Highly entertaining

A superb match of narrator and material, Gerard Doyle's telling of this highly original and fast-paced adventure captures the 'Boys' Own/ Flashman' sensitivity of the story while giving it a dry irony and wit that makes the characters feel authentic and yet doesn't take itself too seriously. Can't recommend this book highly enough... looking forward to the next in the series.

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1 person found this helpful

Definitely strange

An imaginative, weird world tinged with some humour. Narrator excellent in parts, especially some of the voice characterisations, but occasionally sounded a bit dull.

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Steam punk thirller!

Great book and really well narrated. Fantastic steam punk paradox wth a great two part plot reveal. If you like sci-fi and victorian thrillers this one is for you!

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Odd, Original and Memorable

An entertaining story that hangs together pretty well. It has some dark moments but it also has moments that did make me smile. The author writes well although sometimes he is a little repetitive on a particular point.

It is mainly a time-travel story in which a man from the 23rd century, keen to reinstate the family's good name, tries to stop his ancestor from killing Queen Victoria and in the attempt dramatically changes the course of history. During the course of the book there is a bit of confusion about the paradoxes that the storyline sets up, but it is all lost in the enjoyable silliness of it all, including a Charles Darwin with two brains and a mechanical Brunel!

Spring-Heeled Jack is a real Victorian phenomena and is worth a look in Wikipedia, but read this after you have listened to the book! Hodder has carefully followed the 'real' myth and speculation in the story he has woven.

The narrator also does a fine job.

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5 people found this helpful

excellent all round innovative and gripping

A very unusual mix of storyline which is believable in most parts, the script is very descriptive producing elaborate mental imagery. The narration is awesome and compelling, I really struggled to stop listening, a really great job and I was straight on to part 2.

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4 people found this helpful

very different but surprisingly good

not at all what I normally go for but I was curious. I was not disappointed.
try not to think logically and simply enjoy the story and you will be fine.
I enjoyed the narrator and the whole performance particularly the idea of messages being delivered by swearing parrots! Had me laughing

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Fantastic adventure with great narration

Spring Heeled Jack is such a fantastic story i was hooked and was actually looking forward to my commute to work. The use of real historical characters, and the working in of true stories about their lives adds a great deal. Im not going to go into any details about the story as it would spoil your experience.



One thing I need to say is that in some reviews it mentions that the book is a bit overlong, and this did make me think twice before downloading. After finishing the audiobook i couldn't disagree more. I found the conversations between characters to be interesting and always helped to move the plot along.



I would highly recommend this book and I'm itching to get my next credit so I can grab book 2.

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First steam punk novel

I'm a SiFi junkie, this is my first sortie into the steam punk line and I have to say I'm impressed! Entertaining, funny, cracking characters and the delivery, which unfortunately for the author is as important as the book for audiobooks, is superbly read. I've downloaded the second book before I've finished this one so I can give no higher praise.

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Utterly Brilliant!!!

A great story, well written, very well narrated. Truly a giant of the Steampunk genre.

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A jolly good ripping yarn!

I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. I'm quite keen on the steampunk genre, but fiction set within it doesn't always pan out - I'm pleased to report that this was great.
The use of Sir Richard Francis Burton as the main hero was a great idea and worked very well, especially when coupled with Algernon Swinburn as his sidekick. The latter was a humorous and light-hearted hearted counterfoil to Burton's heroic but stoic character.
The steampunk elements were inventive (and some very humorous, such as the parakeets used to recite telegrams which couldn't help but add insults and swear words into their recitals).
The book was very well read by Gerard Doyle. I initially thought his voice might not be up to the task of keeping me listening but it turned out I was wrong. Mr Doyle did a terrific job of giving each character a distinctive voice and I was never in any doubt about which character was speaking at any given time.

Overall I'd recommend this title to anyone with even a passing interest in the steampunk genre, and Ilook forward to listening to the other titles by Mark Hodder set in this universe.

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