Presenting Author: Mark Hodder

[Emily Spencer]

Name of the author: Mark Hodder
Main genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy
Main audience: Young Adult
presenting writing still: Yes
main books: Burton & Swinburne Series, Black Pentagram Series, A Red Sun Also Rises

Mark Hodder is a British born (Southampton) steampunk fiction writer, whose first novel, The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack, was first published in 2010. It is the first book in the 6-part Burton & Swinburne series (the one I am most familiar with actually). A very brief summary in Goodreads about this series states as follows:

The famous Victorian-era explorer, linguist, author and cartographer (to name but a few of his talents) Sir Richard Francis Burton teams up with his eccentric and notorious friend, the poet Algernon Swinburne, to first solve the mystery of why history has split into a multitude of variants and then deal with the consequences.

Before turning his hand to writing, Mark Hodder did a stint as a BBC writer, editor, and web producer. In 2010, The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack won the Philip K. Dick Award. Since 1983, this science fiction award (named after the science fiction author) honors the best original paperback published each year in the United States Considering that this was Hodder's first novel, it could be considered quite an impressive feat.

Although it was his only win (thus far), Hodder's works have come up for nomination several times since then. The third and fourth books of the Burton & Swinburne series (namely Expeditions to the Mountains of the Moon and The Secret of Abdu El Yezd were nominated for The Sidewise Award For Alternate History. Though neither would ultimately go on to win, it is still quite the honor.

Hodder is is the creator and caretaker of BLAKIANA , a website dedicated to the character of Sexton Blake, perhaps the most written about detective in English publishing history. The character of Sexton Blake was created in 1893 by Harry Blyth (written under the pseudonym Hal Meredeth). In 2014, Hodder introduced the first Sexton Blake novel to be written in over forty years. Entitled The Silent Sunday Caper, it is the relaunch of the Sexton Blake Library, of which Hodder is a frequent contributor.

In 2008, Hodder left London to relocate in Valencia, Spain in order to teach the English language, as well as continue his work as a novelist. He has a degree in Cultural Studies and loves history, delusions, gadgets, cult TV, Tom Waits, and other assorted oddities He is also the father of twins.

[Emily Spencer]

Title of the book: The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack
Author: Mark Hodder
Series: yes (1st book in the Burton & Swinburne Series)
Genres: Science Fiction/Fantasy/Steampunk

Short Summary of the Story:

The book is actually several interconnecting side stories wrapped up in a central plot. It all begins with a bit of ingenious time-travel by the well-meaning ancestor of one Edward Oxford. In 1840, Oxford was accused of regicide, namely the murder of Queen Victoria. Alas, he is unsuccessful in his attempt and with the help of his fish-scale' solar battery time-traveling suit, he sets his sights on 1837, with the sole purpose of trying to prevent his ancestor from ever attempting the deed at all. As any Doctor Who fan could tell you, meddling with history never bodes well. Time goes wibbly-wobbly and an alternate time line is created. It is in this time line that we meet the main characters of the story.

Sir Richard Francis Burton is a noted explorer whose life has taken a most unexpected twist. His reputation is in tatters, due to the disappearance of his partner, Speke, who is presumed dead. Speke is lauded as being the one responsible for discovering the source of the Nile. Burton's chagrin at this unwarranted praise is his undoing, and he finds himself the prime suspect in the death of his partner.

Disregarding this, the Prime Minister commissions Burton as a King's Agent, charging him with the capture of the notoriously slippery Spring-Heeled Jack. Jack is responsible for a series of murders around London, and the Crown hopes to bring them to a swift end. If that weren't enough, it appears that werewolves are attempting to overtake London's East End, and surely the Crown could never condone that!

Assisting Burton is novelist and poet, Algernon Charles Swinburne, an unapologetic follower of the controversial Marquis de Sade. Swinburne has a taste for brandy, and is altogether a lovable, if somewhat rakish sidekick. His sources prove invaluable, however, so he is far from just comic relief.

Adding to the rich backdrop of the story of this alternate timeline is the fact that its technological advances have given rise to two warring scientific classes, namely the 'Technologists' and 'Eugenicists'. Together, they are responsible for the transformation of England with their new machines (ie: steam vehicles, ornithopters) and biological creations (ie: dogs that deliver mail, birds that deliver messages). Of course, such change breeds opposition, and the Libertines are leading the charge. As if things needed to be more chaotic!

Here is what Goodreads has to say about the story:

London, 1861.

Sir Richard Francis Burton—explorer, linguist, scholar, and swordsman; his reputation tarnished; his career in tatters; his former partner missing and probably dead.

Algernon Charles Swinburne—unsuccessful poet and follower of de Sade; for whom pain is pleasure, and brandy is ruin!

They stand at a crossroads in their lives and are caught in the epicenter of an empire torn by conflicting forces: Engineers transform the landscape with bigger, faster, noisier, and dirtier technological wonders; Eugenicists develop specialist animals to provide unpaid labor; Libertines oppose repressive laws and demand a society based on beauty and creativity; while the Rakes push the boundaries of human behavior to the limits with magic, drugs, and anarchy. The two men are sucked into the perilous depths of this moral and ethical vacuum when Lord Palmerston commissions Burton to investigate assaults on young women committed by a weird apparition known as Spring Heeled Jack, and to find out why werewolves are terrorizing London's East End.

Their investigations lead them to one of the defining events of the age, and the terrifying possibility that the world they inhabit shouldn't exist at all

My take:

I find it intriguing that Hodder took actual historic events and gave them a steampunk element. You would think that opposing timelines would be a bit confusing, but Hodder does it seamlessly enough that this is not the case at all. He puts so much into characterization and world developing, that one can almost forgive him for the somewhat clunky ending. I've yet to read the other books in the series, it definitely has me excited to read more.