The Daedalus Incident, by Michael Martinez

The Daedalus Incident, by Michael Martinez is a strange  mixture of steampunk and, uh, standard science fiction.1 A series of quakes on tectonically-dead Mars has led a number of scientists to risk their lives to understand what is really going on. “The only clues they have stem from the emissions of a mysterious blue radiation, and a 300-year-old journal that is writing itself.”–from Amazon’s site.  As a science geek I have to say I’m pleasantly surprised to find Cherenkov radiation featured as a clue.

Well, the steampunk part is that a parallel universe is bumping up against ours produces Cherenkov radiation..you can see where that could lead.  In the parallel universe, alchemy is used to float wooden ships through the Void between worlds (all inhabited) in a Victorian era that seems to have lasted well into the 21st century.  This puts me in mind of an hilarious game that I never purchased for myself in 1989 when I damned sure should have, Space:1889. And, I swear the whole plot setup in Daedalus Incident is predicated on this ridiculous game, substituting alchemy for Edison’s aether propeller.

Well, there is action and romance in both universes, with villains and heroes (and damsels who take up fencing), loss and redemption—standard action/adventure stuff, the bubblegum of the mind.

Link goes to Amazon, but this is at sfpl.org as well as are the follow-on novels (I think there are four right now).

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1 Is there such a thing?