The Return of Phineas J. Magnetron

That's right!  After a lengthy hiatus, Phineas J. Magnetron is anticipated to make his triumphant return, this time in an e-book series called The Magnetron Chronicles.  The first volume, titled The Last Adventure of Dr. Yngve Hogalum, will be available shortly as a Kindle e-book.

The Magnetron Chronicles is a series of novelettes deriving from the web serial with the ungainly title "The Secret Journals of Phineas J. Magnetron," originally published online in the early 2000s.  This serialized neo-Victorian tale follows the exploits of eccentric Nineteenth Century inventor Phineas J. Magnetron and his fellows in the Hogalum Society, an inscrutable secret organization of crime-fighting adventurers.

 The Hogalum tales fall somewhat awkwardly into the "steampunk" sub-genre, a kind of speculative fiction which re-imagines the Steam Age mise en scène of the early science fiction/fantasy masters such as Jules Verne.  This so-called "retro-futurism" recreates the intoxicating expectancy (both fearful and optimistic) of a time when it seemed science had—or would soon have—all the answers.  Steampunk revisits this era, re-envisioning the future of generations past with all the breathless melodrama and tumult of that Victorian-era pulp fiction staple, the "penny dreadful."

We'll let you know right here as soon as the first volume of The Magnetron Chronicles is available.