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The Return of the Discontinued Man

Name: The Return of the Discontinued Man (Burton & Swinburne, #5)
Rating: 4 (75 reviews)
ISBN: 9781616149055

SPRING HEELED JACK IS JUMPING BACK!

It's 9 p.m. on February 15, 1860, and Charles Babbage, the British Empire's most brilliant scientist, performs an experiment. Within moments, blood red snow falls from the sky and Spring Heeled Jack pops out of thin air in London's Leicester Square. Though utterly disoriented and apparently insane, the strange creature is intent on one thing: hunting Sir Richard Francis Burton!

Spring Heeled Jack isn't alone in his mental confusion. Burton can hardly function; he's experiencing one hallucination after another-visions of parallel realities and future history. Someone, or something, is trying to tell him about…what?

When the revelation comes, it sends Burton and his companions on an expedition even the great explorer could never have imagined-a voyage through time itself into a twisted future where steam technology has made a resurgence and a despotic intelligence rules over the British Empire!

GenresSteampunkScience FictionFantasyAlternate HistoryTime TravelHistorical FictionFiction

367 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Mark Hodder

70 books507 followers

British author living in Valencia, Spain.

Burton & Swinburne Novels:
THE STRANGE AFFAIR OF SPRING-HEELED JACK (Winner of the Philip K. Dick Award 2010)
THE CURIOUS CASE OF THE CLOCKWORK MAN
EXPEDITION TO THE MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON
THE SECRET OF ABDU EL YEZDI
THE RETURN OF THE DISCONTINUED MAN
THE RISE OF THE AUTOMATED ARISTOCRATS

Other Novels:
A RED SUN ALSO RISES
THE SILENT THUNDER CAPER
A DARK AND SUBTLE LIGHT

Novels in Collaboration with Michael Moorcock:
CARIBBEAN CRISIS/VOODOO ISLAND
THE ALBINO'S SECRET (forthcoming)
THE ALBINO'S HONOUR (forthcoming)
THE ALBINO'S EYE (forthcoming)

As Editor:
SEXTON BLAKE AND THE GREAT WAR
SEXTON BLAKE VERSUS THE MASTER CROOKS
SEXTON BLAKE'S ALLIES
SEXTON BLAKE ON THE HOME FRONT
SEXTON BLAKE'S NEW ORDER

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Community Reviews

5 stars

223 (30%)

4 stars

318 (43%)

3 stars

151 (20%)

2 stars

23 (3%)

1 star

9 (1%)

Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews

ᴥ Irena ᴥ

1,652 reviews222 followers

September 10, 2015

Spring Heeled Jack is back! Actually, there are more than one of them now (a strange choice of words considering). They are hunting for Sir Richard Francis Burton. And they are very confused.

At the same time, London is covered with red snow and plants. Burton experiences hallucinations of the same event over and over again. Only, each seems to belong to different histories. He soon realizes he and his friends have to do something about those intrusions, the red snow and plants. This time they have to travel far into the future.
Burton, Swinburne, Raghavendra, Trounce and others have no idea what awaits them there and then. I loved it. There are more surprises and shocks than I expected. Every time I thought I knew where the story is going, something I didn't expect happened.

There is absolutely no way one can write a real review of this book. This is one of those series where it's impossible to fully enjoy the books unless you read them in order. The reward is marvellous.

alternate-history mystery science-fiction

Mark

498 reviews85 followers

December 14, 2015

Best book in this brilliant series, master of steampunk and time travel.

if you havent started this series, your missing out on great writing and reading.

Marc *Dark Reader with a Thousand Young! Iä!*

1,004 reviews226 followers

October 5, 2020

The opening chapter does not disappoint! The action starts fast and furious, with an insane genital-less version of Spring Heeled Jack materializing out of nowhere and defenestrating Burton with ease, while red snow flutters down to coat the whole of London. Mystery and adventure abound!

