The Light Ages

by IanR.MacLeod (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2004

  $5.90

  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...

• Used

  Paperback
  2003

  $12.31

  Come to Britain in an Industrial Revolution powered by Magic! Aether rules the world. Aether runs the engines, the telegraphs, the very lights of London. Through spells and aether, England has created a mighty Industrial Revolution. In that world, Robert Borrows is insignificant, yet his past holds the truth of the world's future...Growing up in the Yorkshire town of Bracebridge, a town dominated by the mighty aether mines and engines, Robert sees the way in which proximity to aether can poison a life when his mother gradually becomes the thing all families dread - a changeling, less than human, awful to see. Running away to London, Robbie encounters Anna Winters, who he first met on a trip with his mother in happier times. Mercurial and mysterious, Anna becomes his fata morgana. Exploring the Brobdignian city, all colours, smells and danger, Robbie comes into contact with myriad social classes and types, and people who take him back to Bracebridge and the mysteries of aether. This Age is ending, in fire and death...World Fantasy Award-winner Ian R MacLeod creates an England that is recognisable yet entirely different in this massive novel of an Industrial Revolution fuelled by m