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Pax Britannia #1–3 omnibus
The Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus, Volume 1
ACTION AND ADVENTURE IN A NEW AGE OF STEAM!
Join Ulysses Quicksilver – dandy, adventurer and agent of the crown – as he battles the enemies of the Empire in this collection of rip-roaring steampunk adventures. This action-packed tome brings you three sensational tales...
UNNATURAL HISTORY: Queen Victoria is celebrating the 160th year of her reign, but all is not well at the heart of the empire. An eminent professor of evolutionary biology goes missing. A catastrophic Overground rail-crash unleashes the dinosaurs of London Zoo. Is this the work of crazed revolutionaries, or are more sinister forces at work? For Ulysses the game is afoot!
LEVIATHAN RISING: It’s all aboard the Neptune, the latest in submersible cruise-liners, for a jolly ocean jaunt. But what starts out as a holiday quickly turns into a voyage of terror for Ulysses and his companions. A brutal murder is committed and then an act of sabotage plunges the Neptune into the abyssal depths. There a deadly secret awaits them, as the Leviathan awakes!
HUMAN NATURE: The Whitby Mermaid is stolen from Cruickshank’s Cabinet of Curiosities and Ulysses Quicksilver is soon on the case. What does the theft have to do with the mysterious House of Monkeys? And what of the enigmatic criminal known as the Magpie? Ulysses’ investigation takes him to Whitby, where something sinister lurks on the moors, carefully choosing its victims!
Join Ulysses Quicksilver – dandy, adventurer and agent of the crown – as he battles the enemies of the Empire in this collection of rip-roaring steampunk adventures. This action-packed tome brings you three sensational tales...
UNNATURAL HISTORY: Queen Victoria is celebrating the 160th year of her reign, but all is not well at the heart of the empire. An eminent professor of evolutionary biology goes missing. A catastrophic Overground rail-crash unleashes the dinosaurs of London Zoo. Is this the work of crazed revolutionaries, or are more sinister forces at work? For Ulysses the game is afoot!
LEVIATHAN RISING: It’s all aboard the Neptune, the latest in submersible cruise-liners, for a jolly ocean jaunt. But what starts out as a holiday quickly turns into a voyage of terror for Ulysses and his companions. A brutal murder is committed and then an act of sabotage plunges the Neptune into the abyssal depths. There a deadly secret awaits them, as the Leviathan awakes!
HUMAN NATURE: The Whitby Mermaid is stolen from Cruickshank’s Cabinet of Curiosities and Ulysses Quicksilver is soon on the case. What does the theft have to do with the mysterious House of Monkeys? And what of the enigmatic criminal known as the Magpie? Ulysses’ investigation takes him to Whitby, where something sinister lurks on the moors, carefully choosing its victims!
736 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2010
21 people are currently reading
108 people want to read
About the author
Jonathan Green
264 books157 followersJonathan 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 3, 2012
This omnibus gives us the first three Pax Britannia novels in one. Which is as well, because they’re rather compulsive reading and it’s very easy to go straight through all three.
Pax Britannia is what would have happened to the world had the Victorians carried on doing their thing, if the Empire had held together, steam technology had carried on and the same attitudes to women, the poor, the earth and the colonies had continued unchecked. As such it’s a rather steampunk sort of scenario.
The plot line follows the adventures of dandy adventurer Ulysses Quicksilver, who is a sort of James Bond type. He’s gung-ho, arrogant, not as good as he thinks he is but somehow not dead. Here’s where the real genius of the books starts to show. We see the world through the privileged, self-assured eyes of Quicksilver most of the time – especially in the first two books. It would be fair to say that he thinks he’s great. He’s a staunch supporter of the Empire, Queen Victoria (even though she’s more machine than monarch now) class structures and so forth. He’s painfully sexist. But underneath all of this is a layer of subversion and irony, layers of writing that let the reader see the bigger, more complex picture. That picture is also a critique of the attitudes and politics of our own world and times.
Clever stuff.
Green writes action like no one else I have ever read. He sustains the longest action sequences without losing momentum, without ceasing to make sense, or it in any way becoming dull. This impressed me. There are moments of total poetry in his writing, and some grim humour. Here is an author who knows how to relish the moment when an unspeakable thing tears a victim into little pieces. Oh yes, did I mention the monsters? There are monsters. People die.
I liked it a lot. I shall be getting my hands on the rest of the series, that’s for sure.
Pax Britannia is what would have happened to the world had the Victorians carried on doing their thing, if the Empire had held together, steam technology had carried on and the same attitudes to women, the poor, the earth and the colonies had continued unchecked. As such it’s a rather steampunk sort of scenario.
The plot line follows the adventures of dandy adventurer Ulysses Quicksilver, who is a sort of James Bond type. He’s gung-ho, arrogant, not as good as he thinks he is but somehow not dead. Here’s where the real genius of the books starts to show. We see the world through the privileged, self-assured eyes of Quicksilver most of the time – especially in the first two books. It would be fair to say that he thinks he’s great. He’s a staunch supporter of the Empire, Queen Victoria (even though she’s more machine than monarch now) class structures and so forth. He’s painfully sexist. But underneath all of this is a layer of subversion and irony, layers of writing that let the reader see the bigger, more complex picture. That picture is also a critique of the attitudes and politics of our own world and times.
