A review by markyon
Unnatural History by Jonathan Green
4.0
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:
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…
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…