I love the writing, i.e. use of language, in 'The Light Ages', but the plot didn't seem to go anywhere. I regret to say I got half-way through and decided it wasn't interesting enough to finish.

The book puts forth an interesting idea - that if mankind has too much given to them, there is no push for discovery and so scientific development remains entirely stagnant. In this book, all things we would think of as "engineered" run from aether, a form of substance imbued with a property man can utilize to make any contraption run far better than it should. It is treated in the book as a natural resource, mined from the ground, refined, and sold at tremendous price. But because it is available, there is no effort put into science and engineering. Man has not even learned to use electricity for light! The author spends time developing the idea that magic would shackle scientific endeavors, and that portion of the story is quite interesting; but then he goes on to tell about the protagonist at an older age, and the plot becomes vague and drags on far too long without the protagonist having any goal to achieve. There is a muddy romantic side to the plot, but it is more like a young lad being rebuffed repeatedly than something that might lead to a satisfying conclusion. There is simply too little movement in the plot through the middle of the book, and so as fine as the use of language is, I ultimately don't recommend it. A good book has to be much more than polished use of English. If The Light Ages is the only book you have to read it's probably good enough to go through, but I found it better to move on to something more interesting. ( )

http://tamaranth.blogspot.com/2009/10... ( )

"The Light Ages" is a beautifully written book. MacLeod knows how to use language, both English and the invented words of his story, to create a vivid atmosphere of an alternate reality. This other world is a steam-punk futuristic Victorian England, where the people live in a caste society, revolution is in the air, and a magical substance called aether makes the world go around. For his writing style and atmosphere, I would give the book four stars at least. But alas, for the story I would give it two stars at best (hence my settling on three.) I had two issues with the story. One, there were no characters in the book that I could relate to, or that I really cared about. There isn't a lot to propel me through a book when I don't care about any of the characters. Second, I found the plot unnecessarily convoluted. To be fair, since I didn't care about the characters, my mind tended to wander while reading sometimes, so perhaps I missed important points, but it felt overly complex to me. ( )

i like steampunk. and i liked this one a lot: set me looking for the rest of this author's stuff, cause i want to read it all now. i've got some reservations about the class war implications, though. bit heavy-handed in that area, i thought myself, which took me out of the book's world too often when i stopped to argue silently with the novelist. ( )

Others are reviewing this book as Dickensian. I find that wrong as Dickens writing style is different to me. I get caught up in Dickens with the minutiae of characterization. He will go on for pages about one minor character who are all linked, like Paul Haggis's movie Crash, at the end.

MacLeod I feel is being compared unfairly to Dickens because there are similarities with our protagonist, Robbie going to a old decrepit house, like Pip in Great Expectations. Of a London that has a seedy side that Dickens was able to relate through much of his work.

That is where the similarities end for me. The Light Ages is a novel with a Steampunk feel as we have a Victorian Era world of technology run on an energy form that is magical. Robbie, telling in first person, which I feel brings the book down and lengthens it too long, is intimately wrapped up in the procurement of this component. A mystery and great political upheaval surrounds this.

It starts slowly, and does not grab you right away. It shows you a world that you can well imagine, How Green Was My Valley, the story of the lives of the Welsh Coal Miners comes to mind. An ordinary story is made fantastical, but it is made much better through the writer's prose. MacLeod is rich in language and he shares it with you. Since Robbie is the person relating the story to us though, the prose is to rich for the character and there is why the book is too long, and could be better. But without the prose it would be a lesser presentation. Thus we come to it that our story just does not fit the writing. ( )