it is a sprawling adventure set in the 1850s-1870s in new york, london, paris, india, and the north atlantic. the story pits two of literature's most iconic anti-heroes against each other: captain nemo and captain ahab. caught between them: real-life british engineer isambard kingdom brunel, builder of the century's greatest ship, the great eastern. brunel is kidnapped by nemo to help design a submarine with which to fight the laying of the translatlantic cable - which links the two colonialist forces nemo hates, england and the us.