Customer Reviews

Anti-Ice

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I'd had a bad experience with Baxter (also known as Timelike Infinity) which had me prepared to ignore anything he wrote. But I'm a sucker for alternate history and Victoriana, so when I heard that Baxter had written an alt-history in which 19th century England gets its hands on antimatter (Kaboom!), I just had to give it a try. And I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was.

This book works on a lot of levels. The use of the naive protagonist alongside the newspaper reporter and the professor allows for a lot of exposition without straining the plot. Once you accept the hand-waving explanation of how antimatter got to Earth in a form that 19th century tech could handle, the rest of the technology and history follows pretty logically. And the writing itself is a wonderful pastiche of Wells, Verne, and 19th century English novels in general.

But the aspect of it that I most enjoyed was the political allegory. The parallels of anti-ice technology with nuclear technology followed our own history in many ways: its first use followed by horror at the devastation that it wrought, then an attempt to harness it for peaceful purposes, and finally a cold war in which two super-powers hold weapons of mutually assured destruction. But more subtly, England's domination of France at the end of the book, and France's resentment, could be seen as analogous to US domination of Europe after WWII.

A wonderful science fiction story, but also a lesson on the dangers of the misuse of power, whether it be the destructive power of weaponry or the political forces of imperialism.

I really enjoyed this book! Like all of Baxter's work it just seems to have a heck of a lot more meat on its bones than a lot of what I read. Good speculative SUBSTANCE, if you know what I mean. Yes, I had to pick up an encyclopedia and read a few paragraphs on the Crimean War. Took all of two minutes and added exponentially to the depth of the reading experience. Good book, good ideas and a whopper of a finale!

Anti-Ice is an "alternate universe" tale that takes place in 19th century. An asteroid from an unknown part ofthe galaxy assumes an orbit around the Earth, forming a new moon. Fragments fall to earth in the region of the South Pole and are discovered by British explorers. These asteroid fragments are composed of a previously unknown material dubbed, anti-ice, which releases energy on the scale of a nuclear explosion when heated. The British industrial revolution is propelled to new heights by this discovery. Naturally, one of the first discoveries is the utility of this energy source in warfare. A struggle develops between industrialists who want to monopolize the energy potential of the substance, idealists who see it as a chance for world peace by eliminating energy (oil, etc.) as a driving force in geopolitical economics, and other military powers who see the British monopoly of this substance as a military threat.

Many of the themes of Anti-Ice reflect issues of the nuclear age. The underlying conflicts parallel those that developed during the cold war. As a novel, Anti-Ice is mediocre, however. The style is stilted, reminescent of H.G. Wells. Mr. Baxter used this style to much greater effect in his novel, The Timeships, which was a "sequel" to Wells' The Time Machine. There is a flatness to the plot and to the characters which makes the book tedious.

In addition, Mr. Baxter has 20th century exploits performed with 19th century technology (with the exception of the anti-ice energy source). A space voyage takes place, for instance, in a craft that would have lacked air-tight seals (using 19th century technology).

Some SF novels are rip-roaring adventures. This is one is not. Some are full of mystery and intrigue. This one is not. Some have an underlying philosophical message. This one does not. So that doesn't leave much.

Fans of steam-punk and Victorian adventures will love ANTI-ICE by Stephen Baxter. In this book, Baxter flawlessly combines many great SF themes. Victorian exploration, super science, alternate history, and the personal accounts of a minor functionary made this a delight for me to read.

The industrial revolution has come a little early and in an unexpected form. An Antarctic expedition finds a substance called anti-ice. So dubbed because if it starts to warm up, it releases incredible amounts of energy. Thus evolves a British empire like you have never seen. Imagine all the great creations of Verne being controlled by the British and available to the common man. Anti-ice becomes the new fuel of the empire. Its discoverer continually finds new ways to use its power. One such method was to power a flying rocket that he travels the world in. But after some sabotage, he finds himself in space and headed for the moon.

