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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'The year is 1953, and the British Empire still spans the globe. Coal drives the world, and the smog of it hangs thick over the canals of London.
Clara Calland is on the run. Hunted, along with her scientist mother, by Menshevik spies and Imperial soldiers, they flee Ireland for London. They must escape airships, treachery and capture. Under flooded London’s canals they join the rebels who live in the dank tunnels there.
Tim Barnabas is one of the underpeople, born to the secret town of drowned London, place of anti-imperialist republicans and Irish rebels, part of the Liberty - the people who would see a return to older values and free elections. Seeing no further than his next meal, Tim has hired on as a submariner on the Cuttlefish, a coal fired submarine that runs smuggled cargoes beneath the steamship patrols, to the fortress America and beyond.
When the Imperial soldiery comes ravening, Clara and her mother are forced to flee aboard the Cuttlefish. Hunted like beasts, the submarine and her crew must undertake a desperate voyage across the world, from the Faeroes to the Caribbean and finally across the Pacific to find safety. But only Clara and Tim Barnabas can steer them past treachery and disaster, to freedom in Westralia. Carried with them—a lost scientific secret that threatens the very heart of Imperial power.'
Source: Publisher's Blurb
Notes
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Steampunk note: Though this novel takes place in 1976, an unusual setting for steampunk fiction, the alternate-history presence of a British Empire that remains the dominant global power, with a coal-driven, smoggy London filled with steampunk-style technology means it nevertheless plays into many of the essential features of steampunk. Features of note include a focus on scientific discoveries, and how these relate to struggles between imperialist power and democracy, as well as a globe-spanning journey ending in a reimagined Australia.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
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London,
cEngland,ccUnited Kingdom (UK),cWestern Europe, Europe,
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Faroe Islands,
cDenmark,cScandinavia, Western Europe, Europe,
- Western Australia,
- Pacific Ocean,
- Caribbean, Americas,
- 1976