Thursday 2 June 2011

The Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus (Vol.1) - a new review

Reviewer Nathan Brazil has contacted me to let me know that he's posted a (very detailed) review of The Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus (Vol. 1).

He has very positive things to say about Unnatural History and Human Nature but clearly loved Leviathan Rising.

Here are a couple of my favourite bits from the review:

On Unnatural History: "Throughout this work the author amuses with alternate tech, such as Ulysses Quicksilver's personal communicator; a brass and leather mobile phone, an Overground train network in Londinium Maximus, mechanical bobbies, and Beefeater-drones with clockwork craniums."

On Leviathan Rising: "...the real star here is the story behind the man-made Kraken. This has been well thought out, and has a terrific pay off. Leviathan Rising was, for me, streets ahead of its predecessor in terms of storytelling, and was just about perfectly paced."

On Human Nature: "From this point the story rattles along like a British Rail train with imminent brake failure, incorporating a desperate industrialist trying to escape the prison of his disease-riddled body, and a mad German vivisectionist. Some of what is portrayed is on the vomit-inducing side of gruesome, but definitely serves to keep attention glued to the page."

And on Vanishing Point (the novella that appears at the back of Leviathan Rising): "The best of these is... "Vanishing Point" which shows what the author is capable of when he allows himself to write more tightly, and with a sharper clarity of focus."

You can read the whole thing for yourself here, or here.

Nathan's soon going to be reviewing the rest of the Pax Britannia books, from Evolution Expects onwards and I can't wait to see what he makes of those...

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