The Court of the Air
One of the defining novels of the 2000s steampunk revival: a HarperCollins Voyager lead title sold into a dozen-plus languages, launching the six-volume Jackelian sequence and establishing gaslamp fantasy's commercial viability.
Book Entry · Fantasy
The Kingdom Beyond the Waves
by Stephen Hunt · 2008 · The Jackelian Series, book 2
What is The Kingdom Beyond the Waves about?
Professor Amelia Harsh, disgraced archaeologist with a pugilist's instincts, has spent her career being laughed at over Camlantis — the legendary city of pacifist utopians said to have risen into the sky rather than fight. Offered proof and funding by the man who ruined her, she leads an expedition by submarine up the jungle-choked Shedarkshe with a crew of convict labour and the slave-freed steamman Ironflanks, pursued by forces for whom a working utopia is the most dangerous artefact of all. Hunt's second Jackelian novel is his homage to the lost-world adventure — Haggard plumbing with Jackelian politics — and for many readers the series' high-water mark.
Why it matters
The Jackelian sequence's consensus favourite: the volume that proved the world could support standalone adventures in any genre key, with Amelia Harsh as Hunt's most quoted heroine.
Where does it sit in the series?
The Kingdom of Jackals: pneumatic towers, steammen knights, worldsinger sorcery and revolution in the airship lanes — Hunt's gaslamp sequence at the front of the steampunk revival.
In the Guide from The Jackelian Series:
- The Court of the Air (2007)
- The Kingdom Beyond the Waves (2008)
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