Anti-Ice is a novel by
Stephen Baxter The book is set in an alternative timeline, the
Victorians have discovered 'Anti-Ice' a stable form of
antimatter in
ice, the remnants of an exotic
comet held in the
Antartic wastes. When heated this releases tremendous amounts of
energy. This leads to a second
industrial revolution, with
Jules Verne type rocketships, and
monorails over the
channel.
Mainly the book is a commentary on
contempory politics, both between the current
european nations, and between
America,
Europe and
Russia.
A discussion by character towards the use of a particular anti-ice superweapon, calls into question the use of the
atomic bomb on Japan.