Anti-Ice [Mass Market Paperback]

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.

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

Stephen Baxter applied to become an astronaut in 1991. He didn’t make it, but achieved the next best thing by becoming a science fiction writer, and his novels and short stories have been published and won awards around the world. His science background is in maths and engineering. He is married and lives in Buckinghamshire.