[Nimea]

Let's go! :)


Me first (that's something new, ha?).

I actually liked the book and read it rather quickly. It had a good style and some might find that annoying and not very artful but because each chapter ended in a cliffhanger I was compelled to read on and on and on. It was really rather the writing style and the rather short chapters and thus the way he told the story that made me like the book . . .

. . . because I am unsure what exactly I think about the setting, the background/alternate history and some of the characters.

Somehow it was a fascinating idea with Newton being successful at his alchemical experiments and also using lots of other historical people. But I somehow did not feel connected - or at least not always, there were parts that did make me connect to the book which is an important part for me to like a book.

I also found the ideas about how this scientific magic worked and what the big evil plan was very interesting, still I did not connect enough with it. Not sure why.

Some of the characters - and only a few words, might get back to them later:
King Louis - I liked what became of him, how 'the angel' manipulated him . . .
Benjamin Franklin - don't know a lot about him or better the historical person (apart from the pseudonym with which he signed some open letters - yeah, who said movies don't educate ;) ) but apart from that I am rather unsure what to think of this version of him. Still thinking about his 'love affairs'
Adriene - I liked her and connected more to her story than to Ben's. Her story ending made me order the next book. :eek:
Crecy - now this woman was mysterious, not necessary likeable but her unusual talents and her strange relationship with Adriene interests me a lot.

That's all that comes to my mind at the moment.

:o

[nicba]

I haven't read Newton Cannon yet but I might start on it so that I can contribute to this thread as I actually own the book, for once.

But I'm a little confused... is The Age of Unreason a new series or an old one? I actually thought it was an old and completed series, written long before The Briar King (which was my introduction to Greg Keyes). But all the bookshops only have the first two books on the shelves and I've never been able to find the rest. How come? Are they re-issuing the books one by one?

Any guesses?

[Rob B]

The Age of Unreason is the second series of books Greg Keyes wrote, the first being The Chosen of the Changeling both published by Del Rey in the USA.

However, with the positive to The Briar King in the UK, the earlier books he wrote became available.

As for the book itself...I read it a few years ago and really liked it. I liked the premise and Greg's execution was great. I liked the Malakim and the use of historical figures in a different context.

[Rob B]

As I've said before, Greg Keys has an official Web site at http://www.gregkeyes.com/ (I happen to be a mod there, too.)

There are a bunch of links about all of his work and a handful of those are about Newton's Cannon and the genesis of the whole saga: http://www.gregkeyes.com/links.html

[Robertbert]

I read this book a while ago, but I really enjoyed it. The books get better and darker as the story goes along...His writing style is exciting and it never slows up at all. His battle scenes as well as his human interest scenes are fantastic...I can't recommend this series enough!...

This series is a completely different feel to the Briar King, probably because the Age of Unreason has more roots in our actual history rather than the myths and fairy stories of the Briar King...

nicba, hey there! :D I don't know if Denmark has an Amazon books thing but that is where I bought the entire series from. At that point the British publisher had only brought out Newton's Cannon, but I found all of the American versions and bought them instead...Naughty me! ;) Try that instead...Or Ebay maybe...

[FicusFan]

I am still reading. I have only read about the first 20 pages. I got sidetracked with the SF book of the month. I liked what I had read and hope to get back into to it soon.

I have a trade paperback version, I think it came out in mmpb later. I liked that large map of Boston.

[Eventine]

I stop coming by as much for a few weeks and the whole book club slows to a halt. What's this coming to this place :)

I was one of the people who pushed for this book early (I think I may have been the first to nominate it) so here goes:

I think the cliffhanger endings to each chapter are good for maintaining momentum, however it does begin to drag a bit and there are areas of the book where I think he would have been better off focussing one the one character for a few chapters (or increasing the chapter length). It did make for a good page turning effect though, and I lsot some sleep one night thinking "I'll just read another chapter, they're short anyway".

Treating it as a "light" book definitely helped me - if I'd been too serious with it the over-coincedental (in terms of characters meeting) alternate history would have been too much for me.

Adriene - I liked her and connected more to her story than to Ben's. Her story ending made me order the next book.

I never like Adrienne or her storyline that much. Her actions just never really worked for me - she seemed passive in all the wrong places. I'd spend most of the Adrienne chapters waiting to get back to the Ben chapters.

[Lani]

I've just finished reading the book and I thought it was pretty cool. I rarely read alternative history or non-fictional history, so some of the things I had to keep wondering about whether it's authentic or different. I did read some romances from Louis the Sun King period (Dumas and such) and because of that he did not seem very authentic to me as a character. I guess I just see him very differently from the way he was portrayed in the book.

As a mathy person, I really enjoyed that this book placed an accent on science and mathematics and calculus theories which were fun to read because of the contrast they make with what is taught on that subject nowadays. I liked both characters, but I would think I connected to Adrienne better than to Ben. Even though the whole Louis thing didn't work out for me, Adrienne pretending to be interested in music and arts because sciences are unladylike stiked a chord with me. I do have to say I looked forward to her parts in the adventure more, but just as Eventine said some of the things in her character seemed inconsistent, especially the scene where she attempts to murder Louis and ends up crying and a few others.

I really don't know anything about Benjamin Franclin as a historical person, but in some places I felt his character was too cliche -- a genius in physics with too little common sense. On the other hand he does trick the pirate and escapes his persuers, so then what's up with sitting 4 hours at "the coffeehouse" and not getting it? In general, I thought the romantic involvements in this book weren't done too well. Adrienne and Nicholas weren't done too well either, there was no tension, and no reason actually for them to like each other. I was not impressed.

But overall, the book did not leave me with a bad impression. It was fun while it lasted and I did stay up till 3 am telling myself that I just want to see what happens in the next chapter. So to sum it up, a fun read but not exceptional by any means.

[Nimea]

I do have to say I looked forward to her parts in the adventure more, but just as Eventine said some of the things in her character seemed inconsistent, especially the scene where she attempts to murder Louis and ends up crying and a few others.

Mmh, I didn't feel her to be inconstistent. For example that murder scene - not used to violence and not considering yourself a murderer, it would not surprise me if you start crying because the situation is overwhelming and suddenly the action is going, there is no going back if you like it or not.
But even more: did she not almost cry everytime he was in bed with him. Aaaand did she not there and then find an answer how to stop the catastrophe?

In general Adrienne was alone, I think she even felt alone when Crecy and Nicolas started to be there. And she was afraid - of being a pawn. But many things were not in her hand at the beginning so her 'decision' to be a queen and not a pawn wasn't really much. Her active decisions and actions came later.

In general, I thought the romantic involvements in this book weren't done too well. Adrienne and Nicholas weren't done too well either, there was no tension, and no reason actually for them to like each other. I was not impressed.

Yes. Especially Ben's 'affairs' . . . and I think there was more tension between Adrienne and Crecy than between Adrienne and Nicolas.

It was just a small part but the 'losing of virginity' was somehow interesting ...

[Rob B]

Just to bring this up again, I thought I'd let some people know that this book was heavily edited, and some people (my wife included) felt the book a bit disjointed, as a result. as indicated by Mr. Keyes in my interview with him from 2003 (http://www.sffworld.com/interview/28p3.html).

Thanks, of course the first book in that series was a lot different than the others. One of the main things with the first book is that around 200 pages were cut out of it, mostly by a line-editor. Often amounted to cutting every third or fourth word or whole sentences. Then Once I got a chance to from the editor and brush it up. Because of that, as a whole it comes off a lot terser than the following three books. At times I think thinner.