I love this series. This is the penultimate entry in the mad altered-history time-travel romp that is the Burton & Swinburne hexalogy. There were some uneven moments, including the book's final confrontation. I'm not sure yet how I feel about the ending. It leaves me eager to read the final volume shortly and I hope for a satisfying conclusion.

If anything the book is too short. It felt definitely lower in word count that the prior series entries, and I can only assume that the main goal in its writing was moving pieces into place for the next, last adventure. Still, it was infused with plenty of heart (be sure to read the author's afterword at the very back) and some terrific moments, both in terms of physical action and metaphysical pondering. The book seemed to rush during the first portions of the crew's core journey, but this was quickly rectified with some solid emotional moments. The story finally addresses the enigma of Burton's favorite concoction, Saltzmann's Tincture, as well as providing some other wonderful drug-fuelled visions.

This was my first time reading this volume, although I have read the prior four twice now. The last time I reached this point I decided that I needed to go back to the start. Fortunately, if you need a refresher on the series as you launch into this book, Burton & Swinburne recap the whole timey-wimey affair in conversation, although I have to admit that when they get to the lizard people I cease being able to make sense of events, but that's okay, I enjoy the ride anyway.

Seriously, that ending... I have no idea what to expect from the final book now.

alt-history science-fiction steampunk

Karl

3,258 reviews344 followers

June 13, 2015

The Main Characters:

Algernon Charles Swinburne
Sir. Richard Francis Burton

This is Hodder’s fifth Burton and Swinburne adventure (after The Secret of Abdu El-Yezdi) and a direct sequel. British anthropologist and explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton and debauched poet Algernon Swinburne explore an alternate Victorian era.
It is perhaps best to read the previous four installments of this series prior to reading this particular to reading this amazing adventure, just to better enjoy all of the wonderful characters.

The series thus far:

The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack
The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man
Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon
The Secret of Abdu El Yezdi
The Return of the Discontinued Man

Here, Burton is alarmed when his laudanum-like tincture sends him careening through numerous manifestations of a single recurrent moment, and soon he realizes that Edward Oxford, the mad intellectual, is not dead. The companions embark on a journey aboard a hovercraft with an idiosyncratic personality towards the moment in the future when Oxford first realized he could alter history.

If you can make your way through the bewildering opening of this book, you will be riveted by Hodder’s re-inventing of both history and the recent present.

2015-03-books-bought

Florin Pitea

Author 40 books194 followers

May 29, 2022

Although the plot is ambitious, I really struggled to finish this one.

steampunk

James

609 reviews121 followers

January 15, 2019

A bit of a confusing hot mess in places, but still a lot of fun. With Swinburne dead at the end of the previous book Hodder has to fall back on a different Burton and Swinburne from a convenient different splinter of time. This obviously allows Hodder to reset a number of things - and make up some cool new steampunk schtuff. This time Burton gets to travel into the future to fight Edward Oxford on his home turf - cue lots of unnecessary stopovers on the way there to meet descendents, Hodder's musical heroes, as well as some political commentary on the dangers of fascism (particularly relevant atm). Somehow he kinda pulls it all together though and it's an enjoyable romp through time, even if a little contrived in places.

fantasy i-own-paperback science-fiction

edifanob

613 reviews72 followers

February 24, 2015

I'm totally biased when comes to the Burton & Swinburne series which I love since I read the first book.

The Return of the Discontinued Man contain a lot of time travel. You have to take care not to get lost.

Beside that it is a great steampunk adventure full of action, emotion and thoughtful moments.

The view into a possible future gave me the creeps and I felt very sad about the persons who died.

Nevertheless I'm totally eager to read book six "The Rise of the Automated Aristocrats", expecte to be published in August 2015.

2015-reads my-books

Reanne

395 reviews16 followers

July 16, 2015

There are going to be a lot of spoilers below, as I’ll be talking about specific details of the series up to now (this book as well as the previous ones). You’ve been warned.

Also, this review is really long.

(BTW, I listen to the audiobooks, so forgive any misspellings.)

