Title: Anno Frankenstein
Author: Jonathan Green
Date of First Publication: 2011
Place of Publication: Abaddon Books
Type: Novel
Characters: The Creature
Themes: ANDROID; RACE/POLITICS; MAD SCIENTIST/MONSTER; RETRO SF
Critical Summary: Anno Frankenstein is a steampunk style, supernatural alternate history novel that is part of the Pax Britannia series, which takes place in a timeline where, in the heat of World War II, Great Britain (“Magna Britannia”) defeated Nazi Germany without enlisting the help of the United States. This novel follows two British agents, Hercules Quicksilver and Ulysses Quicksilver, in their endeavor to stop Daniel Dashwood, a villain from the future who hopes to give Adolf HItler a photonic accelerator to overpower Magna Britannia and rewrite history to prevent it from ever becoming the technologically advanced, political superpower that it did. Hercules Quicksilver is Ulysses’ father, and Ulysses himself has come from future to help him defeat Dashwood, though Hercules does not know this. The war is drastically different, as beyond the photonic accelerator which uses solar energy to vaporize organic matter and is, in itself, a weapon of mass destruction, the German forces have also managed to use reanimated, cybernetic soldiers as a result of an experiment called Project Prometheus. These monsters are completely, recklessly obedient to the Nazis, because after their reanimation, they are put into “Enigma” machines so that they can have false memories planted into them; furthermore, they can be rebuilt and reanimated again and again following their deaths, making them far more useful than their human counterparts. They are mass-produced in Castle Frankenstein, in a division of the Nazi forces called the Frankenstein Corps.
The novel contains characters that are references to other works of literature. For example, Dr. Jekyll, a reference to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, is a character introduced early in the novel as a scientist working for Britannia who later defects to Germany, and Frankenstein’s monster, having named himself Adam, appears as a character later on who joins Ulysses Quicksilver in his effort to make a final push against the Nazis, kill Daniel Dashwood, and destroy Castle Frankenstein. These characters, while complicating the timeline that the story takes place in, serve as an homage to the works said they come from and pay tribute to the science fiction genre as a whole. In fact, the Castle Frankenstein where the Nazi cybernetic soldiers are created is revealed by Adam to be the very same castle that he was created in by Victor Frankenstein, over a century prior. Adam proves instrumental in the novel, as he leads the charge along with Hercules and Ulysses against Castle Frankenstein; his superhuman capabilities and near immortality make him extremely lethal. However, Ulysses and the others understand that the monster cannot be trusted, as he intends to take the monsters from Castle Frankenstein and “liberate” them, and they destroy the Castle while Adam and the other reanimated soldiers remain within. They hunt down Daniel Dashwood from there, after enlisting the help of Dr. Jekyll, now “dead” and Mr. Hyde having taken his place, to locate him. Ulysses manages to kill Dashwood and return to the future, and in the final moments of the novel, Adam is revealed to have survived the destruction of Castle Frankenstein, and intends to seek vengeance.
Anno Frankenstein is heavily inspired by Frankenstein and in fact, acts as a “sequel” in how it deals with Adam as a character and continuing his story. The Creature itself is thus directly present in the novel, but the soldiers are also creatures and Adam considers them kin, which is why he intends to free them. The scientists creating creatures take on the role of Victor Frankenstein in this work. Beyond that, the reanimating corpses and creating “new life” using technology is why I chose the themes of Androids and Mad Scientists and Frankenstein Monsters. Race and politics are involved since it takes place in the middle of World War II, when Nazi Germany is stronger than ever before and their desire for Aryan supremacy is their primary motivation in the war. Since it is a steampunk novel and it combines elements of old technology with newer, futuristic elements, it can also be considered Retro Science Fiction.
Administrative Notes: Jerad Carson, CSUF; Dr. David Sandner, CSUF (editing)