The Memsahib picked up the second Pax Britannia penny dreadful for me which I've sat down and read after my evening constitutional. I must say that despite a fine tawney port and spiffing cheese board I did not enjoy this yarn as much as the first.
Entitled El Sombra and written by some chap called Al Ewing, it is the story of some Mexican chappie who wears a mask and battles some baddies called Nazis (a kind of even nastier than normal Prussians with steam weapons) in Mexico. The Nazis are so bad that obviously any gentlemen would defeat them, even one who is not British. Despite having gargantuan steam conveyances, automatons, flying baddies and lots of derring-do it was not as good as the previous volume Unnatural History but passed an evening away.
The good news though was the inclusion of a jolly exciting short story at the end of the penny dreadful called Fruiting Bodies written by wordsmith Jonathan Green. This sees the return of our hero Ulysses Quicksilver (hurrah!) in a mystery set at Kew Gardens that threatens the Empire. I won't spoil it for any gentlemen planning to read it but suffice to say I won't be entering the arboretum without the twelve bore in a hurry!
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