The Forever Engine

Steampunk is too mainstream. So, too, is time travel. So, how about time traveling to a Steampunk era in an alternate universe? That ought to be original, right?

Jack Fargo is completely awesome in every way: Military intelligence, SAS operative, revolutionary physicist, outstanding author, polyglot, handsome historian, unbelievably fit, witty beyond compare, and master of any conflict mental or physical. While helping out his poor stupid friends with their incredibly complicated problems only he can solve, he gets sent to an alternate dimension filled with every Steampunk element the author could dredge up. Jack goes on a quest to prove how utterly noble he is to the residents of the new world, while one-upping anyone who crosses him and effortlessly crushing all his foes, solving every problem and copulating with sociopaths at improbable times.

There are only two problems with it. The first is the annoying accents that permeate most of the dialogue; the second is the main character. TV Tropes defines a “Mary Sue” as a character with an exponentially greater importance to the story than everyone else, who has perfect physical characteristics and an irrelevantly overskilled and idealized nature. Jack fits that definition to a ‘T’. Jack does everything perfectly, including everyone else’s jobs, and makes everyone else look like a buffoon in the process. I really dislike this book. Could you tell?