The Frost Fair

England, 1739.London is the second city of the Habsburg dominion. Clockwork airships ply the skies, holding together an Empire that sprawls from North Africa to the Low Countries, across swathes of the German lands to the New World. While scientific discovery props up the Empire, superstition still dominates and not everyone is happy to see these technological wonders in the sky.When dark forces destroy the 'Majestic Maria' skyship on her maiden voyage over London, its designer - Professor Benedict Hawthorn - is plunged into a dangerous, shadowy world. Condemned by the Inquisition, harried on all sides and stalked by an assassin, Benedict is not without resources and allies. The enigmatic spymaster Arthur Melbury, Captain Heneage Grimley, and the unconventional Agueda Santiago will risk everything to clear his name and unmask the true perpetrators.What they learn will lead them deep into the mystery of the Northumberland Codex.This is the first book in an exciting new baroque punk series. Where steampunk imagines a retrofuturistic world where technology and aesthetics are influenced by the Victorian period, baroque punk presents a world where technology has advanced more rapidly and humanity has taken to the skies by the early eighteenth century. It is a very different world with a different history to our own. It is the world of the Northumberland Codex.