In the mid-1870s, a violent apply of comets hits Globe, decimating cities, erasing shorelines, and changing the world’s climate forever. And as Earth’s temperatures dropped, so was civilization freezing in time. Rather than advancing technologically, mankind needed to piece itself back again together .

In the twenty-first century, motorboats still run on steam, messages arrive by telegraph, and the British Empire, using its capital right now in Delhi, controls much of the world. The various other major world innovator may be the Czar of All the Russias. Everyone predicts an eventual, deadly showdown. But no-one can predict the part that one man, Captain Athelstane Ruler, reluctant spy and hero, will perform . . .