When I picked up A Scientific Romance by Ronald Wright, I thought I was going to read a steampunk novel. However, what I got included a lot more. In many ways it was like The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier (which I wrote about here) meets V for Vendetta (plus more).
There were so many themes and concepts that it seems silly to list them all, but here goes (in varying levels and not in order of importance):
Civilization, Archeology, Pandemic, Imperialism, Globalization, Time Travel, Industrial Revolution, Morality, Mad Cow Disease, Friendship, Steampunk, Human Society, Fossil Fuels, Monarchy, Victorian Undergarments, Neolithic Societies, Vegetarians, Rome, Evolution, Love, Academia, History, Environmentalism, Shakespeare, Computers, Nature, Science, Religion, Cities, Anarchy, Racism, Betrayal, Mortality, Crime, Plumbing, Genocide and Culture
Things not in this book: the Internet, Feminism and Space Aliens
Anyway, much of the action takes place on a walk from London to Scotland and, since that takes quite a long time, a fair amount of narrative takes place in the protagonist’s musings as he walks. The result is a lot of themes and concepts.
