The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man

March 28, 2011
The alternate Victorian London of Hodder's latest fantasy is stuffed with eccentricities: each fascinating in itself, but adding up eventually to a slightly stultifying overabundance (not to mention Hodder's tendency toward painful puns, like the "Folk's Wagon" made out of an actual Beetle). Mercifully these fade into the background as the plot kicks into high gear with explorer Richard Burton and his sidekick, masochistic poet Swinburne, sleuth out the truth behind a bewildering conspiracy of rakes, technologists, psychics, black diamonds, time travelers, and a butcher claiming to be an aristocrat. The investigation also leads the protagonists to different countries. Hodder handles these cross-cultural encounters surprisingly well. Furthermore, the overarching theme of being stuck down a wrong turn in history adds a touch of atmosphere both ominous and bittersweet. Ultimately though, the many characters, places, plot twists and turns fail to work together to keep the reader's attention.

March 15, 2011

Sir Richard Burton, the king's agent, and Algernon Swinburne, his companion and intellectual foil, realize that the course of their world has been altered because something has tampered with time. The discovery of a clockwork automaton in Trafalgar Square, the search for the missing Garnier collection of black diamonds, the media surrounding the grotesque person who claims to be the heir to the cursed Tichborne Estate, and the threat of class warfare in Victorian England confront the pair as they fight to right the history of the world and avert a shattering war. In this sequel to The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack, Hodder continues the entertaining adventures of Burton and Swinburne as he depicts a bizarrely engrossing steampunk England in 1862 and introduces period notables, including Herbert Spencer, Florence Nightingale, and Charles Babbage. VERDICT Hodder knows Victorian history well enough to take delightful liberties in a darkly humorous adventure that should appeal to genre fans as well as those interested in alternate histories.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.