Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #43891 in Books
• Published on: 2007-02-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 336 pages

Synopsis
In two scant months the nation, and all her colonies, will celebrate 160 years of Queen Victoria's glorious reign. But all is not well at the heart of the empire of Magna Britannia. A chain of events is about to be set in motion that, if not stopped, could lead to a world-shattering conclusion. It begins with a break-in at the Natural History Museum. A night watchman is murdered. An eminent Professor of Evolutionary Biology goes missing. Then a catastrophic overground rail-crash unleashes the dinosaurs of London Zoo!

Customer Reviews

A good introduction to the world...
This book served as a fantastic introduction to the world of 'Pax Britannia' bringing the reader fully up to speed with the fact that by 1997 the visions of the great Victorian sci-fi writers have been met or surpassed by the British Empire. Whilst also delivering a nicely paced adventure with many a twist and turn which allowed the reader to comprehend why the characters (some of whom are bound to turn up again in sequels) had such noteworthy places in society as they held because Ulysses, Jango, Wormwood et al played their parts magnificently.

My only main point of fault with the book was that some of the plot twists were let on a bit too early. Thus when a shocking turn of events left many characters shocked and surprised we the reader already knew who was in league with who, even if the precise details were new to us, which lessoned the impact somewhat.

A Modern Penny Dreadful
Penny Dreadfuls were the Victorian equivalent pulp fiction; disposable magazines (often sold for a penny, hence the name) that contained lurid tales of horror, crime and adventure. Although a 'proper' novel Jonathan Green's 'Unnatural History' very follows in the same tradition. It doesn't pretend to be high art or great literature. Its a tall tale intended to entertain, and it does exactly what it sets out to do.

A mixture of steam punk alternative history, Ryder Haggard-style adventure, Hammer horror and Conan Doyle-ish whodunnit, mixed in with action sequences that wouldn't be out of place in a Hollywood blockbuster, it often feels like a comic book without pictures (the fact that the author has also written comics might partly explain that). All the characters, from hero Ulysses Quicksilver to the bad guys, are stereotypes of one sort or another, drawn in broad strokes, but this suits the genre and the tone of the book. The same goes for the plot, which is suitably convoluted and packed full of incident. It might also be utterly implausible, but in a setting where dinosaurs still live, robots are commonplace and Queen Victoria is 160 years old, it fits in perfectly.

It might be valid to say that there is a surfeit of ideas on display, with some working better than others. Equally the focus on keeping the plot moving and on almost relentless action means that readers are given very little time to get to grips with the world Green has created. I'm sure this will be corrected in future books, but at times in Unnatural History it can leave your head spinning.

As adventure fiction however, Unnatural History provides great entertainment. Its utterly disposable and over the top at times, but it rockets along and gives you everything that you'd want from this sort of fantastical high adventure. On its own terms therefore it has to be consider a success and worthy of four stars.

Bad Science, Worse Fiction
Jonathan Green, has previously written for 'The Black Library', a publishing imprint affiliated to Games Workshop. It is my view, that for these publications, furthering the brand and remaining faithful to already created worlds, take precedence over quality of writing; unfortunately this ethos is all too apparent throughout 'Unnatural History'.

I picked the novel up after reading a recommendation from another reader who had enjoyed George Mann's flawed but highly entertaining The Affinity Bridge, but sadly, this book is hugely inferior. 'Unnatural History is pacey and easy to read, but the world is unoriginal and the story makes little sense. The science driving the plot is so preposterously implausible and incorrect, it makes the whole book a nonsense.

There is some good stuff in here; most interestingly, Green muses on the misuse of anti-terror laws, and asks some serious questions about society and capitalism. Unfortunately, due to some dire editing and over elaborate prose, these passages feel forced and unwieldy. The author tries hard to engage his reader, and encourage them to think differently about the world in which we live, but whilst this is an admirable intention, Green appears to lack the literary skills to bring it off.

My biggest bugbear though, is the quality of the editing. Abaddon books is a newish publishing venture, so perhaps they should be afforded some leeway, but 'Unnatural History', is riddled with typing mistakes and sentences that make no sense. Worse, there is a small but obvious inconsistency in the story; these things should be picked before the novel is published. Most irritating of all was the lead character's continual reliance on his 'uncanny sixth sense' to keep him alive. Page after page sees the hero being saved by this 'precognition', which smacks of an author who can't be bothered to think about a plausible explanation for his character surviving.

'Unnatural History' is not supposed to be quality literature and it is entertaining in places (the epilogue is particularly intriguing), but in a genre where there is so much good stuff to read, I recommend that you look elsewhere for your thrills.