The bard rests on his laurels, and swipes left and right
Sci-fi reviews with MAT COWARD: June 11, 2024
Steampunk Victoriana, time travel and Martian nativism
MARIA DUARTE cherishes the flashes of absurd humour and theme of community healing in a documentary set in a Soviet-era Black Sea sanatorium
ANGUS REID and MARIA DUARTE review The Courageous, The Cut, Christy, and On Swift Horses
TOM STONE sings the praises of one of the oldest open-air festivals in Britain
Chris Searle speaks to accordionist KAREN STREET
MAYER WAKEFIELD speaks to Urielle Klein-Mekongo about activism, musical inspiration and the black British experience
HIGH VAULTAGE by Chris and Jen Sugden (Gollancz, £22) is set in a steampunk version of 1887, where the Victorian mania for innovation has got somewhat out of control. London covers the whole of southern England, and is so dynamic that seeing an overview of it triggers a recognised medical condition. Queen Victoria herself is a monstrous figure, having been rebuilt after every successful assassination.
Another beneficiary of revitalisation is Archibald Fleet of Scotland Yard. Sadly, the paperwork doesn’t yet exist to deal with an officer who has been dead but isn’t any more. While he waits for the authorities to reinstate him, he runs the capital’s first ever private investigation agency with Clara, a young lady of high breeding and boundless pluck who yearns for a life of adventure.
Science fiction comedy is a very tricky thing to pull off, but this is constantly funny and inventive, and at times hilarious.
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