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As the armies of the Malakim advance, led by a child of bright and burning power, Benjamin Franklin must summon all his ingenuity for the desperate attempt to preserve, not just the freedom of his country, but its very existence. For behind the wars of humanity there are other wars, fought by aetheric beings of immense strength and conviction.
The Malakim may be angels . . . or demons. All that's certain is that when the war in heaven is over, there won't be much--if anything--left of Earth.
As the ruthless forces of Russia lay waste to the New World, English troops make landfall in the east, determined to reconquer the colonies. Trapped in between lies a motley collection of Native Americans, ex-slaves, and refugees of the European catastrophe, led by Franklin and the Choctaw shaman Red Shoes. In that struggle, Red Shoes may prove his most potent ally . . . and his most dangerous threat.
In this stunning conclusion to The Age of Unreason trilogy, the balance of power lies with Adrienne de Montchevreuil, whose grasp of science is the equal of Franklin's, and whose magic may be stronger even than that of the Choctaw. Only with her help can they hope to defeat the Sun Boy and his Malakim masters. But Adrienne has a shocking secret of her own, calling into question where her true allegiances may lie . . .
From the Trade Paperback edition.
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Creators
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Series
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Publisher
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Release date
March 4, 2009 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780307559609
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780307559609
- File size: 2054 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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May 14, 2001
In the fourth and final volume in his Age of Unreason series (Newton's Cannon, etc.), Keyes brings his multi-threaded yarn to a thrilling conclusion. Based on the premise that Sir Isaac Newton devised a theory of alchemy that led to the industrial use of demons, the book builds to a climactic confrontation to see who will reshape the universe. Chief among Newton's apprentices are wizard/scientist Benjamin Franklin, South Carolina's ambassador to the court of New Paris (Mobile), and Adrienne de Montchevreuil, sorceress and heir to a secret tradition. Against them is Adrienne's son, Nicolas (aka the Sun Boy), with his army of Russians, Mongols and Coweta natives that sweeps over the Great Plains. Such imaginative devices as demon-levitated airships and aetherschreibers (wireless sets) lend interest to the author's alternate 18th-century world, as do revelations behind certain historical events, like the identity of who helped Louis XIV drop a comet on London. Keyes entertains both with details of everyday life and with the conversations of people who may not have met but should have. He produces a fine pastiche of the formal writing of Voltaire (who appears as Franklin's friend and rival), marred only by a more modern "crash cut" narrative, which occasionally jumps mid-scene or reverses chronology, diffusing the suspense. Still, with the unfolding of secrets and past deeds, Keyes brings a welcome level of character uncertainty to the deterministic Newtonian novel.
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