Baxter Stephen. Anti-Ice

Anti-Ice is a science fiction novel by Stephen Baxter. Published in 1993, it portrays of 19th-century Europe and the changes resulting, particularly in Britain, from an explosive scientific discovery made in the 1850s.The novel begins with the text of a letter dated July, 1855 from the Crimean War front of Sevastopol. The writer, Hedley Vicars, tells from his perspective as a soldier in the 90 Light Infantry about the visit to his commanders of one Josiah Traveller, an inventor and millionaire industrialist whose discovery in the South Pole of anti-ice, a substance which releases incredible energies when warmed, is being considered for military use. Soon after that meeting, a mushroom cloud erupts in the midst of Sevastopol and, with its attendant human and structural devastation, quickly ends the war.This substance originally fell to Earth as the residue of a comet that impacted the Moon centuries ago. Fifteen years after the war, under the reign of Edward VII (who assumed the throne after Queen Victoria abdicated due to her husband Prince Albert's death) and the prime ministership of Gladstone, the United Kingdom maintains through Traveller's discovery a monopoly on the use of anti-ice. But the energy it generates, analogous to nuclear power, is now used to power vehicles and accelerate the country's Industrial Revolution — much to the chagrin of perennial rivals France and a yet-to-be-united Germany.