This is third in a trilogy about a smoking, swearing
steampunk monkey in an effort to save the planet. Or so I
gathered. As I had not read the previous ones, I just had
to dive in and see what happens. Ack-Ack Macaque is a
Spitfire pilot (those were light aircraft made mainly of
wood and canvas, flown during the Second World War). In
MACAQUE ATTACK we see what happens when a monkey gets
really angry.
In this alternate world, Great Britain is ruling France,
Ireland and Norway. Occasional uprisings occur and during
the latest one, Captain Victoria Valois of a skyliner and
the pilot Ack-Ack helped to defeat a hive mind and
vanished, seemingly transported to another dimension by
the
hive mind's strange equipment. Victoria Valois starts the
action after two years of travelling with the monkey,
freeing enslaved monkeys in alternate dimensions. We see
her in Paris, where her alter ego has just been murdered
by
an old enemy; Victoria can't let him kill her too.
In various worlds, humans have made scientific advances
and
improved the sentience of monkey and ape species. A
sinister figure named Nguyen who created Ack-Ack has also
made cyborg killers, such as the man in Paris. In theory
he
could be making a cyborg army, so Victoria and her friends
need to head next... wherever his laboratory is. Once they
have a lead, they launch their giant airship.
With copious strong language and killing, this isn't a
story for youngsters, but for those adults who like the
ridiculous and the far-out. Anyone who enjoyed the Planet
Of The Apes films will have no trouble visualising the
gorillas and howler monkeys. There is angst to balance the
antics; Victoria's husband Paul has been killed, but she
keeps his personality in cyberstorage so she can talk to
him via computer simulation. He's been dead three years,
and she is wondering if it's time to let the man go. Add
rumours of a Mars space launch, the view from Gibraltar or
the top of the Empire State Building, and there's plenty
to
occupy fans of the monkey.
MACAQUE ATTACK by Gareth L
Powell will be best enjoyed by those who've read the
earlier books, but steampunk readers can jump in and have
fun.
INFINITE MONKEYS He’s saved the world twice. Now the dangerous but charismatic Ack-Ack Macaque finds himself leading a dimension-hopping band of angry monkeys, facing an invading horde of implacable killer androids, and confronting the one challenge for which he was never prepared: impending fatherhood! Meanwhile, former journalist Victoria Valois finds herself facing old enemies as she fights to save the electronic ghost of her dead husband, and Merovech, King of the United Kingdoms of Great Britain and France, receives a troubling message from the dead sands of Mars...
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