Besides fueling the empire, anti-ice can also be a terrible weapon. And wouldn't you know it, Bismarck is on the march and the French are out to stop him. Look out! If you like alternate history of the great voyages of Verne, this is a book for you.

Not a bad story all round, though it sould be taken with a grain of salt. It is meant as a humorous light-hearted little tale, and as long as you read it in that vein, you won't be disappointed. Personally I found the "super" industrial revolution to be a very intriguing idea, and I really liked that Baxter wasn't afraid to depict man's more bestial side, in turning this "miracle" of Anti-Ice to violent ends.

Some of the below people who read this and didn't like it obviously didn't read it with tongue in cheek. It's hard to believe Baxter meant this as a serious work of hard sci-fi (which it isn't) - it's more like a whimsical look at what might happen if an amazing technological substance had been discovered 100 years ago. The trip to the moon in a ship that looks like an 1890's passenger train (inside and out) demonstrates this point.

And anyone who thinks this was supposed to be a serious read when they discover what was is the moon must totally miss the whole point of the book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you like Stephen Baxter but want to explore his lighter side, read this.

It is hard to improve upon the review by Kenneth R. Bridges. I will add that it is not until 100 pages into the book that anything happens: an act of sabotage. I do like Stephen Baxter. I loved "Manifold Time" and liked "Manifold Space." But "Anti-Ice" is maddeningly slow. Manifold: Time has one of the most imaginative characters ever created in science fiction: Sheena 5, the intelligent squid. Baxter is talented, but this book is a dud.

In the year 1720, a comet enters Earth orbit and remains there as the "Little Moon". However, a chunk of the comet ends up in the Antarctic where it is found by Ross the polar explorer. It's no ordinary chunk of cometary ice, it's anti-ice. Rather like anti-matter, it reacts explosively with ordinary matter - but only above a certain temperature threshhold. Using its condensed power, the British Empire embarks on an age of vast technological innovation and world dominance.

Politically, though, things don't immediately change. British political history certainly deviates from our experience with many 19th century reforms not undertaken and Manchester as the capital and not London. But Continental politics only begin to change after England uses an anti-ice weapon to end the siege of Sebastopol in the Crimean War.

It is at Sebastopol the novel begins, its destruction recounted by the narrator's brother. Then we jump to 1870, and the eve of the Franco-Prussian war. Our hero, self-described as a man of shallow character and shallow intellect, makes the acquaintance of Josiah Traveller, the engineering genius who has developed most of the anti-ice technologies. He also develops an infatuation for Francois, a French woman who is not only politically ardent but also unusually knowledgeable about anti-ice engineering.

The novel echoes Verne and Wells and nowhere more deliberately than a voyage to the moon. Five men -- the narrator, Traveller, his butler, an English journalist, and a saboteur - inhabit a small spaceship. But the narrator discovers more than the depth of Traveller's ingenuity and life on the moon. He undergoes a political awakening about the new order being shaped back on Earth and the true nature of his love Francois.

This is a fun work of steampunk, a nice homage to Verne and Wells. As long as you don't mind your alternate histories built on more outre premises, Baxter presents an interesting divergence of European history. And, though it's relatively brief at the end, he makes a serious point about the limitations of even well-intentioned imperialism.

This is the novel Jules Verne might have written, if he'd suspected the possibility of nuclear energy, and been able to write interesting, likeable characters.

Set in the 19th century, the novel concerns the effects of the discovery of "Anti-Ice", a substance which is inert when frozen, but when heated releases colossal energies. It can be used as an energy source for fantastic Vernian vessels, such as luxury liners, trains and spaceships, or as a city-destroying explosive.

An adventure story, "Anti-Ice" follows the fortunes of young Ned Vicars of the foreign office, who meets explorer/inventor Josiah Traveller and is whisked off into fantastic and horrible adventures and romance.

The novel also features some typically Vernian descriptions and explanations of a variety of craft and devices which employ anti-Ice.

This book was just plain stupid. I am an avid reader of sci-fi and I found this book, Anti-Ice, to be dry, and bland.