In 1912, "The Miracle" occurs. Most of Europe is suddenly replaced by an entirely new landscape, known as Darwinia. With strange creatures and new perils, it's a completely unknown and unexplored land. Guildford Law, photographer, leaves his wife and child behind in the newly re-founded London, and joins an expedition to explore the newly unknown continent and as they face not only the dangers of the unknown wildlife and environment, but also attacks from bounty hunters sent to sabotage their mission by some unknown source.

It's reminiscent of older science fiction such as Edgar Rice Burroughs or Jules Verne, and of Victorian tales of exploration. However, part way through things take a rather bizarre twist as the reason for the "Miracle" is revealed, first to the reader, and only much later to the actual characters. What starts as a somewhat bleak exploration-of-the-new-frontier style story turns into something more like The Matrix, as the nature of reality itself is called into question.

Overall interesting and thought-provoking, but a rather bleak read. Many of the characters aren't particularly likeable, and/or are killed off abruptly or otherwise meet not particularly happy fates. I wasn't a big fan of the early and abrupt reveal of the origin of the Miracle to readers; I would rather have learned about it as the characters did. Still, there's some thought-provoking ideas and interesting philosophy, and the book definitely goes into unexpected places. I'd rate this somewhere between 3 and 4 stars really; interesting, but not necessarily extremely enjoyable.