The Light Ages

In the year 1678, Joshua Wagstaffe discovered aether, and the Industrial Revolution began. Not the Industrial Revolution of our world; but one fuelled by magic. Aether, its secrets jealously guarded by the Guilds, became the glue that bound English society together. Now, after three hundred years, change is finally in the air. The talk on the streets of London is of Revolution, of overturning the Guilds, of a New Beginning. The Third Age of Industry is ending, in fire and in death... Raised in the Yorkshire town of Bracebridge, and seemingly destined to follow his father into the aether factories, Robert Borrows witnesses the dark side of aether when his mother is transformed into a changeling; monstrous and pitiful. Fleeing to London, Robbie joins the revolution, working to bring about the Fourth Age, an era of equality and plenty. Roaming the vast, Brobdignagian city, all colours, smells and danger, exploring its myriad social layers, from petty criminals and revolutionaries to salon mistresses and opium dreamers, Robbie discovers secrets that threaten the very fabric of society; secrets that involve the deepest mysteries of aether. He becomes embroiled in the glittering social circle of the mysterious Anna Winters - beautiful, mercurial, beguiling - and finds that the past is not so easily cast off. For Robbie and Anna's fates have been intertwined since before their birth - since the infamous day when the aether engines of Bracebridge stopped working, and the world was deafened by the roar of silence. The day the seeds of change were sown...

'A stunning novel in all ways, MacLeod's THE LIGHT AGES is as engaging as it is cautionary, with a strong main character and a bizarre and yet familiar setting that captivates and draws you in. Perhaps the boldest new fantasy voice to have appeared in the last few years, Ian R. MacLeod has broken down the barriers of genre fiction adn created something quite simply wonderful.'
WATERSTONES' ENIGMA
'MacLeod skilfully incorporates literary influences ranging from William Blake and Dickens to NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR and the working class novels of the 1950s - and arrives at something original. Magical, visionary and enthralling, THE LIGHT AGES is award-winning stuff'
SFX
'A wonderful new novel. THE LIGHT AGES is light years ahead in its depiction of an alternative England. It has great passion and elegance, within a traditional structure that allows for wonderful characters, a powerful sense of location and set-pieces of immense darkness and warmth. They provide it with a truly Dickensian scope, Dickens with a touch of Alan Garner and a glimpse of Gormenghast. Best of all, its resonances are deepened by one's own inherited knowledge of England's history and people. A book that feels so ingrained in a time and place that it really seems to exist within our cultural memory.'
CHRISTOPHER FOWLER
'THE LIGHT AGES is a haunting and passionate evocation of a strange
Victorian age twisted out of true from the one we know by dark magics
and darker secrets. Rich, evocative, lyrical, compassionate, and
complex, it should help to confirm Ian MacLeod's reputation as one of
the very best writers working in the genre here at the beginning of the
21st Century' Gardner Dozois
Praise for Ian R. MacLeod and THE GREAT WHEEL
'Ian R. MacLeod is one hell of a writer - literary, inventive, always surprising. Pay attention: this guy is important. He's a major source and shaper of what science fiction will be in the millennium' Michael Swanwick, author of JACK FAUST
'A smooth, sinuous trip in the hands of a writer who knows just about everything there is to know about giving joy, and telling the truth, too. Ian R. MacLeod...is a new voice in the land of millennium. Heed him. Heed his story' John Clute, author of LOOK AT THE EVIDENCE
'THE GREAT WHEEL is a major achievement by a new voice who already vies with the best in the genre, and outside it too' Paul J. McAuley, author of FAIRYLAND
'THE GREAT WHEEL of Ian R. MacLeod is a first novel of great sophistication...A richly portrayed future world quite unlike any other, and yet, somehow, with the feeling of exotic familiarity' Norman Spinrad, author of PICTURES AT 11
'A beautiful book. It breathes, as a true novel of experience should. It's expansive and layered...and real. That it is a first novel is astonishing, for it transcends the genre' Jack Dann, author of THE MEMORY CATHEDRAL
'A serious, thoughtful work of futuristic fiction, this haunting novel is a bridge between Huxley's BRAVE NEW WORLD and Frank Herbert's DUNE' PUBLSHERS WEEKLY
'One of the finest sf novels of the past decade' INTERZONE
'A superb blend of Dickensian grandeur and SF themes' WATERSTONE'S QUARTERLY