Burton & Swinburne

Philip K. Dick Award-winning author Mark Hodder continues his Burton & Swinburne Adventures with a steampunk adventure set in an alternate England teetering on the edge of annihilation… After barely surviving his discovery of the source of the Nile, explorer Sir Richard Burton returns home to fame, glory, and a knighthood from his highness King George V. But he also receives another title―King's Agent…for Burton may be the only man who can save England from doom. Once he is brought into the king's service, Sir Richard is trusted with a shocking truth: ever since the assassination of Queen Victoria, those in power have been guided and advised by a spirit―Abdu El Yezdi―whose wisdom has brought about incredible progress and prosperity. Unfortunately, the voice of El Yezdi has fallen silent just as a controversial alliance is about to be formed with the Central German Confederation. More suspicious still are the disappearances of a number of England's most brilliant thinkers and builders, with no clue as to who is responsible. Now, aided by his own circle of unlikely and unconventional allies-including the devilishly lewd poet Algernon Swinburne-Sir Richard must delve into the darkest reaches of both the mystical and machine worlds if England is to survive a coming storm unlike anything ever imagined…

Philip K. Dick Award-winning author Mark Hodder continues his Burton & Swinburne Adventures in an electrifying tale in which the future and the past collide―and the world itself may be altered forever… Years ago, a madman from the future assassinated the beloved Queen Victoria―which inadvertently sparked the explosion of scientific and industrial advancement that thrust England into a technological age beyond anything ever imagined. And the effects of that event are about to be felt more than ever. When a renowned scientist attempts to experiment on the assassin's time-travelling suit, he unleashes a wave of chaos and conflicting timelines, resulting in blood red snow falling from the sky, and the adventurer Sir Richard Burton being tormented by jarring visions of alternate realities that are somehow both unavoidable and yet changeable. Time and reality may have just reached their breaking point. But most disturbing of all, the legendary Spring Heeled Jack has returned―in several different places at the same time! These numerous "Jacks" are all very confused, very irritable, and very dangerous… And they are all looking for Sir Richard Burton.

Time is twisted, worlds are changed, and fates are intertwined in this thrilling final chapter of the Burton & Swinburne Adventures from Philip K. Dick Award-winning author Mark Hodder. In 1890 the renowned adventurer and explorer Sir Richard Burton could sense his impending death… Until he was suddenly alive, young and strong in the year 1864-a past that he remembers well, but which is definitely different from what he previously lived through. Burton's amazement is heightened when he is reunited with his loyal friend, the eccentric poet Algernon Swinburne, who is equally nonplussed at being somehow transported into his former self at the moment of death. Before long, Burton and Swinburne-joined by many of their brave compatriots-find themselves once again being pulled to and fro by the streams of time in an adventure that may decide the fate of humanity. For while Burton, Swinburne and company have employed time travel to save the empire and her subjects, that technology has now fallen into the wrong hands. England's ruling class are transforming Burton and Swinburne's beloved England into a nightmare where those in power-along with their merciless clockwork enforcers-oppress and enslave the masses. And now, Burton and his friends will have to find a way to heal the damage time travel has done to the world if they are ever going to save it…