From Here to Timbuktu by Milton J. Davis

I enjoyed the adventure from start to finish. The treasure hunt is of a sort I've never read about before, which gave it a fresh, exciting feel. The characters are engageable, interestingly flawed, impressively courageous and genuinely interesting. So naturally, I eagerly dove into this 'steamfunk' story. I love a good treasure romp - and I love steampunk - and I love high adventure in far off exotic lands. Side note: I read the entire book aloud to my family a chapter or two at a time every night and they also enjoyed the story. I enjoyed it immensely and I eagerly await Milton and his fellow Steamfunk cohorts to release more stories like this. From this incredible backdrop, emerges a great adventure story that is sometimes reminiscent of a great summer buddy action movie and at other times a humorous homage to the classic Crosby/Hope 'Road to.' movies of the 1940s. A world where the Great Game continues, in war and subterfuge. It's a world of airships, steam cars and automatons.

Geographically, it's territory is carved out of a huge portion of what we would call the united states. Freedonia is, in short, a free nation of former slaves and their descendants. My first encounter with Milton's Freedonia universe was from last year's cool 'Steamfunk' anthology. The first fruits of Steamfunk is here and and it's great. TL DR version: Great book, buy a copy and read it. This tale of speculative fiction (steamfunk) is, I believe, the first in a series and what a series it will be if all the stories are as good as this one. Steam powered engines provide the means by which citizens travel the cities and armoured devices of war are the order of the day on the battlefield. Airships and other incredible machines fill the skies. 'From Here to Timbuktu' is set in the year 1870, but a very different world to the one we might be familiar with from history books! The North American continent hosts the Black states of Freedonia and New Haiti, both countries having gained their freedom from the slave autocracies run by the United States of America and France respectively. Famara, a Malian agent and Zeke, a bounty hunter from the newly formed country of Freedonia team up to thwart their designs. When advanced ancient technology is unearthed in the fabled city of Timbuktu in Mali, the Prussians who lead a newly established Germany will stop at nothing to get their hands on it. What can I say, Milton Davis continues to write some masterful tales of fantasy and adventure, which are full of fascinating characters.

From Here to Timbuktu by Milton J. Davis