
The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack
Burton & Swinburne, Book 1
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Narrated by:
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Gerard Doyle
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By:
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Mark Hodder
Sir Richard Francis Burton: explorer, linguist, scholar, and swordsman; his reputation tarnished; his career in tatters; his former partner missing and probably dead. Algernon Charles Swinburne: unsuccessful poet and follower of de Sade; for whom pain is pleasure, and brandy is ruin! They stand at a crossroads in their lives and are caught in the epicenter of an empire torn by conflicting forces: engineers transform the landscape with bigger, faster, noisier, and dirtier technological wonders; eugenicists develop specialist animals to provide unpaid labor; libertines oppose repressive laws and demand a society based on beauty and creativity; while the Rakes push the boundaries of human behavior to the limits with magic, drugs, and anarchy.
The two men are sucked into the perilous depths of this moral and ethical vacuum when Lord Palmerston commissions Burton to investigate assaults on young women committed by a weird apparition known as Spring Heeled Jack, and to find out why werewolves are terrorizing London's East End. Their investigations lead them to one of the defining events of the age - and the terrifying possibility that the world they inhabit shouldn't exist at all!
©2010 Mark Hodder (P)2011 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...




















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Historical steampunk fiction.... Done well!
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When I first started listening I wan't quite sure where the book was going, but further into it my attention became fixated. Wonderful story that grabs the imagination.Strange Take on Alternate Paths
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A little too quirky at times, but fun all the same
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Fun book
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On the plus side, the historical setting seemed well-researched. Out of curiosity, I looked up some of the characters, and they're quite accurate. The POV character really did know 20-some languages, fence, and work as a spy. Some parts I had a hard time believing were actually historical events. Truth is stranger than fiction, eh?
On the negative side, other parts just bugged me. The author seems to believe that people go suddenly and irrevocably insane after traumatic events. Or, even not-so-traumatic events. One character is afraid that culture shock will drive him mad (spoilers: it does). Having traveled extensively myself and having lived abroad, I know that culture shock isn't something that drives you to insanity. It's called culture "shock" not culture "insanity" for a reason. A number of other minor points made me roll my eyes and go "Really?" To avoid spoilers, I won't go into the details.
Regardless, it was reasonably interesting and well-read. I had no issues with the narration. If you're looking for a decent steampunk story without magic that doesn't care a lot about how the real world actually works, you could enjoy this book.
Decent, but unbelievable
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A hunt to fix reality before time runs out
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absolutely subverted my expectations
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Steampunk the way it should be
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I was under the impression that this was a really good story, all the way up until the Big reveal close to the end. Man, I have never read such a bad, weird ending to an otherwise good book before. Took a hard wrong turn. What had been creepy and fantastical, and mostly reconciled with reality throughout most of the story, became all out unbelievable, utterly RIDICULOUS drivel in the end. There are also religious undertones throughout the book which made me wonder if I had been tricked into buying "Christian fantasy" which would disguise its self until the very end. Not so much, though. Just a tragic ending to an otherwise inventive and entertaining read. Too bad.Way to write a terrible ending!
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This is a fun one. IT's disorienting at first but wraps up nicely at the end. A fun alternate universe.Huzzah!
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