First of all, I have to admit that the more I listen to this series, the more it has me hooked. This is partly because the characters, who at the end of book 1 I didn’t care about and could hardly differentiate, have grown on me. I still keep holding out hope that by the end of the series, everyone will be alive and the good guy versions of themselves but have the memories of all the different versions we’ve seen (perhaps through some sort of converging of the realities). But mostly I’m hooked because I keep wondering what will happen next and how all this time travel and alternate reality stuff will play out. The author has set himself a very ambitious task with the complicated convolutions of time travel in this story. The problem is, I don’t think he’s entirely succeeding.

Time travel stories are tricky, for sure, especially when one makes the paradoxes and various diverging histories an integral part of the story. But maybe because it’s so complicated, there are a frustrating number of inconsistencies that crop up.

On the plus side, it seems as if maybe he’s taken some of the early criticism to heart and worked on improving it, especially as far as the female characters are concerned. In book 3, he made Isabelle into the badass leader of a band of guerrilla women. He’s given Ragavendra a bigger part after book 2, and she’s generally a confident, capable, independent woman (and despite the fact that as soon as she’s introduced in book 1, Burton has the thought that he’d like to have sex with her, so far it hasn’t gone back there, fortunately). Isabella Mason shows up now and then, but I’m still not sure what, if any, her primary purpose is at this point. In this fifth book, even Mrs. Angel tough chick moment. So I see a lot of improvement in that area from book 1.

But back to the inconsistencies I mentioned. Here are some examples of what I’m talking about:

1. A big deal is made of the black diamonds in the first three books. It’s explained how the small shards of diamond in the time suit resonated with the original diamonds when Oxford first traveled back to the past, since they now existed in more than one instance in the same time, and that is why mediumistic abilities existed. This was something that caused a lot of the problems in the first three books. Now, in book 4 and 5, not only do those small shards from the suit exist not once but twice in the past, the full three diamonds themselves also exist twice over (the broken ones that Original Burton brought back from the future and the ones that are still undiscovered in this new timeline). That fact should be wreaking absolute havoc in the world in this new timeline, but nothing is made of it, ever. It’s just totally not mentioned. It’s as if the author got tired of the black diamond storyline and decided to just use it when it’s useful (like explaining how Brunel is “alive” in his metal body in this timeline, even though it’s a different situation than his original metal body).

2. Speaking of those diamonds . . . In the end of book 2, Herbert Spencer died and his intelligence was imprinted on the diamond shards he held, which were then put into the clockwork man. This is why they believed that when they took the clockwork man on the expedition with them in book 3, they thought it was Spencer. It turned out to be a Naga, who was stronger than Spencer and so had control of the body even though it acknowledged that Spencer was still in there too. Then the remaining diamond was broken and this Naga along with all the others were free to move on to the afterlife or whatever, meaning that the Naga intelligence left the diamond. Which should have meant that Spencer was still left in the diamond and, being the only one there, would now be the personality in control of any body they put him in. Except they never put him back in a body or even acknowledged or considered the possibility that he might still be in the stones, even though there was no reason at this point for him not to be. What should have happened was that, even if this was ignored for the remainder of book 3, when Original Burton found himself in the other timeline and started gathering his posse, he should have had the stones put in a clockwork man again so that Spencer could be a person again, like Brunel in this new time was. But this whole thing is just forgotten about, and Spencer doesn’t appear again except very briefly in one of Burton’s visions of an alternate reality.

3. In book 1, it’s made clear that Edward Oxford (from the future) became obsessed with the shame brought on his family by his ancestor who tried to kill the Queen and that’s why he came to the past, to stop it. In book 3, it’s explained that this unreasonable obsession was planted in his mind by the Naga, but it’s still understood that his obsession and intent was always to go back in time to stop the assassination attempt. But now, in book 5, it’s said that Oxford only wanted to go back to watch the attempt and that trying to stop it was a last-minute deviation to his plan. It’s still implied that the Naga is talking to him, getting him to want to go back, but it’s treated very much as if his plan up until the very last minute was to only observe. This is simply not what we were told previously. Explaining that Oxford’s weird obsession was Naga mind-control, IMO, helped explain something that was kind of unbelievable. But then the author tried to retcon it further, and in doing so he contradicted himself to the point where it no longer makes sense.

