The Rise of the Automated Aristocrats

A
LSO BY
M
ARK
H
ODDER

The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack

The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man

Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon

The Secret of Abdu El Yezdi

The Return of the Discontinued Man

A Red Sun Also Rises

Published 2015 by Pyr®, an imprint of Prometheus Books

The Rise of the Automated Aristocrats
. Copyright © 2015 by Mark Hodder. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, digital, electronic, mechanical, photocopy­ing, recording, or otherwise, or conveyed via the Internet or a website without prior written permission of the publisher, ex­cept in the case of brief quotations em­bodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. Characters, organizations, products, locales, and events portrayed in this novel either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

Cover image © Jon Sullivan
Cover design by Jacqueline Nasso Cooke

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The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

Hodder, Mark, 1962-

The rise of the automated aristocrats : a Burton & Swinburne adventure / by Mark Hodder.

pages ; cm

ISBN 978-1-63388-052-8 (pbk.) — ISBN 978-1-63388-053-5 (e-book)

1. Burton, Richard Francis, Sir, 1821-1890—Fiction. 2. Swinburne, Algernon Charles, 1837-1909—Fiction. 3. Time travel—Fiction. 4. London (England)—Social conditions—19th century—Fiction. 5. Steampunk fiction. I. Title.

PR6108.O28R57 2015
823'.92—dc23

2015004951

Printed in the United States of America

This one is for my brother

M
IKE
S
HANNON

CONTENTS

AUTHOR'S NOTE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

As has been the case with the previous Burton and Swinburne novels, this is a tale of an alternate reality in which famous historical characters are featured. Though their names are recognisable and their biographies have been consulted for information about their personalities, beliefs, and politics, they are not portrayed in a manner that should be regarded as reflective of the real people. The members of my cast are approximations whose motives and actions relate only to the events of the fictional world I have created. Moreover, there are occurrences in this novel that are heavily exaggerated accounts of real happenings. As always, I have sought redemption for my audacious hijacking of history and its personages by including an appendix in which information concerning the real people and events can be found. Hopefully, this will encourage my readers to explore the remarkable truths that have inspired my tall tales.

My thanks, as ever, to my partner, Yolanda, who has once again endured me being shackled to a keyboard for weeks on end—a show of patience made all the more remarkable considering that this novel was begun at the same time our twins, Iris and Luca, were born.

Thanks, too, to Rene Sears of Pyr and Michael Rowley of Del Rey (UK), who put up with my excuses (“The babies were sick on the manuscript. I'll retype it and send it next week. No,
really
! Yes, I
do
use a typewriter! What's so weird about that?”)

A NEW PAST