title: Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon (A Burton & Swinburne Adventure)
author:  Mark Hodder 
description: Praise for the Philip K. Dick Award-winning Burton &amp; Swinburne books:<br /><br />"The usual superlatives for really clever fantasy (imaginative, mind-bending, phantasmagorical) aren't nearly big enough for this debut novel. With this one book, Hodder has put himself on the genre map."<br />-Booklist, starred review of The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack<br /><br />"Hodder, with an encyclopedic grasp of period detail, tellingly brings these disparate, oddly familiar yet eerily different worlds to fecund life. Enthralling, dizzying, and as impressive as they come."<br />-Kirkus Reviews, starred review<br /><br />"Every once in a while I come across a book, or series of books, that totally yanks the carpet out from under me. Then it reaches out, smashes me in the face with its awesomeness, and says, 'You love me!' Leaving me with naught to do but obligingly respond, 'Yes. Yes I do.' [The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man] was every bit the book that I had hoped it would be."<br />-Elitist Book Reviews<br /><br />"Whatever one chooses to call [The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack], it would be very difficult to deny its overwhelming brilliance. I can't remember the last time a novel has surprised, awed, and enthused me so utterly that I'm almost left at a loss for words for how to recommend it."<br />-Rob Will Review
zlib_text: 
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Cover](images/cover.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon
  
  
    
  
  
  ###
  
  
  _( Burton and Swinburne - 3 )_
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Mark Hodder
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## Mark Hodder
  
  
  
  
  
  ## Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## THE FIRST PART
  
  
  
  
  
  THE VOYAGE TO AFRICA
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “One of the gladdest moments in human life, methinks, is the departure upon a
  distant journey to unknown lands. Shaking off with one mighty effort the
  fetters of Habit, the leaden weight of Routine, the cloak of many Cares and
  the Slavery of Home, man feels once more happy. The blood flows with the fast
  circulation of childhood…afresh dawns the morn of life….”
  
  
  
  
  
  — SIR RICHARD FRANCIS BURTON'S JOURNAL, 2ND DECEMBER, 1856.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## CHAPTER 1
  
  
  
  
  
  Murder at Fryston
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “The future influences the present just as much as the past.”
  
  
  
  
  
  — Friedrich Nietzsche
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Sir Richard Francis Burton wriggled beneath a bush at th