4. In book 5 (this one), we learn that Saltzman’s Tincture is produced from/by the Swinburne Jungle, which has somehow (magic?) stretched his roots into the past and into another reality, laying this plan out in order to get New Burton to him to tell him stuff. Swinburne Jungle is of course Original Swinburne from the future, after he’s been turned into a plant. So, why is it that in the earlier books, Original Burton sometimes takes Saltzman’s? Did Original Swinburne, after he became a tree, go back into his own past to create this stuff for Original Burton? If so, why? There’s no goal in trying (and failing) to get the attention of his own counterpart. And who would have helped him, since it was the alternate Beetle and chimneysweeps in the new timeline who did that job. Again it’s as if the author decided he’d be clever by having some secret meaning to Saltzman’s, not realizing his new explanation didn’t make any sense in the context of the previous mentions of it from the original timeline.

5. In this book, during their trip to the future, Swinburne and Trounce are killed and then resurrected as clones. We are told (as Burton is) that they really are the same people as before. But . . . no. Because everywhere else clones are mentioned in reference to the people who they were cloned from (at least before this plot development), words like “father” and “grandmother” are used. Clearly, cloning is, as established in this world, a way to produce offspring. The Cannibal Club decided to clone themselves rather than have children the normal way because it would allow them to retain the memories of their predecessors. This was portrayed as a handy way to pass down knowledge. At no point (other than with Swinburne and Trounce) is it treated as a way to make oneself immortal. And if it was a way to gain immortality, then the world they inhabit would be greatly affected by this, but there’s no indication that the world has cured mortality through cloning. Also, Clone Swinburne and Clone Trounce were born and raised in the future. As the book itself acknowledges, the environment that one lives in (one’s time and place, one’s parents, the opportunities one is exposed to) has an effect on the person one becomes. Therefore, even with the knowledge of their predecessors, the clones would have become (at least somewhat) different people. There was a nice opportunity for the author to give us another variation on Swinburne and Trounce and instead just tried to pass it off as “psych! they’re not really dead!” (Also, from Oxford’s memories that New Burton experiences, we see that in his time they have methods to slow aging. So even if Clone Swinburne and Trounce were born so as to be the same age they had been, the new technology and medicine of the future would likely have made them look younger. Or at least Trounce, since Swinburne was still quite young.)

And aside from inconsistencies, there were some things in this book which I thought just didn’t make sense. Like, as much as I liked having Wells brought back into the story, it didn’t really make sense for him and the hippie to be there. They very quickly traveled past their times, and they never gave insight into history or anything, which was supposedly what they were there for. (And really, has anyone ever said, “Thank goodness we had a hippie with us!”) Burton never even read the history summaries which people went to the trouble of writing. And why did they stop along the way anyway? Certainly, why did they get out of their ship? What did they need to know, really, that couldn’t have been explained (and later, illustrated with videos) by the Cannibal Club for them? Would witnessing the Renaissance help a person from the Middle Ages adapt to our world today (for example)? Especially after their first disastrous foray into a future London, I don’t know why they were stupid enough to do it again. Seriously, there was no need. The Cannibals could have just explained things to them without them putting their lives and mission in danger. The smarter thing for them to have done would have been a short hop into the future (like the first one they took) to make sure things were going well and see where the Cannibals had set up their base, then from their, travel to maybe 50 years before their ultimate destination (staying in the same physical location) to get their ship updated and get the majority of the history lesson, and then another jump to their target time (never actually going anywhere populated until they got to their ultimate destination). So much of the journey to the future and all the stops along the way felt like padding and/or the author just having fun exploring what different time periods in this world would be like.

