Newton's Cannon

Keyes, J. Gregory

ISBN 10: 0330419978 / ISBN 13: 9780330419970

Published by Tor, London, 2004

About this Item

London: Tor:, 2004. First British edition, Paperback, Fine, 368 pp. Book One of The Age of Unreason. Dark, scientific fantasy. First British edition, Paperback, Fine, Seller Inventory # 61602

Bibliographic Details

Title: Newton's Cannon

Publisher: Tor, London

Publication Date: 2004

Binding: Soft cover

Edition: 1st Edition

About this title

Synopsis:

Come on a journey sideways through time, and lose yourself in a world both deeply familiar and wondrously strange. In 1681, Sir Isaac Newton turns his restless mind to the ancient art of alchemy, and successfully unleashes Philosopher's Mercury, the key to manipulating the four elements. Powerful kings will battle to control it, till London itself is threatened with obliteration by a hellish device - unless a pair of unlikely geniuses can defuse it in time. This is a fantasy woven from the stuff of history, an enthralling quest whose outcome may raise humanity to unparalleled heights ... or bring down the curtain of endless night.

Review:

Newton's Cannon is an alternate history set primarily in the court of Louis XIV. This might sound familiar to readers of Vonda McIntyre's Nebula-winning The Moon and the Sun. Keyes, like McIntyre, blends alchemy, history, and fantasy in his novel.

Keyes's characters are expertly drawn: Louis XIV, the aging King of France who seeks a return to international preeminence, young Ben Franklin of Boston, a printer's apprentice who yearns to master alchemy, and Adrienne de Montchevreuil, a lovely, impoverished noblewoman who secretly pursues mathematics, but attracts Louis's lustful attention. The many secondary characters are also believable personalities, and the plot is original and suspenseful. Keyes's writing is precise and witty. "It was, Adrienne reflected, impossible not to be impressed by the Grand Canal. More like a cruciform inland sea with banks of polished marble, it summed up many things about Versailles. It was monumental in proportion, insanely expensive, impossible to overlook, and entirely frivolous."

Though the ending of Newton's Cannon leaves much unresolved--setting up book two of The Age of Unreason, A Calculus of Angels--it's fine entertainment all by itself. --Nona Vero