Newton's Cannon

In this stunning new novel, acclaimed author J. Gregory Keyes charts a course sideways through time. Come with him to a world both deeply familiar and wondrously strange. Lose yourself in a fantasy woven from the stuff of history, a dazzling quest whose outcome will raise humanity to unparalleled heights of glory--or ring down a curtain of endless night  . . .

NEWTON'S CANNON

1681: Sir Isaac Newton turns his restless mind to the ancient art of alchemy. He achieves an unprecedented breakthrough, unleashing Philosopher's Mercury, a primal source of matter and a key to manipulating the four elements of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. Now, Louis XIV of France and George I of England battle for its control. As English armies push nearer to Paris, Louis calls for a new weapon--a mysterious device known only as Newton's Cannon.

Amidst the decadence of Versailles, courtiers and poseurs plot and scheme. And Adrienne de Montchevreuil, an impecunious noblewoman of great beauty and unsuspected talents, labors to unlock the mystery of Newton's Cannon before it is too late--for her King, for her country . . . for herself.

In Boston a half a world away, a young apprentice by the name of Benjamin Franklin stumbles across a dangerous secret. Pursued by a powerful and deadly enemy--half scientist, half sorcerer--Ben makes his fugitive way to England. Only Newton himself can help him now. But who will help Sir Isaac? For Newton was not the first to unleash the Philosopher's Mercury. Others were there before him. Creatures as scornful of science as they are of mankind. And burning to be rid of both . . .

J. Gregory Keyes is a teacher at the University of Georgia and is pursuing a Ph.D. in the anthropology of belief system and mythology. He was born in Mississippi and raised there and on the Navajo reservation in Arizona. He is the author of The Waterborn and The Blackgod.