I do have to say, though, that there were some things from the alternate realities glimpsed in this book that I would really have liked to see more of, such as Orpheus the mechanical horse and Burton’s riding crustacean. And I seriously want to read an entire book set in the world where Burton’s a German spy, Isabelle’s the King’s Agent, and Swinburne is her partner.

And the exchange where Swinburne is describing spider-sweeps to Burton is comedy gold, especially with the narrator’s delivery of it.

Also, I kind of love the idea that when they get back, they’ll be able to speak to each other (seemingly) telepathically by pressing their earlobes. “What, this? This is just something we do now.”

Given the way this one ends, I really have to see what happens in the next (final?) book. Swinburne’s a clone and Burton’s a machine. I suspect at least some of this will change before the series is over. I’m curious to see how.

Bryan Porter

3 reviews1 follower

July 26, 2014

I have had high expectations of the series since I picked up the first book four years ago, and I enjoyed the second book deeply but since then I have found the series to be lacking, The subsequent deaths in the third, fourth, and fifth books I found be more irritating then emotionally compelling, the entire narrative of the third book felt rushed, I found change in Burton from book three to four underwhelming, and now the fifth book seems to be changing the setting yet again when we are just finally starting to easy into this new timeline. In all I was deeply unhappy with the latest book and deeply hope that the sixth book will remedy the unsatisfying ending that I as left.

Fred Hughes

785 reviews51 followers

August 28, 2014

Another great Burton and Swinburne Steampunk adventure from Mark Hodder.

Full review to follow, but recommended

Gypsi

823 reviews3 followers

July 13, 2017

In this fifth installment of the Burton and Swinburne series, strange creatures resembling Spring Heeled Jack are manifesting all over London searching for Sir Richard. Meanwhile, Burton finds himself slipping sideways in time, experiencing his life in other timelines. All this leads to Burton and his friends going on a new expedition--through time.

Once again, Hodder takes multiple plot lines, unrelated events, and some amazing fantasy and works them all together into a fantastic tale. His imagination seems to know no bounds as he creates world after world for this volume. As always, his prose is good, his storytelling great, and his inventions excellent. This penultimate volume leaves the reader guessing till the very end, and anxious to start the final book of the series.

2017-audiobooks

Parveen Sawhney

2 reviews

May 21, 2024

I enjoyed the series so far but have some minor annoyances. For example there are multiple references throughout the book about how Burton is one of the finest swordsmen in Europe and an well trained pugilist, yet up through the first chapter of Book 5 he has yet to win a single fight. Everyone kicks his ass regardless if it is with a gun, sword, or fists. He kinda wins the fight at the end of book one, but even that seems more based on plot armor. This seems minor but if he is not supposed to win at least the occasional fight, then stop mentioning how good he is.

Jerry

152 reviews4 followers

June 27, 2017

Really enjoying this series. Fantastic blend of history, fantasy, steam punk, zombies, werewolves, you name it...you'll find it here. And just damn good story telling.

Benjamin Thomas

1,982 reviews353 followers

September 7, 2015

Wow, what a ride! Steampunk, time travel, alternate history all mashed up into one rousing adventure story. This 5th book in the six-book series featuring the historical figures of explorer/author/translator Sir Richard Francis Burton and poet Algernon Charles Swinburne is probably my favorite so far. It continues the overall story arc of the whole series in fine style while also delivering a nice and extremely important episode that stands well on its own.

An experiment by the brilliant Charles Babbage in 1860 has enormous consequences including the spontaneous arrival of Spring-Heeled Jack in Leicester Square, London who is intent upon the sole mission of hunting down and killing Burton himself. As for Burton he begins to experience strange hallucinations of parallel realities and comes to realize that these are alternate timelines. Burton and his companions, including the likes of HG Wells, embark upon a journey through time, stopping at various places in the future, all the way to the year 2202.

