and the Prussians concluded their war, how Europe evolved consequently. Sometimes characters go out of their way to explain how some Mr Dickens or Mr Disraeli are *really* not well-known because something derailed their career. Totally natural.

Anti-Ice itself is such a heavy-handed metaphor for nuclear power that it doesn't really bear mention. Includes all of methods of transport, missiles, destroying cities and armies, a cold war, etc. Pretty uninspired, I thought, because **this has been done**. In real life. Give me at least some "alternate" with my alternate history, please.

So, yeah. If you like steampunk, go ahead! Parts of it are really enjoyable! You won't get character development or a good plot, but the world-building is well done, so if you enjoy novels like that on occasion (I know I do, no judgement implied) – go ahead! I don't think I'll be returning to Baxter any time soon, though: My theory is that Victorians are somewhat tedious, and Baxter is a tedious writer, so they brought out the best in him.

[Minifig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Antihielo es una novela steampunk del escritor Stephen Baxter

La línea cronológica de la obra se desarrolla en torno a los años 70 del siglo XIX cuando el poder del Imperio Británico estaba en su máximo apogeo.

La historia comienza con una carta de un soldado (un joven noble que limpia su honor luchando como soldado raso en las trincheras) a su padre narrándole los sucesos que tienen lugar en la guerra de Crimea y la destrucción de la ciudad de Sebastopol mediante una nueva arma basada en antihielo. Y es que, aunque Baxter imagina cambios respecto a nuestra línea temporal en algunos acontecimientos políticos, el principal elemento de la ucronía es el antihielo y su enorme poder energético, que revoluciona por completo la tecnología de la época produciendo una aceleración sin precedentes en la Revolución Industrial.

Tras este prólogo la historia se retoma años después, siendo el protagonista Vicars, el hermano del joven soldado del prólogo. Comienza durante una exposición universal donde el joven Vicars se enamora de una joven francesa. Deseoso de volver a verla viaja en tren de Londres a Bélgica para acudir a la inauguración de una enorme máquina rodante, un buque de tierra impulsado por antihielo.

Sin embargo, por acontecimientos no previstos, Vicars y su compañero de viaje Holden (un orondo periodista) se ven embarcados en la Faeton, la nave del ingeniero Traveller en un viaje más allá de la estratosfera.

[+] Reseña completa de "Antihielo" en Alt+64 wiki: http://alt64.org/wiki/index.php?title...

[ltcomdata · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite an engrossing tale of an alternative history wherein the English discover in the late 1800s what amounts to anti-matter---from an anti-matter asteroid that crashed into Moon (and a piece of which struck Earth, and remained preserved in the Antarctic ice due to internal superconductivity properties).

Needless to say (which is why I liked it), the story is principally a cautionary tale against massively destructive weapons: hinting that such weapons will lead to global control by some, complete submission for the rest, and ultimately to global destruction, once the weaker players manage to obtain such super weapons.

In this alternate history, industrialists obtain dominance of government by providing technological wonders with such available source of energy, and dictate the terms in which they relate to their workers---thus the workers revolutions and reforms of the early 1900s do not happen, creating oppressive societies for populations everywhere. Also, since Great Britain was the one to discover anti-ice, their empire did not split up, and similarly, Germany was never unified.

Finally, not as interesting to me, but taking up a significant portion of the book, it is also the story of a moon landing, using the technologies of the 18th century combined ingeniously with anti-ice to recreate the technologies which allowed the U.S. to visit the moon (in this alternate history, it is the English who do it first, and with more than half a century of anticipation).