Clever stuff.
Green writes action like no one else I have ever read. He sustains the longest action sequences without losing momentum, without ceasing to make sense, or it in any way becoming dull. This impressed me. There are moments of total poetry in his writing, and some grim humour. Here is an author who knows how to relish the moment when an unspeakable thing tears a victim into little pieces. Oh yes, did I mention the monsters? There are monsters. People die.
I liked it a lot. I shall be getting my hands on the rest of the series, that’s for sure.
December 18, 2017
I am being generous with the rating. I put it at 2.5 stars.
Basically the three books (and two short stories) are just about ok but could be so much better. It doesn't matter that Green shows his inspiration on his sleeve: the second book is 20,000 leagues under the sea and the third is ConanDoyle set in the Whitby of Dracula. It is that so much more could have been done with it. JUst pinching chapter titles and having the hero say "the game's afoot", doesn't make it a homage to Sherlock Holmes. Others have done it so much better.
Sometimes Dr Who is negated by having the Doctor simply brandish a screwdriver to get out of anything, here the hero has a sixth sense which means he knows when he is to be attacked and where the bullet is coming. So, the whole suspense is lost, except for the odd occasion when the sixthe sense doesn't work. No reason is given for this.
Obviously I read this as an omnibus and the separate stories wouldn't seem to work too well on their own. Certainly it felt like one episodic narrative.
If I find the second omnibus in some Charity shop I might pick it up but I won't go hunting it.
Basically the three books (and two short stories) are just about ok but could be so much better. It doesn't matter that Green shows his inspiration on his sleeve: the second book is 20,000 leagues under the sea and the third is ConanDoyle set in the Whitby of Dracula. It is that so much more could have been done with it. JUst pinching chapter titles and having the hero say "the game's afoot", doesn't make it a homage to Sherlock Holmes. Others have done it so much better.
Sometimes Dr Who is negated by having the Doctor simply brandish a screwdriver to get out of anything, here the hero has a sixth sense which means he knows when he is to be attacked and where the bullet is coming. So, the whole suspense is lost, except for the odd occasion when the sixthe sense doesn't work. No reason is given for this.
Obviously I read this as an omnibus and the separate stories wouldn't seem to work too well on their own. Certainly it felt like one episodic narrative.
If I find the second omnibus in some Charity shop I might pick it up but I won't go hunting it.
August 17, 2016
The Quicksilver Omnibus was my first venture into the Steam Punk genre and, surprisingly, it quickly captivated me.
I'm not sure if Green's work is typical of the genre or not, but I very much liked what I read. The ambiance created--the settings, language used, the characters created, even character names--were just delightful. The story (or stories, as the case may be) were a lot of fun. Green takes rather typical period plots and makes them his own -- there's the riff on HUNCHBACK, SHERLOCK HOLMES and others--always with a slight twist of originality.
Green's command of language is also refreshing. He manages to imbue every paragraph with a sort of linguistic sepia wash, as if it has been lifted from a contemporary work of Victorian era fiction. He does, occasionally, latch on to a particular word or phrase which will be repeated several times within a single chapter--and then vanish absolutely, but I suspect that is more of an error on the editor's part than on that of the novelist.
The author sometimes gets a bit too over-the-top for my taste which, I felt, evidenced a certain lack of originality. There is, for example, a scene where genetically reconstructed dinosaurs escape from the London Zoo and rampage throughout the city while trains explode and the like -- a scene more suited to a James Bond film than to a novel. Scenarios of such epic catastrophe are difficult, if not virtually impossible, to believably create in print. I suspect there may have been more creative ways to make the same impact upon the reader without throwing everything but the kitchen sink into the written scene. But, even so, if the reader can avoid comparing these kinds of scenes (and Green is, indeed, partial to them) with the latest block buster Hollywood hit, the read is still greatly enjoyable.
If the books are to be criticized for anything substantive, it is that the continuity of story is sometimes lacking. There are a few moments, not many but still enough, when the reader is left either wondering "where did THAT come from?" or where the author must fill in some back story in order to smooth over a gap in his plot. As the rest of the books are generally extremely well written, these heavy-handed attempts to figuratively "post date" vital exposition stops the action of the story cold and, in some instances, feels much like a deus ex machina.
Nevertheless, these novels are still a whole lot of fun to read and I can highly recommend them both to fans of the Steam Punk genre and to those readers who would like an introduction to it.
I'm not sure if Green's work is typical of the genre or not, but I very much liked what I read. The ambiance created--the settings, language used, the characters created, even character names--were just delightful. The story (or stories, as the case may be) were a lot of fun. Green takes rather typical period plots and makes them his own -- there's the riff on HUNCHBACK, SHERLOCK HOLMES and others--always with a slight twist of originality.
