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A review by stephenmeansme
Anti-Ice by Stephen Baxter
4.0
This is a solid steam punk alternative-history adventure, just the kind of quick read done well that makes you like sf.
The premise is fairly simple: Ross's expedition to the Antarctic discovers a mysterious cometary fragment containing "anti-ice," which is probably antimatter but the physics of the 19th c. doesn't have the word for that yet. And so the British Empire basically becomes a nuclear power just in time for the Crimean War (in prologue) and Franco-Prussian War (in the main narrative). Add in a trip to the Moon and you've got yourself a retro-future tale a la Verne or Wells, with the added veneer of 20th c. physics and geopolitical allegory.
Baxter does a really good job making all the steam punk tech seem plausible---I did believe that given the "cheat" of this antimatter energy source, a sufficiently clever British engineer could build a rocket ship, monorail, warhead, etc. Somewhat less convincing was the period voice of the narrator; Baxter tried, and if I did the mental equivalent of squinting I could imagine a Wells-esque tone, but see for example "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell" for a much better example of an period-emulating style.
Overall it's a fun little book, made me think a little bit, and yeah. Worth checking out from the library.
The premise is fairly simple: Ross's expedition to the Antarctic discovers a mysterious cometary fragment containing "anti-ice," which is probably antimatter but the physics of the 19th c. doesn't have the word for that yet. And so the British Empire basically becomes a nuclear power just in time for the Crimean War (in prologue) and Franco-Prussian War (in the main narrative). Add in a trip to the Moon and you've got yourself a retro-future tale a la Verne or Wells, with the added veneer of 20th c. physics and geopolitical allegory.
Baxter does a really good job making all the steam punk tech seem plausible---I did believe that given the "cheat" of this antimatter energy source, a sufficiently clever British engineer could build a rocket ship, monorail, warhead, etc. Somewhat less convincing was the period voice of the narrator; Baxter tried, and if I did the mental equivalent of squinting I could imagine a Wells-esque tone, but see for example "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell" for a much better example of an period-emulating style.
Overall it's a fun little book, made me think a little bit, and yeah. Worth checking out from the library.