- Anti-Ice
infobox Book |
name = Anti-Ice
title_orig =
translator =
image_caption =
author = Stephen Baxter
illustrator =
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country =United Kingdom
language = English
series = "Time's Tapestry "
genre =Science fiction novel
publisher =Ace (US/Canada release)
release_date = June 1993
english_release_date =
media_type = Print
pages =
isbn =
preceded_by =
followed_by ="Anti-Ice" is a
science fiction novel byStephen Baxter . Published in 1993, it can be classified as an alternate history for its portrayal of 19th centuryEurope and the changes resulting, particularly in Britain, from an explosive scientific discovery made in the 1850s.Plot
The novel begins with the text of a letter dated July, 1855 from the
Crimean War front ofSevastopol . The writer, Hedley Vicars, tells from his perspective as asoldier in the 90 Light Infantry about the visit to his commanders of one Josiah Traveller, an inventor and millionaire industrialist whose discovery in theSouth Pole of anti-ice, a substance which releases incredible energies when warmed, is being considered for military use. Soon after that meeting, amushroom cloud erupts in the midst of Sevastopol and, with its attendant human and structural devastation, quickly ends the war.This substance originally fell to
Earth as the residue of acomet that impacted theMoon centuries ago. Fifteen years after the war, under the reign of Edward VII (who assumed the throne after Queen Victoria abdicated due to her husband Prince Albert's death) and theprime minister ship of Gladstone, the United Kingdom maintains through Traveller's discovery a monopoly on the use of anti-ice. But the energy it generates, analogous tonuclear power , is now used to power vehicles and accelerate the country'sIndustrial Revolution -- much to the chagrin of perennial rivalsFrance and a yet-to-be-unitedGermany .Upon docking at
Ostend , the liner on which junior diplomat Ned Vicars, journalist George Holden, and Traveller arrive explodes as they inspect Traveller's experimental rocket "Phaeton" and are propelled upward into the air by a saboteur's firing of the anti-ice rockets. Breaking free of Earth'sgravity , the "Phaeton" and its reluctant passengers (along with Traveller's manservant Pocket) toward Earth's two moons -- as there is now the "Little Moon", which broke off from Earth's moon when the comet originally hit it in the eighteenth century. Using the latest in 1870 technology, Vicars actually minesice from the surface of the Moon, while encountering simple, massive creatures on its dark side. Converting the water into enough power to ascend, the explorers -- along with the saboteur, a Frenchman named Bourne -- return to Britain as theFranco-Prussian War breaks out on the continent.Gladstone meets Traveller personally and orders him forthwith to prepare anti-ice weapons for use to end the war. At first he does so, but Vicars persuades him that such a course of action is unconscionable. Too late, the two arrive in the "Phaeton" to see the destruction of
Orléans by an anti-ice rocket. Peace is immediately declared, and the United Kingdom sets up its hegemony over Europe -- a development not without price, which Vicars notes in a 1910 letter to his son. And the supply of anti-ice, which Traveller thought was confined to the South Pole, is virtually limitless due to the "Little Moon", which is composed entirely of anti-ice! The possibilities of an early 20th centurycold war are dwelt on by the narrator (Vicars) throughout the book.The voyage of the "Phaeton", about one-third of the novel, is reminiscent of the one
Jules Verne describes in his 1870 novel "Around the Moon ", while the segment set on the Moon's surface is reminiscent ofH.G. Wells ' 1901 "The First Men in the Moon ".ee also
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List of steampunk works
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