Rate this book

Dziwna Sprawa Skaczącego Jacka (2012)

by Mark Hodder(Favorite Author)

3.69 of 5 Votes: 5

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Fabryka Słów

series

Burton & Swinburne

review 1: I first heard of Sir Richard Francis Burton in Philip Jose Farmer's Sci-Fi "Riverworld" series. I have since read numerous biographies about Sir Richard as well as books by him; so it is strange to come full circle and encounter him in another science fiction series. I wasn't that enamored with the alternate universe, mostly because the Victorian age was interesting enough without the "steampunk" gadgetry that has become all the rage in pop culture. I may give this series another shot, but it remains to be seen whether I stick with through the whole series.
review 2: The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack is a clever mash-up of well researched history and the author's wide imagination.It follows the historical figure of Sir Richard Francis Burton, who does be... morecome a king's agent in this novel. His job is to solve the mystery of Spring Heeled Jack, an apparition on stilts who's supposed to have attacked a few people, but is disregarded as a myth. During the novel the strange masochistic poet Algernon Swinburne starts to assist Burton with his investigation.Although most readers won't have a problem to figure out the mystery of Spring Heeled Jack early on, the why and how is laid out pretty cleverly and the novel has one or two unexpected twists regarding its structure.Author Mark Hodder shows that he is really talented, is able to create some memorable characters and has a knack for the Victorian era and its themes.Morality, especially in a world where Charles Darwin shattered the belief in god and creation, is one of the main themes of the novel and not only our heroes are struggling with it.There are some interesting debates in here and as a former sociology/philosophy student, I was pleasently surprised to find some old arguments presented in a new context.Long story short, I had a blast with this book on more than one level and I'm pretty happy that there are at least 4 sequel novels, cause I really like to see what Mark Hodder does with his Steampunk sandbox and his characters.Oh, and here goes out an honorable mention at the end. It is the first piece of anything apart from Queen's song Bohemian Rhapsody, where I encountered the word "Bismillah!". less

Download links for: Dziwna sprawa Skaczącego Jacka

Advertising