Before I start into my review of 'On Her Majesty's Behalf', the sequel to 'By the Blood of Heroes', which I covered last month, I should correct a misapprehension of mine. I thought that this was a duology, but it isn't. It might function as one right now, because there are only two books and, as they were published in 2012 and 2014, it doesn't seem likely that a third will come along any time soon to join them. However, while the central thrust of the story is wrapped up within these pages, the larger one is not and I am now aching for that third book that will probably never happen.

It's very much a continuation from the first book, starting within two weeks of its horrific ending, in which two of Manfred von Richtofen's intended three airships submerged New York and London in a new form of corpse gas that turns its victims into shredders, vicious zombies even if they don't appear to die first. The third had been intended for Paris but Capt. Michael 'Madman' Burke and his men destroyed it in the first book before it could take off. That got him a promotion to Major but nothing else. He's still right in the heart of the action.

The longer I read into 'On Her Majesty's Behalf', the more I realised that Nassise had shifted his approach somewhat from the first book. My first realisation was that it's much more deliberately focused, concentrating on one core story rather than two that eventually merge into one. This is a book about Burke and the missions on which he's sent. It isn't alternated with one that revolves around his half-brother this time. My second realisation deepened that because it's that there's very little about the Germans this time, nothing at all until Chapter 10 almost eighty pages in.

While that makes for a simpler story, it also gives Nassise an opportunity to immerse himself in it and the results are far more grounded. Sure, Burke is still sent into Southend-on-Sea to obtain a shredder so that the boffins back at HQ in Calais can figure out what makes it tick. Sure, he's still wielding a sophisticated clockwork arm and is now equipped with a gloriously steampunk gun that shoots electric bolts. These are clearly fantastic elements, but the mission plays out like it would in any regular war story, merely with a notably transformed enemy.

They capture their shredder but they also unexpectedly retrieve a British soldier who's been sent out of London with a pivotal message. King George and Queen Mary are alive and barricaded in Buckingham Palace. After an official large scale assault fails miserably, as Burke rudely predicts in a glorious meeting, naturally he's tasked with the small scale mission to get in, get the royals and get out. Most of his Marauders are already there with him, but he adds a couple more to replace those lost in the first book, along with Sgt. Drummond of the Black Watch, the Tommy he got out of Southend-on-Sea.

The back cover blurb stops at this point, so I should be careful how I proceed to avoid spoilers, but I have to mention that the most prominent royal in the story is Crown Princess Veronica, who Burke and his Marauders rescue from Bedlam. No, she wasn't a patient secreted there with knowledge of her identity suppressed; she was there on an official visit when the corpse gas descended, and was therefore trapped there. She's a go-getter of a royal, who's more than able to kick ass on her own and she and her companion, Capt. Samuel Morrison of the King's Guard, almost got out with no assistance, driven back only by overwhelming numbers of shredders.

Back to those realisations. Even when we do get a scene on the German side, it's a short one. The larger story does need them to show up occasionally to get a pivotal point across, but that's all it needs, so we stay with Burke and Veronica and their companions almost throughout. There's one brief scene for von Richtofen to assassinate the Kaiser and assume his position, another to let us know that Vizefeldwebel Karl Jaeger of the Geheime Volks, commander of von Richtofen's quests into London, is someone we've already met: he's a zombie transformation of Burke's trusty Staff Sergeant Charlie Moore, lost in action late in the first book. There's also a scene introducing the Chinese to the war, but that has no bearing on this story, only the broader one we'd encounter in book three and onwards.

Another realisation is that the tone has shifted. This is still unmistakably pulp adventure, set in a steampunk zombie alternate history World War I. However, even given those fantastic genres, it's much more grounded and more realistic. The more outrageous elements of the first book remain canon but aren't explored here. Also, the horror element is reduced too. It's still there, because it has to be in a book about zombies, but it's never the point, as it so obviously was in the scenes set in Stalag 113 in the first book. It's just background texture now.

And, without trying to venture into spoiler territory, it's purer pulp adventure, more conscious of cliffhangers than ever before and happier to venture into a mystical element. The comparison I'd used for the first book was to Cherie Priest's 'Clockwork Century' books, especially 'Dreadnought', which is a steampunk zombie novel set in a different war. There were notable differences, but the similarities were clear too. Here, on the other hand, the obvious comparison is to Indiana Jones, albeit again during a different war.

There are no Nazis here, Hitler presumably still a corporal somewhere on the western front, and given that the war is extended, maybe he's been shot and resurrected as a shambler. That's not a detail Nassise visits here, but we're rarely outside of London in this story. There aren't even many Germans, because the zombies that Burke's party faces tend to be Londoners now converted into shredders during the corpse gas bombing of the city. However, the mystical element is there, the items I won't name secreted beneath the British Museum in a glorious vault. Ironically, they don't get to be used here, because I'm pretty sure they're intended for a later book in the series.

Nassise wrote these two 'Great Undead War' books which were written for HarperVoyager around the same time that Tor were publishing his 'Jeremiah Hunt' trilogy, during a gap in his primary work, the 'Templar Chronicles' series. He was also chipping away at the 'Rogue Angel' series by multiple hands, all writing as Alex Archer. Of those, I've only read the 'Jeremiah Hunt' books, and, while I liked those and their genre-hopping nature a great deal, I have to say that I prefer these and this one especially.

It simply flows the way pulp fiction is supposed to flow. It runs past three hundred pages but I was able to read it in three sessions over two days and pretty much found that I had to. It's a difficult book to put down, because every time I got to the end of a chapter, another cliffhanger prompted me to keep reading. I knew a lot of the locations, from the pier at Southend-on-Sea to the British Museum, so enjoyed this fantastic romp through them. I even dug the romantic angle, which isn't pursued here, as obvious as it is, but would likely play a part in the third book.

And everything comes back to that third book. I remember reading 'By the Blood of Heroes' after it came out and not having this sequel to dive into because Nassise hadn't written it yet. Now I've finally got hold of a copy—thanks for that, Joe—and dived in, I want to keep reading through the rest of the story, whether it was intended to be a trilogy or a series. And I can't, because there is no third book. Maybe HarperVoyager didn't see the sales they wanted and so passed on the third book. Maybe his 'Templar Chronicles' were where the money was. Maybe he just hasn't found time to work on it yet, given how busy and prolific a writer he is. Inquiring minds want to know. ~~ Hal C F Astell

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