[Stewart Tame · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun book! I was surprised to see that this wasn't labelled and marketed as Steampunk. But then I saw that it was published in 1995, well before Steampunk became a marketing thing. Set mainly in the late 1800s, this is the tale of the great Professor Traveler and his adventures related to the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war. This is an alternate 1800s, largely due to the discovery of anti-ice. Anti-ice was discovered frozen in the ice near the south pole. It is stable when frozen, but explodes with terrible energy when thawed. Baxter implies that it is antimatter held in a superconducting magnetic field. When the temperature rises too high for the superconductor to remain stable, the magnetic field collapses and Boom!! So the British empire has essentially discovered atomic power about a century early. An anti-ice bomb is used in the Crimean war, with results so terrible that Professor Traveler turns his genius to inventing endless peacetime applications in an attempt to atone. It's an intriguing book, though the main character, Ned Vicars, is annoyingly thick, so everyone is constantly explaining things to him. This covers necessary exposition, but he does get on the nerves after a while. In some ways, this book is a forgotten classic of steampunk, and it's worth revisiting.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a solid steam punk alternative-history adventure, just the kind of quick read done well that makes you like sf.

The premise is fairly simple: Ross's expedition to the Antarctic discovers a mysterious cometary fragment containing "anti-ice," which is probably antimatter but the physics of the 19th c. doesn't have the word for that yet. And so the British Empire basically becomes a nuclear power just in time for the Crimean War (in prologue) and Franco-Prussian War (in the main narrative). Add in a trip to the Moon and you've got yourself a retro-future tale a la Verne or Wells, with the added veneer of 20th c. physics and geopolitical allegory.

Baxter does a really good job making all the steam punk tech seem plausible---I did believe that given the "cheat" of this antimatter energy source, a sufficiently clever British engineer could build a rocket ship, monorail, warhead, etc. Somewhat less convincing was the period voice of the narrator; Baxter tried, and if I did the mental equivalent of squinting I could imagine a Wells-esque tone, but see for example "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell" for a much better example of an period-emulating style.

Overall it's a fun little book, made me think a little bit, and yeah. Worth checking out from the library.

[Jim Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of Baxter's earlier works - a dip into steam punk before that genre had really properly taken off. The premise is that a C19 British expedition to the Antarctic discovers a strange yellowish icy material which, when heated to room temperature, explodes with tremendous force. However, if kept at sub-zero temperatures, and allowed to bleed off its energy slowly, it is an immense source of energy. It is also (when placed in an artillery shell)an interesting parallel to a nuclear weapon. Britain's virtual monopoly on anti-ice supercharges the Industrial Revolution and leads to the development of the first space vehicle.
It's an entertaining reworking of late-nineteenth century politics, industry and science and has, at times, quite the feel of an HG Wells novel. Poor character development and wooden dialogue detracts from this somewhat but not enough to merit a lower rating.

[Clea · Rating 2 out of 5]

Make that 2 1/2 stars. Honestly, this take of Victorians in Spaaace caused me to have some flashbacks to the Professor Challenger stories, though luckily without falling to the level of The Land of Mist. Sure the science was better and the characters, even though they came across as annoying at times, are consistent with what we find in the literature of the period, but I was more than halfway through the book before I started caring about any of them. In short, I would say that if you are a fan of Stephen Baxter you may want to give this one a try (in fact chances are that you've already read it), otherwise beware that this is not one of his best works.

[Chris McGrath · Rating 2 out of 5]

The only thing this book has going for it is that it reads very much like an H.G. Wells novel. Otherwise it is mostly boring, with uninteresting characters and both a ridiculous and largely pointless story. Maybe some will be intrigued by a 19th-century-styled science fiction story where the science is actually correct (one must only read The Island of Dr. Moreau to know how easily bad science can render a book laughably terrible), but for me that novelty was not enough to overcome the sheer uselessness of the plot and characters.

[Andy Hood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Warning, mild spoilers ahead......


An entertaining, if slight, alternate history novel, in which England by the discovery of a new mineral becomes the predominant world power in the mid Victorian period. However, things are amiss with the new world order,the resolution of which requires a ridiculous escapade involving space travel, a moonwalk ( not the Jackson kind!!!) steam punk technology and good old British steel. It's as daft and entertaining as it sounds, if your looking for some genuine escapism and you like pretty traditional sci-fi this just might be your next holiday book

[A~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

An alternate history.
An intrepid explorer uses a new element found to fuel his inventions. The fuel is clean, but when heated without the right containment explodes like an atom bomb, without the fallout.

Taking place in pre world war 1 Europe.
I like that the author included other things to add to the mix besides the new invention. Charles Dickens getting booed out of Britain is just one example.