Light Ages (Paperback)

Unfortunately, MacLeod has very little that's new to say on any of these subjects. Although he tries to write in the steampunk, science-fantasy tradition, he seems to have forgotten that at the core of these sub-genres there must exist strangeness, newness, and wonder. The story he tells is remarkably mundane. Were it not for a few fantastic touches, such as the strange mutations that take place after too much exposure to aether (the novel's magical McGuffin), The Light Ages might just as easily have been a general fiction novel set in the turn of the last century.

The Light Ages describes a tumultuous period - with society on the cusp of ruin, a group of disgruntled have-nots are in the process of orchestrating a people's revolution. The narrator, Robert Borrows, exists on the fringes of this group, and although their struggle is interesting, it is also off-putting. Most of us who have read a few history books know that revolutions, no matter in who's name, will inevitably turn bloody and cruel. We've know that revolutionary leaders who talk about equality, giving power to the people, and an end to ownership will almost certainly end up hoarding rights, power and property. That MacLeod expects us to be shocked or saddened when these very things happen is almost insulting.

In a possible attempt to humanize this struggle, MacLeod weaves in the story of Robert's life as he struggles to understand a tragic event that has colored his life, the life of his family and his home town, and eventually makes a discovery that alters the course of history. Both of these plots move slowly, and their revelations are thin and obvious, unlikely to surprise even the most inexperienced reader. MacLeod attempts to artificially inflate his story by bookending it in a conversation Robert has with a "changeling" - one of the aforementioned mutants. Her identity is supposed to be a big surprise, but it ends up being meaningless.

I gave The Light Ages three stars for the power of its prose and for being a fine attempt at thinking outside the fantasy box. Unfortunately, MacLeod was unequal to the task at hand, and I wouldn't recommend this book at all.

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The Light Ages is more of an alternate-history romance with a dash of fantasy. The primary fantastical element is aether, a magical substance mined from the earth, and the pillar supporting all industry. Those who have it live in opulence, those who don't suffer poverty.

The first 20% had me hooked. While watching a young workingman's son grow up, we learn all about aether: where it comes from, what it does, and its wondrously creepy dark side. Loved it.

But then young Robert Burrows goes to London, and all fantasy elements jump to the backseat. 80% of the remaining pages are given to a dozen years passing against the backdrop of a social revolution. It was then I began to notice MacLeod's lengthy descriptions becoming tedious; years crawling by as the revolution builds. There's a love story in there somewhere, buried under a heap of social events. It took an effort to stay involved.

Towards the end the pace picks up somewhat, but events fall into place all too conveniently, something that always stretches credibility.

If slightly fantastical historical romances are your thing, and you don't mind lots of description, then The Light Ages should hit the spot.

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The book is told by one Robert Borrows. Robert grows up in a Yorkshire mining town. The substance mined at this town is "aether", a magical source of energy that is the driving force of the economy and technology of the world of this book. Accidents with aether can cause people to mutate into "changelings" or "trolls", and Robert's life changes when his mother begins to mutate, and also when he meets an ambiguous girl, perhaps a changeling, named Annelise. Robert eventually escapes his home town and heads to London, where he becomes involved in fomenting a socialist revolution. He becomes a "mart", someone outside the Guild structure of England. The Guilds apparently control all the technology, and all the labour. Robert, thus, makes his living via the black market, or by simply stealing, and he also becomes a writer for a revolutionary newspaper. His focus is the injustices of the Guild structure, but all along we are also showed the maltreatment of the changelings.

In London Robert also again encounters Annalise, now calling herself Anna Winters. She has become attached to the upper classes, particularly via her friendship with Sarah Passington, daughter of perhaps the most powerful man of the realm. Robert's doomed attraction to the strangely glamourous Anna motivates him to continue to visit her when he can. He is both disgusted by the class inequalities revealed to him, and also of course attracted by the perquisites of the very wealthy -- not to mention such beauties as Sarah and Anna.

The book turns, finally, on revelations about the emptiness behind the aether-based power structure of the rulers of England, and an ambiguously successful "revolution". Robert and Anna learn much about their past -- and they are intimately involved with the opening of a new "Age". But the new Age is perhaps not all they might have hoped.

I had a complex reaction to this novel. It is for much of its length quite frustrating. The pace is glacial. But it remains absorbing for the excellent writing, and for the fascinating details of life in this alternate England. What really redeems the book is the ending, which I found emotionally wracking, and honest, somewhat surprising, almost but not quite cynical. I was moved to tears -- I think honest tears -- and the final scene is perfect.

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