K.G. McAbee

It's 1897 and Her Majesty has colonies throughout the solar system, thanks to the invention of the aether-ship. When a sub-aether distress call reaches Professor Percival Postlethwaite, he and his fiercely capable ward Arabella waste no time boarding the next aether-ship to Venus. But the cloud-wrapped world is far from the civilized outpost her Imperial Majesty hopes for. Four-armed saurian tribes watch from the shadows, proto-dinosaurs stalk the dense jungles, and a rogue Prussian faction is determined to ignite rebellion-and seize not only other countries' colonies, but the Venusian skies with a new heavier-than-air craft.
To save a stranded engineer-and perhaps the Empire itself-Percival and Arabella must navigate treachery, teeth, talons, and treason in a world where every vine bites back!