Synopsis
Ned Lives!
That's right. Ned the Seal of Zeppelins West survived the shark attack from his last adventure, and he's back in a new escapade starring Jules Verne, Mark Twain, H. G. Wells and his Martian invaders, as well as a number of surprise guests you may or may not recognize.
Yes, my friends, it's a story of Ned the Seal, adventurer, future dime novelist and fish lover, in a world not of his making. Not of his choice. In fact, no one knows for sure who made it or chose it. And boy is it a mess.
Besides our plucky seal, here too is Rikwalk, the forty foot tall ape. Beadle and John Feather, the Masters of the giant metal steam man of the prairie, stoked up and ready to fight Martian war machines.
Not since you stubbed your big toe on your way to the toilet in the middle of the night have there been so many surprises. Flaming London is a pure fun romp you can ride without benefit of bridle or saddle and it won't hurt your toe.
So kick back, turn on the fan, pull the covers up to your chin, prop up your back, and read this tale of seals unchained, Steam unharnessed, ruthless Martian invaders, and heroes.
And don't forget the fish.
Reviews
Starred Review. Against the backdrop of a Martian invasion à la The War of the Worlds, Lansdale's ripsnorting sequel to Zeppelins West (2001) chronicles the fantastic adventures of two elderly authors, Samuel Langhorne Clemens (aka Mark Twain) and Jules Verne. Other members of the madcap cast include a young H.G. Wells, Sitting Bull, a Martian ape, a steam-powered robot and an intelligent seal (and future dime novelist), whose diary and journal entries form the bulk of the narrative. All must deal with the havoc caused by Wells's dang time traveler, the hero of The Time Machine, who has opened multiplying cracks in the time continuum. Seasoned with earthy, down-home humor, Lansdale's homage to Twain, Verne and Wells is sci-fi fun at its boisterous, silly best. Timothy Truman's delightful cover art and interior illustrations perfectly complement the text. (Dec.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Ned the Seal, whom Dr. Momo (aka Moreau; see H. G. Wells'Island of Dr. Moreau, 1896) gave an enhanced brain, didn't perish at the end of Lansdale's Zeppelins West (2001). Mark Twain found him, worse for shark wear, on the beach at Jules Verne's Mediterranean place, shortly before Martians (see also Wells'War of the Worlds, 1898) started zapping everything that moved. Fortunately, Verne had a prototype speedboat, thanks to the mechanical skills of Passepartout, former valet of adventurer Phileas Fogg (see Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days, 1873), for whom Mrs. Verne left Jules, and the speedboat converted into a touring balloon, in which Verne, Passepartout, Twain, and Ned got away to an island infested with pirates who had captured a Kong-sized red ape from Mars (though an alternate one from the zappers'planet) and the Flying Dutchman. Wait a minute! What's going on here? Only one of the wildest -alternate-worlds, rip-in-space-time, sf-pastiche romps this side of fifties B movies, one whose only possible drawback is its relentless proctologic humor. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
