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5.0 out of 5 stars
A new World comes into being, Aug 23 2000
With the publication of "Daemonomania",the third part of a projected four part series,it is possible to renavigate the strange ocean of images and themes that is "Aegypt" (the first in the sequence). The coherence of the interpenetrating mosiac of narratives becomes vivid with careful rereading. Crowley's intent is nothing less than a hermetic reenchanting of the modern world, in which the givens of consensual reality are called into question by a great "what if?". What if the old magics of the preScientific Age had actually worked due to our conscious assent...would the forces set in motion by Renaissance mages such as John Dee still reverberate in the present, in rural upstate New York ? Do we then have choices between "realities",both personal and public , that influence the way the world is and will be ? "Aegypt" begins Crowley's examination of the deep implications of this possibility.With deft skill he draws the reader into a familiar yet arcane World in which symbol and substance fuse together.The impact is visceral and engrossing. The historian Pierce Moffett ,presented with the same existential dilemma as the antihero in Sartre's "Nausea", is impelled to construct or ,perhaps, rediscover the World.Akin to an allegorical tableaux of the High Renaissance, "Aegypt" has the capacity to amaze and educate, enrich and renew. Taken together, the series may eventually redefine Magic Realism in the same way that "Little,Big" by Crowley redefined (Le Guin's term) Fantasy. A casket of rare wonders.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Impeccable; modern fantastic literature at its very best, Aug 8 2000
John Crowley is both one of the most artistic of the scribes of the late twentieth century, and one of the most overlooked. This particular volume is a prime example of that dichotomy. Probably one of the ten best works of literature written in the last twenty years, it is (last I checked) no longer published. Svelte and poised, this book conveys more in a few paragraphs than most authors do in their entire careers. While probably not the absolute best place to begin a love affair with Crowley's style (try: 'A Great Work of Time', 'Engine Summer' or the longer, but incomparably fine 'Little, Big'), this book is the culmination of Crowley's career, and the beginning of a cycle of books (2= Love&Sleep, 3=Daemonomania) which appears to be, at the rate Crowley writes, his final effort and Magnum Opus. As the opening of such an effort, this book does not disappoint. It weaves incredible realism with a sense of the fantastic which matches some of Rushdie and Garcia Marquez's finest works. The elements of the fantastic are not just matter-of-fact, as in , say, Rusdhies 'Midnight's Children", but are awe inspiringly plausable and stunning, almost as if the reader shares revelations of a world hidden from view, which only Crowley can see. Its a pitiable shame he cant share it more often, and with more people.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Secret History, Jun 14 2000
Carried by a fanciful play between fact and fiction, Aegypt soars as one of the best novels I've ever read. Using history as a jumping point, Crowley guides the reader through lives lived in regret, hope, fear, and the awe of realization, finally landing in a world made magical only by the minds experiencing it. Crowley also has a knack for laying out patterns, looping from character to character, as well as from author to reader. Despite the book's sometimes questionable veracity, the feelings it describes and the insights about the human condition are almost always dead on. Read this book (and make sure to look up the names you read about, a lot of them are real).
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