It’s huge! It’s huger than huge! It’s the juggernaut Worldshaker, a mobile city as big as a mountain. Ruled by Queen Victoria the Second and commanded by Sir Mormus Porpentine, it moves on rollers over land and across sea.

Queen Victoria the Second you ask? Yes, history has followed an alternative track ever since Napoleon actually dug his planned tunnel under the Channel and invaded England in 1804. A century and a half later, after revolution and repression, after the Fifty Years War, after ruthless steam-age industrialisation, Europe has become a wasteland. Now the juggernauts of the great powers roam the face of the globe in a very different Age of Imperialism.

If you like steampunk, this is the steampunkiest! If you like Victoriana, this is Charles Dickens on steroids! Meet Sephaltina Turbot, Bartrim Gibber, Ebnolia Porpentine, Sir Wisley Squellingham and a whole gallery of extraordinary characters.

Richard says, “I seem to have got the timing exactly right on this one. Steampunk is definitely the happening thing in fantasy fiction. In America, it’s more than fiction, it’s a whole way of life.”

Col is the grandson and nominated heir of the Supreme Commander. He’ll become the most powerful person on the juggernaut when he’s completed his schooling and training. But one night, a girl Filthy from the engine rooms down Below tries to hide in his bedroom. The Filthies are dirty and ragged, never spoken about in polite society—but this one is on the loose and running free.  ‘Don’t let ‘em take me,’ she pleads.

Every rational thought in Col’s head tells him to call the officers and hand her over. Yet there’s something about her …

With a cover by Oscar-nominated film director Anthony Lucas, Worldshaker is a fantasy for Young Adult readers that will appeal equally to adults. It’s already been sold to a major US publisher for a large advance (“More than all the advances for my previous fourteen novels added together,” says Richard.)

The Australian edition comes out from Allen & Unwin in May—365 pages for $17.99. It's already been sold to the U.S., even before publication in Australia. Simon & Schuster will be bringing it out there, probably early next year.