Walliams' latest features lots of high-volume Brit-style buffoonery but with distinctly angry undertones. A century from now, England is shrouded in permanent darkness in the wake of a comprehensive, humanity-inflicted eco-catastrophe. London lies in ruins and the royal family has either gone missing or been locked into Buckingham Palace by a sinister Lord Protector (a title with Cromwellian associations, though that's less meaningful this side of the pond). It's left up to puny, 12-year-old Prince Alfred to save his family and to counter the Lord Protector's nefarious bid for supremacy, which involves subjugating 10 mighty griffins linked to different parts of Great Britain using spills of royal blood. If some of the jokes and references will pass over American readers' heads ("I haven't had this much fun since that man streaked at Royal Ascot!"), there's gunfire, heroic sacrifice, chasing about, and large explosions aplenty keep the pages turning as Alfred faces down the would-be tyrant with help from a comically malfunctioning robot butler and a crew of aging but doughty ladies-in-waiting.