Green's command of language is also refreshing. He manages to imbue every paragraph with a sort of linguistic sepia wash, as if it has been lifted from a contemporary work of Victorian era fiction. He does, occasionally, latch on to a particular word or phrase which will be repeated several times within a single chapter--and then vanish absolutely, but I suspect that is more of an error on the editor's part than on that of the novelist.
The author sometimes gets a bit too over-the-top for my taste which, I felt, evidenced a certain lack of originality. There is, for example, a scene where genetically reconstructed dinosaurs escape from the London Zoo and rampage throughout the city while trains explode and the like -- a scene more suited to a James Bond film than to a novel. Scenarios of such epic catastrophe are difficult, if not virtually impossible, to believably create in print. I suspect there may have been more creative ways to make the same impact upon the reader without throwing everything but the kitchen sink into the written scene. But, even so, if the reader can avoid comparing these kinds of scenes (and Green is, indeed, partial to them) with the latest block buster Hollywood hit, the read is still greatly enjoyable.
If the books are to be criticized for anything substantive, it is that the continuity of story is sometimes lacking. There are a few moments, not many but still enough, when the reader is left either wondering "where did THAT come from?" or where the author must fill in some back story in order to smooth over a gap in his plot. As the rest of the books are generally extremely well written, these heavy-handed attempts to figuratively "post date" vital exposition stops the action of the story cold and, in some instances, feels much like a deus ex machina.
Nevertheless, these novels are still a whole lot of fun to read and I can highly recommend them both to fans of the Steam Punk genre and to those readers who would like an introduction to it.
Want to read
January 24, 2012I was looking for a 'cracking yarn'. I didn't care if it was corny or not, I just want to be entertained. So far, I'm only a couple of chapters in...will update later.
I blew this book off in favor of something else. I may return to it later. One of the things I find about 'alternate history' or in this case 'steampunk' is that it seems to me that (at least in real life) where technology leads, moral questions follow.
The Quicksilver Omnibus loses me. In a London where the great disparity between the rich and poor (despite great advances in technology) leads some to desperate acts, shouldn't those seeking to make a fairer order be more than just cut-out villains?
I realize the author was going for something...at least stylistically, but I didn't really feel as immersed in his London as I was in say, China Mieville's London. And Ulysses Quicksilver isn't nearly as interesting as Bond (whom the author said the character was partially modeled on), IMHO.
I blew this book off in favor of something else. I may return to it later. One of the things I find about 'alternate history' or in this case 'steampunk' is that it seems to me that (at least in real life) where technology leads, moral questions follow.
The Quicksilver Omnibus loses me. In a London where the great disparity between the rich and poor (despite great advances in technology) leads some to desperate acts, shouldn't those seeking to make a fairer order be more than just cut-out villains?
I realize the author was going for something...at least stylistically, but I didn't really feel as immersed in his London as I was in say, China Mieville's London. And Ulysses Quicksilver isn't nearly as interesting as Bond (whom the author said the character was partially modeled on), IMHO.
February 14, 2012
I started this omnibus containing three books a while back (maybe over a year ago). It looked vaguely amusing, a mix of steampunk with a bit of Holmesian (not sure about the Bond influence, it feels more Holmesian to me). The book was entertaining through Act 1 of the first story, then the obvious references to modern day's political issues (i.e., anti-terrorism acts) felt a tad trite.
Since I was also still in the midst of plowing through a few other series that were quite good, I put this book aside for later. I'm now in the mood for a bit of the Holmesian, so I'll give this book another go. At the very least, I'll try to finish reading the first book, Unnatural History. If this story proves to be more adventurous than political by the end, then I'll decide whether or not to read the other two books in this omnibus.
Since I was also still in the midst of plowing through a few other series that were quite good, I put this book aside for later. I'm now in the mood for a bit of the Holmesian, so I'll give this book another go. At the very least, I'll try to finish reading the first book, Unnatural History. If this story proves to be more adventurous than political by the end, then I'll decide whether or not to read the other two books in this omnibus.
April 10, 2013
This was a fun series. The down side to reading an omnibus like this is the completion of one book didn't count towards my total! Ah well. It was an interesting twist on more traditional steam punk novels, drawing from classic novelists like Arthur Conan Doyle, HG Wells and Jules Verne. The world was an interesting blend of old language and new technology. I did find the lack of social progress a bit frustrating and the repeated use of older literary style tiresome after awhile.
If you want a different take on steam punk or alternate history, check these out!
If you want a different take on steam punk or alternate history, check these out!
Read
August 7, 2011The first book, Unnatural History, was awful. Just awful. Hysterically so. Needless to say, I loved it! The subsequent books and shorts stories really picked up and were fun in their own right, as Jonathan Green dropped some cliches and really made Pax Britannia his own.
April 12, 2014
I love steam-punk as much as the next person, but too many names and genres thrown together in these stories.
July 5, 2014
Entertaining but very over the top.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews