A Great Steampunk Adventure

Great Steampunk adventure set in an alternative British Empire with advanced steam driven machinery and airships. We follow the adventures of Captain Folkestone and his Martian accomplice, Sergeant Felix Hand. The British Empire is policing colonies on Mars and Venus in the year of 1882. It's a wonderful weird and wacky adventure of a retro sci-fi world from our past. An alternative British Empire in a bizarre space age. The image of Victorian machinery (iron and steam) in a space age dreamed of by people with futuristic imaginations of the late 19th and early 20th Century. H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Edgar Rice Burrows type Sci-Fi. A story of ancient Dark Gods known to Martians and Venusians from their entwined pasts yet not to Humans who are new comers building empires and colonies upon both planets. The restless natives of these colonised worlds are resurrecting taboo old Gods. Those that must not be spoken of. Their aim (The Dark Gods) to destroy the alternative British Empire of 1882 and bring vengeance upon humanity. Only the dashing Captain Folkestone and Sergeant Hand can thwart the evil as they travel on a quest from Mars to Venus following leads where humanoid and reptillian Venusians dwell. Plus some work back on Earth, in London, by Scotland Yard’s Chief Inspector Ethan Slaughter as he searches among London's immigrant population of Chinese, Laskers, Martians and Venusian workers in a quest for secrets of the Dark Gods too.

Great adventure for all fans of Steampunk Sci-Fi where even Victorian London's back streets are awash with inter-planetary multi-cutralism. The whole story moves well with its wonderful alternative Victorian feel combined with retro steampowered machinery from a mythical, dreamed of, age.

The Day of the Jackal - No other thriller can compare.

1963 in President de Gaulle's France, the OAS hire a contract killer to assassinate the head of state because of the Algeria crises. The anonymous Englishman is hired. No one knows who he is and all police forces keep finding is a cold dead end trail or fake identity and then dead bodies. This is a real page turning cat and mouse chase to stop an assassination attempt by a cold blooded killer. Every time the authorities try to close the net; the assassin seems to be able to avoid the trap as he draws closer to his prey - the French head of state. Both French and British security services are frantically trying to work out the skilled assassin's next move while time continues to run out.

RyRy of Overload.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBC3q5BAKGo

I was very proud to see my youngest son RyRy performing at the Wembley arena on Saturday 12th October. I wished I could have been there to watch his first live gig with Overload, but found this clip of him on YouTube. Therefore, whoever took the shot, much thanks and hope you don't mind me blogging it.

Extra-terrestrial Life Discovered in Earth's Stratosphere.

Extra-terrestrial life has been discovered by Brit students at Sheffield University. Not bug eyed green monsters but microscopic from meteor showers. The scientific investigators have isolated the microbes from weather balloons high in the stratosphere and have quarantined them from infection by Earth microbes. They seem convinced the micro-organisms are alien and from meteor showers that broke up upon hitting Earth atmosphere. 

The Last Days of Thunder Child - pastiche novel.

                                                   http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CEIOBGU

Go on, Go on, look at H.M.S. Thunder Child in my mind's eye.

Come aboard and witness her last days through the eyes of the crew.

Giving You Ward and Gordon of The Ever Victorious Army (China Civil War 1850-1864)



The Ever Victorious Army
Dark Blue = Army
Light Blue = Artillery
White = Bodyguard

The Ever Victorious Army was the name given to an imperial army in China during the Taiping Rebellion. This force was led by foreign mercenaries that fought for the Imperial Qing Dynasty against the Heavenly Kingdom of Peace - the rebels of the Taiping Rebellion.

The Ever Victorious Army was led by an American, to begin with, and had many Chinese soldiers trained by European officers. This strange army was active from 1860 to 1864 and played an important role in destroying the Taiping Rebellion.

The Ever Victorious Army was formed by Frederick Townsend Ward in 1860. He was a young American sailor and soldier of fortune. Much of what he did during Taiping Rebellion was overshadowed by his own nation's civil war which was raging during his time. Ward was a robust young man with progressive ideas. He trained Chinese soldiers with new skills and weapons.

It is also believed that his Chinese Lieutenant and friend, Li Hongzhang was gifted in moulding the fighting force of the Ever Victorious Army to fight for the Empress Dowager and her Qing Dynasty. This radical new trained army was able to defeat larger forces of the heterodox Christian Taiping revolutionaries. The Ever Victorious Army quickly gained victories and the Qing Dynasty gave them the title of "Ever Victorious Army."

However, the dashing Frederick Townsend Ward was killed in September 1862 after the Battle of Cixi. The command of the Ever Victorious Army was eventually given to Charles George Gordon. He would become known as "Chinese" Gordon and later 'Gordon of Khartum,' where he would be killed in Sudan during the Mahdi War.

Gordon's China adventure was twenty years plus before Sudan and with other Chinese Imperial forces, the British officer would fight many of the last major battles bringing an end to the Taiping Rebellion. He got much credit for this and it is argued that Frederick Townsend Ward did not get the recognition he deserved. This was because he was unfortunately killed before the war was over and the American Civil War was more prominent than his endeavours at the time.

When Ward first formed the Ever Victorious Army, they only operated in an area of thirty miles radius of Shanghai. By the time the Taiping Rebellion was crushed with the downfall of Nanking, the Ever Victorious Army had gone much further afield. They were disbanded and paid off in May of 1864.