When Wisconsin Territory botanist Calvin Scholz receives a mysterious package from an old friend who recently came to an untimely demise, it sparks a wild adventure.  The mid-1840s is a dangerous time, for the Americans are at war with Mexico.

Scholz survives attempts on his life as he tries to deliver the package to his friend’s brother, a Savannah ichthyologist interested in fish-powered machinery--ichthyotech.  The situation grows increasingly dire, and Scholz finds himself aboard a riverboat in the Amazon Basin wilderness.

While this novel contains a fast-moving, original story, it is also a tasteful parody of the Steampunk movement.  There are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, as well as a few compulsory bad puns.