Explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton and poet Algernon Swinburne return in a new series of wildly imaginative steampunk adventures.
SPRING HEELED JACK IS JUMPING BACK!
It's 9 p.m. on February 15, 1860, and Charles Babbage, the British Empire's most brilliant scientist, performs an experiment. Within moments, blood red snow falls from the sky and Spring Heeled Jack pops out of thin air in London's Leicester Square. Though utterly disoriented and apparently insane, the strange creature is intent on one thing: hunting Sir Richard Francis Burton!
Spring Heeled Jack isn't alone in his mental confusion. Burton can hardly function; he's experiencing one hallucination after another--visions of parallel realities and future history. Someone, or something, is trying to tell him about ... what?
When the revelation comes, it sends Burton and his companions on an expedition even the great explorer could never have imagined--a voyage through time itself into a twisted future where steam technology has made a resurgence and a despotic intelligence rules over the British Empire!
About the Author
Mark Hodder is the author of A Red Sun Also Rises and the Burton & Swinburne novels The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack, The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man, Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon, and The Secret of Abdu El Yezdi. A former BBC writer, editor, journalist, and web producer, Mark left London, England, for Valencia, Spain, to de-stress and write novels. He has a degree in cultural studies and loves British history, good food, cutting-edge gadgets, Tom Waits, and a vast assortment of oddities. He's the creator and caretaker of the Blakiana website celebrating Sexton Blake, the most written-about fictional detective in English publishing history.
Industry Reviews
"Hodder puts his knack for tall-tale spinning on full display, with such Victorian England celebrities as Herbert Spencer and H. G. Wells rubbing elbows with each other in one imaginative and enthralling scenario after another. Hodder's growing legion of fans won't be disappointed." - Booklist Praise for The Secret of Abdu El Yezdi
"Serious literary fun as Mark Hodder vaults to the front of the new steampunk writers pack.... Hard to imagine any lover of alternate British empires not being thoroughly amazed and entertained." - K. W. Jeter, author of Infernal Devices "Hodder puts his knack for tall-tale spinning on full display, with such Victorian England celebrities as Herbert Spencer and H. G. Wells rubbing elbows with each other in one imaginative and enthralling scenario after another. Hodder's growing legion of fans won't be disappointed."-"Booklist"
Praise for "The Secret of Abdu El Yezdi"
"Serious literary fun as Mark Hodder vaults to the front of the new steampunk writers pack.... Hard to imagine any lover of alternate British empires not being thoroughly amazed and entertained." - K. W. Jeter, author of "Infernal Devices"" Praise for "The Secret of Abdu El Yezdi"
"Serious literary fun as Mark Hodder vaults to the front of the new steampunk writers pack.... Hard to imagine any lover of alternate British empires not being thoroughly amazed and entertained." - K. W. Jeter, author of "Infernal Devices"
"Set in a universe that parallels the one depicted in the previous trilogy, this outing leaves the door open for exploring a new dimension as Hodder develops more adventures. Steampunk aficionados and series fans should enjoy this." - "Library Journal"
