<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><B>The year is 1899 and the world is coming to an end. An epic in four movements, this is the third book in Robert Rankin's highly acclaimed meta-Victorian series, after <I>Japanese Devil Fish Girl </I>and <I>The Mechanical Messiah</I></B></P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal> </P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal>Comparable to Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams, the father of far-fetched fiction has pulled out all of the stops with this riotous tale of wicked women, a dangerous detective, and Darwin, the educated ape. Lord Brentford has a dream: to create a Grand Exposition that will showcase the wonders of the worlds and encourage peace between the inhabited planets of Venus, Jupiter, and Earth. Ernest Rutherford has a dream: to construct a time ship, powered by the large hadron collider he has built beneath the streets of London. Cameron Bell is England's greatest detective and he, too, has a dream: to solve the crime of the century before it takes place, without blowing up any more of London's landmarks. Darwin is a monkey butler and even he has a dream: to end man's inhumanity to monkey and bring a little joy into the world. Lavinia Dharkstorrm has a dream of her own, although hers is more of a nightmare: to erase man and monkey alike from the face of the Earth and to hasten in the End of Days. Then there is the crime-fighting superlady, all those chickens from the past, and the unwelcome arrival of the Antichrist. Things are looking rather grim on planet Earth.