Ian R. Macleod
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First British Edition Simon & Schuster (2005) |
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| Paperback - Simon & Schuster (2006) |
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The House of Storms
From prize-winning author Ian R. MacLeod comes his enthralling tale of love and power. Set amongst the familiar hills and cities of an England that is strangely recognizable, yet utterly new and suffused with the power of magic, The House of Storms explores all the beauty and horror of a universe which readers of his previous novel The Light Ages will recognize, but takes it to a yet more astonishing level.
When Great Grandmistress Alice Meynell, ruthless matriarch of the Great Guild of Telegraphers, brings her son to Invercombe, west of Bristol, she expects him to die there. Though her power and grace are legendary, not even she can halt her son’s disease. Now ensconced in the magnificent old house, forgotten outpost of the Guild, with its disused weathertop, its formal gardens, its long tradition, at least there might come some tranquility to his death.
The age of aether still reigns; its pale glow illuminating the land. All bear the mark of aether’s strange influence, except the changelings, banished to Einfell, that strange land untouched by the Ages of Industry, that lies uneasy at England’s troubled heart. And it is to Einfell that Alice turns in desperation, to plead for her son’s life to one who once trusted her, and suffered the consequences.
Ralph is cured. Far away from the filth of industrial London, he is drawn away from his family responsibilities to the world of nature and to a fisherman’s daughter, Marion Price. Together they plan to run away, to defy the rule of Guilds, even to change the world and how it understands itself.
But his mother will not let love stand in the way of her lust for power, nor the very land she professes to love - even if it means plunging England into a long and bloody civil war.
In this unique work of imagination, Ian R. MacLeod has created a dazzling and truly original world.
‘Outstanding. To rival Pullman’s Northern Lights trilogy and Mieville’s Perdido Street Station’ Michael Moorcock
'The House os Storms is that uncommon thing, a sequel to be treasured as much as its precursor' Locus
‘MacLeod’s prose is as rich as treacle and equally black. A quiet, understated monster of a novel’ Guardian
'Wonderful… Dickens with a touch of Alan Garner and a glimpse of Ghormenghast' Christopher Fowler
| Paperback - Pocket Books (2004) |
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First British Edition Earthlight (2003) |
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The Light of Ages
Aether rules the world. Aether drives the engines, the telegraphs, the very lights of London.
Through the power of aether, and through the secrets and mysteries of the guilds that wield it, England has created a mighty Industrial Age. It is a place of enchanted gardens and grimy terraces, smokestack factories and fantastic beasts. Yet in this great age of the world, Robert Borrows, the insignificant son of a Lesser Toolmaker, holds the key to the world’s future.
Raised in the Yorkshire town of Bracebridge, a place dominated by the pounding of mighty subterranean engines, Robert witnesses the dark side of aether when his mother is transformed into a changeling; less than human, terrible to see. Fleeing to London, he re-encounters the beautiful, mercurial and mysterious Anna Winters, who he first met on a trip to a strange white palace in happier times. 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, he discovers secrets that will lead him back towards the clouded hills of Bracebridge and the deepest mysteries of aether. For all is not well in England’s green and pleasant land. This Age is ending, in fire and in death...
A dazzling mélange of Charles Dickens, Mervyn Peake and Edward Rutherfurd, The Light Ages is the story of a time of wonders and delights, mysteries and nightmares. Events both great and small are mirrored in the life of Robert Borrows, an ordinary man born into extraordinary times. Richly detailed, joyous, visionary - World Fantasy Award-winner, Ian R. MacLeod, has produced a tour-de-force of imaginative fiction.
‘A masterpiece both of radical urban fantasy and of alternative history. Written in dense, cadenced prose, possessing a descriptive intensity rarely equalled in the speculative fiction of any period...’ Locus
‘Superb’ Big Issue
`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
‘Excellent. Ian MacLeod is rapidly becoming one of the contemporary stars of the genre’ Brian Aldiss
`The Light Ages is a wonderful book, a magical book . . . I have no idea what [Ian R. MacLeod] looks like, but I picture an angel with polychrome wings, dirty hands, and a well-chewed pencil.’ Gene Wolfe
`Channelling Dickens by way of Coleridge, The Light Ages’ magic derives as much from the high quality of Ian R, MacLeod’s prose as any supernatural element. MacLeod has transformed London, while retaining its essential character, for a story as beautifully strange as it is emotionally affecting. Stands beside the achievements of China Mieville. The Light Ages is a must-read.’ Jeff Vandermeer
`The Light Ages is simply first rate. The writing is instantly compelling. I was submerged in the setting and characters: it’s escape fiction in the best sense of that phrase. It’s a long book, but it was over far too quickly.’ James P. Blaylock
About The Author
Ian R. MacLeod was born in, and has lived most of his forty years, around Birmingham. He is the author of The Great Wheel and a short story collection Voyages by Starlight, and his short fiction has appeared in Interzone, Asimov’s, and Fantasy and Science Fiction, and has been widely translated and anthologized. He is twice winner of the World Fantasy Award for his alternate history novella The Summer Isles and his short story The Chop Girl, and has been shortlisted for almost every major science fiction and fantasy award including the Hugo and the Nebula.
Bibliography
N.B. dates and publishers in dark red indicate British First Editions. Dates and publishers in black indicate recent reprints.
The House of Storms
(Simon & Schuster,
2005)
Simon & Schuster Pbk Feb 06
The Light of Ages
(Earthlight,
2003)
Pocket Books Pbk Apr 04
The House of Storms
by Ian R. Macleod
