The Best Book You Did Not Read Last Year (2010)

In my spare time I read science fiction - a lot of it. One might call it a pasttime, this science fictional reading. So was I ever shocked to find a book that combines some serious steampunk with some great mystery elements and a whole lot of historical surprises. It's the best book you didn't read in 2010 - The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder - and it's probably not for everyone, but it's definitely worth a look if you don't want any of the same old, same old you've been reading.

So what makes Mark Hodder's debut book so good? Could be the taken from real history characters. Or, maybe it's the alternate history timelines. Could even be the mystery elements. But I think it's really the intricate plotting that ties together in the end in unexpected ways. This is as much a story about stories as it is about entertainment and pushing some ideas in science ficition. Alternate history and time travel are key elements in Spring Heeled Jack. The title character happens to be a time traveler from way off in a distant future. Who is Spring Heeled Jack and why does he keep popping up at key times in Victorian history?

Enter Sir Richard Francis Burton and his sidekick so to speak, the poet Algernon Swinburne. A mismatched pair if there was any. Burton's swarthy, almost like a pirate except he's a bit more on the straight and narrow. And Algy likes things rough though he's really nothing more than a pipsqueak in appearance. Together, these contemporaries who knew very little of each other in real life are thrown together in Hodder's story to solve the case of Spring Heeled Jack as well as dig into a changing timeline, one that will take two more books (one almost hopes there will be more than that) to complete.

What makes the book astounding is not just that the story ties together nicely even as it diverges from real history to alternate timeline history, but the amount of research Mark Hodder incorporates into a story that could easily be taken over by setting. It's not a fast read, but it's a good one. Each word seems carefully considered at times in order to correctly convey the meaning and the place for each major event. The characters seem very real as they have real concerns regarding the changing world and their places in it. What's more, the time travel doesn't seem too out there for the story once it comes into play, though it may be the one downfall for the book. This is where things get confusing, along with the later steampunk elements that are directly affected by Spring Heeled Jack.

A quick steampunk primer:
Victorian era setting (or Wild West, though this is less often the case).
Steam power is the way of the land, often in mechanical formats.
Mystery elements and alternate timelines are very common, along with personages from the late 1800s.
Charles Babbage and his Difference Engine (an early computer prototype) quite often make an appearance or are mentioned.

Assuming you manage to come out the other side from all the craziness, and you'll want to, believe me; you get to the part where some large decisions need to be made by Burton. Algy, unfortunately, has faded into the background a bit more, but he'll be back. He's not the sort to stay down and out for long and Burton pretty much assures that his choices will bring back our red headed poet for the next adventure. So, while the front half the the book is setting and adventure, the second half starts to really get into the story and by the end you'll wonder what you just read. It's so good you'll be reluctant to let it go, but let it go you must, or you'll just start reading it again and again and again just to find all the little hints and clues you missed the first time.

Mark Hodder's The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack is a Must Read from the science fiction genre. Way fun if not a bit mind tripping, but that's okay. There's more to come. Be sure to check out Burton & Swinburne in The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man, book two of the trilogy.

Work Cited.
Hodder, Mark. The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack. Amherst, NY: Pyr, 2010.