Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
Loading... The Light Ages (2003)by Ian R. MacLeod
Gaslamp Fantasy (83) New Weird Fiction (24) Loading...
Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. So basically it's like Victorian times, but not really, because there are references to Victorian times sprinkled throughout the book as having happened a loooong time ago. But society and industry have stagnated at a certain level, due to the country's dependence on the substance aether to make things just plain work better. There's no innovation or real change due to the fact that it's just not needed, and society is stuck in a rigid class system based not on peerage but "guilds", which are kind of like unions but also kind of like a caste system. Aether also has a dangerous side - too much exposure to it can change a person, giving them either powers or just making them horrendous, and those people are scorned and kept in asylums as horrific as Bedlam. The book is the story of one boy growing up in the land, and going through the time of upheaval that marks the end of one Age and the beginning of the next. It's the story of his family and how it is affected by aether and the guild system, and how he in turn reacts to those things. It's also the story of how he meets and falls in love with Annalise, a mysterious girl around his age that he meets one day on a trip with his mother. This is quite a good book. The writing is dense and full of description, and there were times when reading on the train or in the kitchen at work I didn't have the best time following along with it - but that is fully my fault, not the author's. The story is complex, nuanced, and utterly realistic - too much so, almost, on the infamous Butterfly Day and in the end, with the unicorn. If you like complex stories, with a dose of realistic politics, and an interesting fantasy twist, then this is the book for you. 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. no reviews | add a review
Belongs to SeriesAether Series (1)
This "extraordinary alternate-history fantasy," set in an industrial London riven by class conflict and transformed by magic, is a steampunk classic (Booklist). The discovery of aether changed everything; magic mined from the ground, it ushered in an Industrial Age seemingly overnight, deposing kings and rulers as power was transferred to the almighty guilds. Soon, England's people were separated into two distinct classes: those who dug up and were often poisoned by the miraculous substance, and those who profited from it. Robert Borrows has always wanted more than the life of poverty and backbreaking toil into which he was born. During a visit with his mother to an isolated local manor, he discovers Annalise, the beautiful and mysterious changeling whom aether has magically remolded into something more than human. Years later, their paths will cross again in the filthy, soot-stained streets of London, where Robert preaches revolution while Annalise enjoys the privileges afforded to the upper class--the same social stratum that Robert is trying to overthrow. But even as they stand on opposite sides of the great struggle that divides their world, they are united by a shocking secret from their childhood. And their destinies will be forever entwined when their world falls to ruin. A finalist for the World Fantasy Award, The Light Ages "brings a Dickensian life to the pounding factories of London" (The Denver Post) and "should hold great appeal to readers who love the more sophisticated fantasy of Michael Swanwick, John Crowley or even China Mi#65533;ville" (Publishers Weekly). The Light Ages continues with The House of Storms, set one century later. No library descriptions found. |
Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813Literature English (North America) American fictionLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. |
The cause of the divergence is the discovery of aether, which makes possible a magic-based, Guild-controlled economy with a social structure much like Victorian England, only more repressive and with less hope for change. Guilds control all the really useful work, and all the wealth, and membership in a guild is a secure spot in the social structure. Unfortunately, working with aether carries with it the risk of becoming a Changeling, or, to use this society's ruder word, a troll--a mutant, essentially, usually monstrous. Trolls, or Changelings, even former Guild members, have no rights, and get locked up in warehouses wear they can, sometimes, be experimented upon. The Light Ages is the story of Robert Borrows, a young boy whose mother becomes a troll and is taken away, and who is later befriended by a Guild Grandmaster who apparently has some connection with his mother from years ago. Between the Grandmaster's strange behavior, and the differently strange behavior of a beautiful girl his own age who turns out to be a really odd sort of Changeling, Robert begins to suspect something of the dark secret stalking the Guilds. It's not until he runs away to London and experiences both the life of an unguilded, edges-of-the-law laborer and radical agitator, and the life of the wealthy high Guild families, that he truly starts to realize what a house of cards this all is.
It's an interesting world, and there's an interesting story in here, but Robert Borrows is both an amazingly passive protagonist, and annoyingly slow at catching on to anything involving people.
Good, but not as good as it ought to be. ( )