Under Pressure

As an Oneironaut and agent of the Fellowship, January Purcell is used to danger and thinking on her feet, having faced threats up and down the timeline and in various realities; all part of the Great and Long Game. Nothing, however, could have prepared her for the extremes demanded by this latest mission, which sees her accompany Dr Robert Jones and his colleagues on a journey from the heart of Victorian London to Iceland, following in the footsteps of Professor Lidenbrock and the alchemist (and, it turns out, fellow Oneironaut) Arne Saknussemm. Denied the support of her colleagues at London's Oneiros Club due to her gender, January must rely on her own resources as she descends into the extinct volcano Snæfellsjökull, little imagining what she will encounter there, little realising that this is all merely a prelude to a long-planned invasion from Earth's near neighbour, Mars... "Here's such a rich confection of our favourite persons and places, from Jules Verne's volcano in Iceland and the subterranean Vril race to Wells's Martian invaders and even scheming Moriarty-along with revelations about reality and about more-than-reality (such as The House, and The Existing). Need I mention that there are also shared lucid dreams? No spoilers could spoil the frantic fun of this sprightly riff. It's stimulating, tremendous stuff." - Ian Watson, author of the Screen Story for Steven Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence