- Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
- Publisher: HarperPaperbacks; Reissue edition (Sep 1997)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0061054216
- ISBN-13: 978-0061054211
- Product Dimensions: 16.8 x 10.7 x 2.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 505,713 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
Stephen Baxter’s steam punk classic set in an alternate universe of late Victorian-era space travel.
1870: the power of the British Empire is supreme. The principles of Enhanced Conductance which are utilized by anti-ice have supercharged the Industrial Revolution. At the New Great Exhibition in Manchester, Ned Vicars, a young attache at the Foreign Office, meets the discoverer of anti-ice, Sir Josiah Traveller - and the beautiful Francoise. His fate is doubly sealed.
Before he learns the truth about Francois, Ned must survive an unscheduled trip to the Moon and back. But by then the world has gone mad. The only certainty is war… and anti-ice is the most powerful weapon humanity has ever possessed.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.From the Back Cover
1870: the power of the British Empire is supreme. The principles of Enhanced Conductance which are utilized by anti-ice have supercharged the Industrial Revolution. At the New Great Exhibition in Manchester, Ned Vicars, a young attaché at the Foreign Office, meets the discoverer of anti-ice, Sir Josiah Traveller – and the beautiful Françoise. His fate is doubly sealed.
Before he learns the truth about Françoise, Ned must survive an unscheduled trip to the Moon and back. But by then the world has gone mad. The only certainty is war … and anti-ice is the most powerful weapon humanity has ever possessed.
Stephen Baxter, the new star of British science fiction, has written a baroque epic of dazzling originality.
'There is a breed of romance that nudges the what-is to the what-if. Stephen Baxter's 'Anti-Ice' is one of the most compelling of these. A touch of improper amour and impeccable period detail makes all this alarmingly addictive.'
THE TIMES
'Outrageous science-fictional entertainment, pulling out all the Vernian stops and playing dice (or is it chess?) with alternative world possibilities'
VECTOR
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Stephen Baxter's third novel is a change of pace from his earlier hard-sf 'Xeelee' series, being a stand-alone alternate history novel written in the style of an early scientific romance. The story concerns a chunk of alien matter dubbed 'anti-ice' that lands on Earth and the impact it has on Europe when it is discovered by the brilliant scientists Josiah Traveller and claimed by the British Empire. In broad terms, the discovery of anti-ice, with its immensely powerful properties, results in technology being developed years before it's time, with anti-ice rockets bringing the equivalent of nuclear warfare into the late 1800's.
The novel is bookended by scenes of growing unrest in Europe, with Baxter evoking images of both World Wars, set against a backdrop of a dominating British Empire. Baxter's alternate England with its Mancunian capitol and mono-rails is intriguing, and scenes of the launching of a vast anti-ice powered land ship brings to mind both Michael Moorcock's 'The Land Leviathan' and elements of Baxter's own later novel 'The Time Ships'. The bulk of the novel however, consists of an unplanned trip to the moon and back, when Josiah and his guests find themselves trapped in a sabotaged experimental spaceship.
Much of the material in the spaceflight section would ordinarily be unconvincing (especially how well prepared Josiah seems to be for every eventuality), but the novel is written in a very light-hearted manner. The majority of this section is really fairly standard astronaut material, but it is the attitude of the explorers that keeps it readable, with the 'English gentlemen in space' motif even extending to an in-flight butler, and the explorers surprising discovery on the moon gives the novel a much needed twist.
Slightly negative points are Baxter's sometimes clumsy info dumping of his alternate history by use of unconvincing political conversations between the main characters, and the rather flimsy plot-driver of a French damsel in distress that everyone except the love-sick hero can immediately tell is really up to no good.
Anti-Ice contains some fantastic ideas, but Baxter's execution is sometimes a little uneven, and he would make much better use of this style in The Time Ships. Nevertheless this is an enjoyable light-hearted steampunk romp, and a nice change of pace from Baxter. Good fun.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
12 reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
One of Baxter's Best
26 Jun 2002
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I'd had a bad experience with Baxter (also known as Timelike Infinity) which had me prepared to ignore anything he wrote. But I'm a sucker for alternate history and Victoriana, so when I heard that Baxter had written an alt-history in which 19th century England gets its hands on antimatter (Kaboom!), I just had to give it a try. And I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was.
This book works on a lot of levels. The use of the naive protagonist alongside the newspaper reporter and the professor allows for a lot of exposition without straining the plot. Once you accept the hand-waving explanation of how antimatter got to Earth in a form that 19th century tech could handle, the rest of the technology and history follows pretty logically. And the writing itself is a wonderful pastiche of Wells, Verne, and 19th century English novels in general.
But the aspect of it that I most enjoyed was the political allegory. The parallels of anti-ice technology with nuclear technology followed our own history in many ways: its first use followed by horror at the devastation that it wrought, then an attempt to harness it for peaceful purposes, and finally a cold war in which two super-powers hold weapons of mutually assured destruction. But more subtly, England's domination of France at the end of the book, and France's resentment, could be seen as analogous to US domination of Europe after WWII.
A wonderful science fiction story, but also a lesson on the dangers of the misuse of power, whether it be the destructive power of weaponry or the political forces of imperialism.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Grand good time sci-fi alternate universe adventure!
1 Jun 1999
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I really enjoyed this book! Like all of Baxter's work it just seems to have a heck of a lot more meat on its bones than a lot of what I read. Good speculative SUBSTANCE, if you know what I mean. Yes, I had to pick up an encyclopedia and read a few paragraphs on the Crimean War. Took all of two minutes and added exponentially to the depth of the reading experience. Good book, good ideas and a whopper of a finale!
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
A flat, dull novel
28 Dec 1997
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Anti-Ice is an "alternate universe" tale that takes place in 19th century. An asteroid from an unknown part ofthe galaxy assumes an orbit around the Earth, forming a new moon. Fragments fall to earth in the region of the South Pole and are discovered by British explorers. These asteroid fragments are composed of a previously unknown material dubbed, anti-ice, which releases energy on the scale of a nuclear explosion when heated. The British industrial revolution is propelled to new heights by this discovery. Naturally, one of the first discoveries is the utility of this energy source in warfare. A struggle develops between industrialists who want to monopolize the energy potential of the substance, idealists who see it as a chance for world peace by eliminating energy (oil, etc.) as a driving force in geopolitical economics, and other military powers who see the British monopoly of this substance as a military threat.
Many of the themes of Anti-Ice reflect issues of the nuclear age. The underlying conflicts parallel those that developed during the cold war. As a novel, Anti-Ice is mediocre, however. The style is stilted, reminescent of H.G. Wells. Mr. Baxter used this style to much greater effect in his novel, The Timeships, which was a "sequel" to Wells' The Time Machine. There is a flatness to the plot and to the characters which makes the book tedious.
In addition, Mr. Baxter has 20th century exploits performed with 19th century technology (with the exception of the anti-ice energy source). A space voyage takes place, for instance, in a craft that would have lacked air-tight seals (using 19th century technology).
Some SF novels are rip-roaring adventures. This is one is not. Some are full of mystery and intrigue. This one is not. Some have an underlying philosophical message. This one does not. So that doesn't leave much.
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