The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack (Burton & Swinburne)
Book Information
- Publisher
- Snowbooks
- Published
- 2010-04-05
- Pages
- 492 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 12.7 x 2.69 x 20.32 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9781906727505
- ISBN-10
- 1906727503
- Price
- 6052 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Literature & Fiction/Genre Fiction/Historical
It is 1861, and Albertian Britain is in the grip of conflicting forces. Engineers transform the landscape with bigger, faster, noisier and dirtier technological wonders; Eugenicists develop specialist animals to provide unpaid labour; Libertines oppose restrictive and unjust laws and flood the country with propaganda demanding a society based on beauty and creativity; while The Rakes push the boundaries of human behaviour to the limits with magic, sexuality, drugs and anarchy. Returning from his failed expedition to find the source of the Nile, explorer, linguist, scholar and swordsman Sir Richard Francis Burton finds himself sucked into the perilous depths of this moral and ethical vacuum when the Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston, employs him as 'King's Spy'. His first mission: to investigate the sexual assaults committed by a weird apparition known as Spring Heeled Jack; to find out why chimney sweeps are being kidnapped by half-man, half-dog creatures; and to discover the whereabouts of his badly injured former friend, John Hanning Speke. Accompanied by the diminutive and pain-loving poet, Algernon Swinburne, Burton's investigations lead him back to one of the defining events of the age: the brutal assassination of Queen Victoria in 1840; and the terrifying possibility that the world he inhabits shouldn't exist at all.
Mark Hodder is a full-time novelist who lives in Spain. He has worked as an illustrator, a radio scriptwriter, a BBC web producer and journalist and a few other things before finally deciding to be a novelist.
Reviews
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This is such a wonderful weird and amazing series
I started reading this book because it is steampunk, but it is so much more than that. Set in what should have been the Victorian era, but is in fact the Albertan era as Victoria was assassinated, explorer Burton and his friend Swinburne set out to solve a series of mysterious rapes and assaults in London, and find out so much more about the world they live in. This series really has a little bit of everything: There is steampunk science and automatons, there is magic, there is time travel. There are alternate realities, there are weird and nuanced characters both good and bad, and there is a little bit of romance as well. It is an amazing and funny read, and I really loved it.
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Good theory and good concept
Essentially a good read. A little less polished than it could be but a nice, rollicking boys own adventure. I look forward to more of Mr Hodder's offerings.
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Une petite merveille
J'ai été surpris par la qualité de l'écriture, le rythme, l'ambiance et l'immersion que procure ce bouquin - pourtant je ne suis pas très steampunk à la base. Une découverte faite par hasard et probablement le début d'une chouette série de lectures !
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Fantastic !
I mistakenly read the case of the clockwork man first before the strange affair of spring heeled Jack, but it didn't spoil the story too much. They are both fantastic and I look forward to reading the third book next and in the right order !
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Good mix of sci-fi and steampunk
Nice take on the 'detective-assistant' solving misteries model. With a good time traveling twist. The mix of historic characters and the fantasy elements works nicely to make the story flow. Highly recommended for fans of the genre.