Book excerpt: THE DARK HEART OF THE EMPIRE – EXPOSED! In his ongoing adventures in the services of Queen and Empire, Ulysses Quicksilver – hero and dandy – begins to uncover the corruption and decay in his beloved Britannia. This worthy tome collects three tales of desperation: EVOLUTION EXPECTS: After nearly 160 years as the supreme power on the planet, the British Empire has become stagnant and corrupt. The new Prime Minister, Devlin Valentine, promises change, but some lack the patience for politics. With a dangerous vigilante stalking the streets, a monster on the loose in the East End and rival gangs fighting for control, there may be nothing Ulysses – trapped in the notorious Bedlam Hospital – can do to prevent a catastrophic metamorphosis! BLOOD ROYAL: With the city, and the Empire, reeling from the transformations of a month before, a twisted new religion rises from the devastation. In the meantime, in Europe, the spectre of war rears its ugly head; and rumours hint at monsters, things of myth, on both sides. Ulysses Quicksilver, fighting for peace and for reason – for civilisation itself – follows a path that leads him from the shattered streets of London to the icy wastes at the heart of a secretive, bloody empire. DARK SIDE: Searching for his brother Barty, Ulysses heads to the British Lunar colonies. The trail leads him and his faithful butler into the path of unsolved murders, battling robots, shady millionaires and uncanny inventions. Stalled when he ends up on the wrong side of Lunar law and hunted by a mysterious eyepatch-wearing stranger, the dandy adventurer will uncover, in a secret base on the dark side of the moon, truths that will challenge everything he knew about Britannia...