Black Swan: Time's Arrow Series, Book 2 (Pax Britannia: Time's Arrow) [Kindle Edition]

Ulysses Quicksilver: agent of the throne, dandy and hero. Heart-broken, battered, mutilated and shot, he's been driven backwards and forwards in time, and his latest adventure is taking him across Steampunk Paris...

Time's Arrow: Black Swan continues to offer readers a unique opportunity - to decide the course of this latest Pax Britannia adventure will take in the next part! In the tradition of Charles Dickens himself, Abaddon Books will be publishing Time's Arrow in three ebook instalments. At the end of parts one and two readers will be able to vote on how the adventure progresses via the Abaddon Books website at [...]. The entire text will then be published in a paperback edition.

This is book two, Time's Arrow: Black Swan, in which our hero - wanted by the French Police for murder - battles his way across Paris, from the Louvre to Notre Dame, in order to prove his innocence. But does Ulysses try to contact Department Q for help or does he go in search of the mysterious M. Lumière? And who else will come to his aid in his hour of need?

It will come as little surprise to regular visitors of my reviews, that I am taking a look at the most recent addition to the ever expanding Pax Britannia universe. I've been a fan of this series ever since I read the first novel, Unnatural History, and it doesn't look like my opinion will be changing any time soon.

I would, however, offer the following words of caution before you read any further. I don't think Black Swan is the place to begin if you are new to the world of Ulysses Quicksilver. This middle section of Time's Arrow wasn't written to be read in isolation. The repercussions from the fall out of previous novels is still being felt, and there is the distinct possibility you'll be lost if you jump in at this point. If you want to check out Pax Britannia, and I certainly urge you to, do yourself a favour and seek out Mr Quicksilver's previous adventures first. Then you can come at Black Swan fully informed.

When this latest chapter of Time's Arrow begins, things continue to go from bad to worse for Mr Quicksilver. He has already been thrown around in time so much that he doesn't know if he is coming or going. Now, on top of all that, he finds himself prime suspect in a murder mystery. I've come to rely on Pax Britannia for full on steampunk inspired adventure where just about anything can, and often does, happen. Insect-obsessed anarchists, cybernetically-enhanced silverbacks, and a rather special bicycle are just a few of the delights on display in this case.

Black Swan suffers the unenviable task of being the middle book in what is effectively a trilogy. The author has to try and keep the story moving forward, while ensuring that the pace never flags for a moment. I'm pleased to say he pulls it off, and I will be waiting with baited breath for the final instalment of this episodic e-novel.

... all the time paddling furiously.

I have to confess I'm behind on the Pax Britannia books - I'm lucky enough to buy them directly from Jonathan at conventions, but he's writing them quicker than I'm seeing him! Fortunately there's enough of an explanation of the previous book in Time's Arrow: Red-Handed that I could follow along.

Having failed to vote for the end of part one I was keen to see what came next. And it didn't disappoint. Picking up after Ulysses Quicksilver has been wrongly accused of an alternate version of the Murders on the Rue Morgue, he makes good his escape and flees across the rooftops of Paris. Familiar events and characters (Dupin from Rue Morgue, the Phantom and the Paris Opera House) are recombined into new patterns. Like all good spies Ulysses finds a pretty girl to help him ... but is she more of a hindrance? Is our heroine really our villainess in disguise? This is the question people are being asked to vote on at the end of the second part, to be picked up in Time's Arrow: White Noise.

Jonathan has taken a relatively new idea: that you need to be engaged with your audience by making things interactive, and combined it with traditions of the chose your own adventure genre. We're given the main body of the story, but we get to chose how to interpret the events and thus set the course for the next section of the book. And it's hard; a fortnight after reading part two I have no idea how to vote.