The action of the wondrous final volume in Spanish author Palma's speculative thriller trilogy (which began with "The Map of Time" unfolds in several Victorian eras in parallel universes, beginning with esteemed biologist Herbert George Wells' attempt to create a virus that will allow the residents of his doomed steampunk world to escape to another realm free of threat"-- When the person he loves most dies in tragic circumstances, the mysterious protagonist does all he can to speak to her one last time. A session with a renowned medium seems to offer the only solution, but the experience unleashes terrible forces that bring the world to the brink of disaster. Salvation can only be found in The Map of Chaos, an obscure book that he is desperate to uncover. In his search, he is given invaluable help by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Lewis Carroll, and of course by H.G. Wells, whose Invisible Man seems to have escaped from the pages of his famous novel to sow terror among mankind.