And this is what makes this particular volume of the series so fascinating for me. I’ve read most of the classics when it comes to future dystopias (1984, Brave New World, and HG Well’s own The Time Machine, etc) and seldom have I encountered a more coherent take on what might come to be. Mark Hodder has given us more than a fascinating adventure novel with this book but has also provided a unique but I think plausible take on it all. Of course his future is based on an already alternate past, projected into its future but there are keen insights that completely relate to our world and where we might be headed. Simply fascinating to read. And in the end, it’s a darn fine adventure story at the same time.

One more novel to go, "The Rise of the Automated Aristocrats", just published…and I can’t wait to see how this is all wrapped up.

alternate-history sci-fi-steampunk sci-fi-time-travel

Annie

2,192 reviews137 followers

August 6, 2017

In 2202, Edward Oxford is interviewed following his invention of revolutionary scientific devices. The interviewer mentions that an ancestor once tried to assassinate Queen Victoria back in 1837. The thought needles Oxford so much that he drives himself to invent a time travel device to go and talk the ancestor out of it. Once he started popping up in Victorian England, he started influencing history. He sparked advances in steam technology and genetics, a world-ending world war, pissed off human-hating lizards, and thoroughly screwed up the timeline. Sir Richard Francis Burton and his friend, poet Algernon Swinburne, have been fighting Oxford and the side-effects of his time travel for centuries now...

Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type.

own

Erica

207 reviews59 followers

July 5, 2016

As with the prior Burton and Swinburne books I've read - "lived and breathed" - The Return of the Discountinued Man was like going on an adventure through time.

Mark Hodder's way of writing is beautiful, mesmerizing and engulfing. While travelling through time with Sir Richard Francis Burton, I caught myself thinking of how I missed the 19th century of Burton's England, so captivating is Mark Hodder's storytelling.

It is with both great expectation and no small amount of dread that I'm starting on The Rise of the Automated Aristocrats, the last of the Burton and Swinburne-series.

Brandon Ives

20 reviews

April 15, 2016

I was a big fan of the first couple books in the series, but it really seems to be moving far afield from the original intent in the later novels. I really enjoyed the characters of Burton, Swinburne, and their entourage in a retro alternate history adventure across London and Africa. As the series has become more about time travel and multiple timelines I'm losing interest. It's should be good read and quite enjoyable if you're a fan of the direction the series is going. I'm not tired of the series yet and did have a good read, but I'm hoping Hodder finds a better balance in the future books.

Dan Guajars

Author 27 books100 followers

February 3, 2016

Es de esos libros que se ponen cada vez más complicados, pero a partir de reciclar sus propias ideas una y otra vez. ¡Es muy entretenido! Sobretodo si ya eres fanático de la serie, pero echo de menos el humor chispeante del primer libro, que a estas alturas es una burla de sí mismo. Y no me conmovió ni una pizca la muerte de tal o cual personaje súper importante para la serie.
Me gustaría saber si alcanzan algún grado de equilibrio, alguna vez, en el multiverso creado accidentalmente por Oxford, y por eso sigo con la serie. Pero solo por curiosidad.

steampunk

Rod Hensel

62 reviews5 followers

August 6, 2014

This series, which is cyberpunk, alternate history, social commentary and time travel all rolled into one, has given me great pleasure. I thought the author couldn't take the story arc any further after book three, but this is book five and I greatly enjoyed it although it is somewhat difficult remembering the continuity. It looks like there might be a book six to come. The previous books have all had a great deal of wit and humor which was somewhat subdued in this volume. Still, its good to have another sit down with these characters.

Mark

776 reviews11 followers

January 3, 2018

From an alternate past, to an alternate future, Burton and Co. travel through time in an attempt to put an end to the madness created by Edward Oxford aka Spring Heeled Jack.
With the descendants of the Cannibal Club providing financial and cultural support, the intrepid crew of the Orpheus travel to the year 2202, with stops along the way to keep their equipment and knowledge up to date.
In this series, an already bizarre scenario becomes stranger still. Entertaining and imaginative!

