‘Evolution Expects’ – Jonathan Green (Abaddon)

For me, reading can sometimes be as much about the gap in between books as it is about reading the books themselves. You know what I mean, either choosing what to read next (sometimes trickier than you would think...) or that moment when you finish a book and realise that it will be anything up to a couple of years before the story will start again. It restores my faith in humanity (just a little bit) that in a world where everything is instantaneous there are people who are still prepared to wait for authors to release instalments in their favourite series.

I’m guilty of waiting for all the usual suspects to release books according to whatever schedule they keep. I’ve also got my own personal favourites where I finish up their latest offering and immediately start thinking about what the next book might hold. Brian Keene is one such favourite and Jonathan Green is another. I’ve been enjoying Green’s ‘Pax Britannia’ books (to varying degrees) for almost as long as I’ve been writing this blog. They may be lightweight pulp but they’re never anything less than damn good fun to read. The cover for ‘Evolution Expects’ has intrigued me for a while now and I finally got the chance to find out what it was all about...

When an empire has reigned supreme for over one hundred and fifty years, sometimes a breath of fresh air is needed to shake things up and maintain the forward momentum. This is particularly apt in Prime Minister Devlin Valentine’s case as his new ‘Jupiter Station’ weather machine is set to blow away the smog that covers the corrupt heart of the British Empire. Other parties have plans for the Jupiter Station, however, and these plans will not come to light until it is far too late. And what is the connection between these shadowy plans, a monster from Jewish myth that stalks the streets of Limehouse and the masked vigilante that is sworn to stop it? Only a fine mind like Ulysses Quicksilver stands any chance of unlocking the mystery and dragging London back from the brink of catastrophe...

As I said earlier, I never have anything less than a great time reading the adventures of Ulysses Quicksilver and this was still very much the case in ‘Evolution Expects’. You may have walked these foggy, dank streets of London Town (and met the villainous characters plying their trade there, the only thing that Ulysses’ foe is missing is a moustache to twirl) before, in other books or films, but the energy in the writing powers things along at such a pace that you won’t care, I didn’t.
Characters are larger than life; they need to be when facing perils such as Quicksilver must face here. Confrontations with evil leap off the page in a shower of spectacle and grip the reader’s attention; I could feel myself tensing up at all the appropriate moments (I hate mechanical spiders!) in anticipation of what was going to happen next. If a writer can get me to do this then he’s obviously doing something right! All credit to Green for completely involving me with what was happening on the page. A heady combination of mystery and action set against a gloomy and forbidding backdrop (along with just enough Batman references to make me chuckle, hopefully we’ll be seeing more of Spring Heeled Jack!)...

But...

As much as I enjoyed the book I was left with the feeling that Green wanted it to do a number of things that were at odds with each other and with the fact that it was a very short read. The accompanying short story, ‘Conqueror Worm’, was very good but I was left wishing that it had been left out in favour of giving the main story more of a sense of direction. ‘Evolution Expects’ is very much a ‘transitional novel’ where events are clearly designed to be ‘set up pieces’ for the next few books to work from. The thing is though; there isn’t enough room for the reader to get a sense of where things might proceed. I say ‘might’ because no-one wants the story laid on a plate for them but it would be good to have ideas and theories to chew over. An old enemy returns but we don’t really know why other than that he is there to be ‘The Evil Villain’. Another ‘Evil Villain’ lurks in the background but there isn’t enough time for us to really get a sense of what he’s about. It’s all stuff that we’ll find out in time but I didn’t feel that they were handled very well here...

Green also tries to use ‘Evolution Expects’ as a vehicle for new readers to jump on board with plenty of nods to past events. The problem is that the story isn’t large enough to accommodate these and get on with the plot at the same time. I was also left thinking that although a period of transition is a great time to take stock of past events, there wasn’t enough room here to do it effectively. Maybe Green should have stuck to one approach or the other...

I had a great time with ‘Evolution Expects’ but was left with the feeling that it could have been a lot more if it had been given room to breathe a little more. I’m looking forward to ‘Blood Royal’ (the next book) all the same and hope that this won’t be an issue by then...

Eight out of Ten