6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
As Above; So Below, April 5 2010
By JFBeilman "Bibliophile" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Pinion (Hardcover)
This is a wonderfully complex conclusion to what I refer to as the Clockwork Earth series. What I liked most about this novel is how the major changes occuring in the clockwork setting are mirrored in minds of Paulina and Boaz. What is depicted is the coming together of faith and reason and also the incorperation of free- will into a previously deterministic reality. And also, there is a wonderful metaphor of the "Golden Bridge," being like the connection between the right and left hemisphere of the brain; with the right being the Southern Earth and the left being the Northern Earth. There is also a strong suggestion of pantheism with the Mind of God being divided between the Silent World of the Southern Earth and the Judeo-Christion God of the Northern Earth.
I especially liked Boaz, who reminds me of Star-trek's Data. I was fascinated by this clockwork automaton's mental transformation from machine to human, which closely reflects the Clock-work Earth's transformation to a more free-willed and blended state. This, in my mind, makes this series similar in theme to the Veil trilogy by Christopher Golden. In that series, there is also a few characters whose transformations parallel the transformation of the setting; and the coming together of magic and reason.
The book's characters and setting was so good that I was disappionted when it was over.
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
deeply satisfying and thought provoking, April 6 2010
By Frank C. Knapp "haikucat" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Pinion (Hardcover)
Having just finished Pinion, I sit here feeling the reverberations of an epic tale, threads of feeling and memory excited by the story but vibrating in my life.
Acceptance of the arcane world envisioned in Jay Lake's trilogy happened for me almost without notice. Love and loyalty, duty and courage, fear and resolve are themes central to human experience. Magic and a clockwork universe become accepted vehicles for an interplay of human potential one can recognise and rejoice in as both possible and of great worth.
If feelings are a legitimate compass with which to chart our course,Pinion and its predecessors are on a path running true north.
5 of 9 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
strong thought provoking thriller, April 1 2010
By Harriet Klausner - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Pinion (Hardcover)
Paolina Barthes the sorceress has caused havoc upsetting the God given gears of the northern hemisphere. Rival ambitious groups The Silent Order and the White Birds pursue her to gain control of her "free will" magic that each believes will allow them to become the absolute authority in the north. Paolina flees southward with plans to do the impossible of crossing over The Equatorial Wall that God constructed to keep earth rotating through heaven
On the other side of the Great Wall that God built is The Southern Empire whose mystics gear for the coming of Paolina. They know what she has done to the clockwork precision balance in the north and want to prevent her heresy wrecking their society as granted to them by God as their right to rule. These mystics do not idly await the arrival of the destroyer, but instead go after Paolina's beloved Boaz the brass man and Childress the Mask librarian who travel in a Chinese sub.
The final tale in the Clockwork Earth saga (see Escapement and Mainspring) is a terrific climax to a strong thought provoking thriller. Jay Lake magically mixes his big metaphysical themes with a deep cast starring in an electrifying fast-paced story line. Readers will fully appreciate Pinion as Mr. Lake takes the audience on a profound philosophical comparison of religion and magic vs. science; especially free will vs. pre-determinism and subjection. With two prime subplots filled with action, Paolina still holds the novel together as the heretic beginning a revolution in thought similar perhaps to the Renaissance or more so the transformation from the divine rights of kings to the Age of Reason. This is great finish, but newcomers need to read the previous entries first or be lost in the precision of Clockwork Earth.
Harriet Klausner