Carmen Serra

55 reviews3 followers

August 1, 2014

Steam punk in its purest form. What's not to like. I will probably review on audible. This was not my favorite of the series and yes you do need to read the others. Unlike book 4 this story does not stand alone. And the time jumps and Burton's consciousness gets kind of confusing. More later

KathleenB

827 reviews5 followers

February 6, 2017

The first few books are fun historical fiction adventure, steampunk. The 4th gets a little dark but remains mostly similar. This one gets dystopic and loses the fun. Nearly every major character is killed off and brought back as a plant, descendant, cyborg, or clone. It gets stupid and meaningless.

Tina

1,095 reviews2 followers

May 9, 2017

DNF. Too much going on, too many timelines, got confusing.

Glenn Proven

166 reviews3 followers

September 15, 2018

Perhaps the best book in the series. I loved the first book but a bit dissatisfied by its ending. The next three, were with the characters I’d grown connected but those endings were even more unsatisfying. Finally an ending that seems like a real resolution.

I think I read the same biography on Burton as the author. And we both walked away with a strong admiration of the man. What a real life character. I knew nothing of Swinburne or Isambard Kingdom Brunel and minimal bits of Charles Babbage. I have gone on to strengthen my knowledge of many Victorian people that get a mention or more in this series. I’m glad Mark Hodder freely admits the liberties he has taken with their lives and gives a more traditional bio of most characters after each story.

I recommend anyone who wants to read this, read the previous four books first so when you start on page one you are quite comfortable in this alternate Victorian age and joining up with your old chums.

clue fiction science-fiction-fantasy

Ugo Soffientini

5 reviews

September 7, 2020

One of the few books I didn't have the motivation to finish.
It's a bit unfair writing a review without even finishing a book, but this is so bad that no matter what happens in the last 50 pages, it's not worth discovering.

It just seems that the author has run out of ideas, and he recycled the old clyche of a dystopian future to fill up pages. All within a nonsensical plot.
My advice: don't read it. If you enjoyed the first 3 instalments of this saga, stop at that. You might enjoy the #4, but this is not worth your time.

Nicholas Whyte

5,010 reviews194 followers

September 25, 2021

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3766492.html

I thoroughly bounced off this, an alternative steampunky history, the fifth in a series featuring the madcap adventures of Algernon Charles Swinburne and Richard Francis Burton across various timelines. (On steampunk I sometimes sympathise with Marigold's dad in Questionable Content.) When I realised that on page 70 I still had no idea what was going on and no particular sympathy for any of the characters, I gave up.

Christian Freed

Author 65 books750 followers

September 11, 2017

I have thoroughly enjoyed the 4 books I have read in this series, although this final one seems a bit rushed- despite it being the culmination to the story arc. Each book is just as confusing and frustrating to read as they are enjoyable and well worth the time. (Time travel and alternate histories do that). I would recommend picking up a copy of the Strange Case of Spring Heeled Jack and start from the beginning though. Don't do what I did and grab one because the cover was cool.

Rebecca

665 reviews26 followers

December 24, 2020

Y’all remember how I said that this series had more time travel than I usually like, but it was going okay and I was able to keep up?

Well, this is where it started to come off the rails for me. Now we’re crossing multiple timelines and going forward as well as backward in time. There were some very clever parts and some of the glimpses into the future were interesting (and some were depressingly prescient), but the time-traveling, cross-dimensional flowers were just about enough for me.

books-i-own ffantasy

UnicornMurphy

93 reviews3 followers

March 28, 2021

Didn't realize this was in the middle of a series when I checked it out from the library. Despite that, it was easy to read as a standalone. I thought it was very well written, but the lack of women who stayed alive was quite noticeable. So, I won't go back to read any of the other books in the series cause life is too short to read books written by misogynists. I also felt the ending was abrupt and out of place with the rest of the story.

Beth

453 reviews10 followers

July 19, 2017

Another crazy ride from Mark Hodder. This is definitely one series where you need to read from the beginning or you will have little to no idea of what is going on! If you are current on the series, this is yet another interesting set of time travel conundrums and Hodder certainly puts his characters through the wringer!

2017 for-fun

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