Customer Reviews

Newton's Cannon (The Age of Unreason, Book 1)

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What would happen if Sir Isaac Newton, one of the greatest scientific minds in human history, actually discovered the secrets of alchemy and magic? What if other historical figures, such as a young Benjamin Franklin and Louis XIV, King of France, were affected by this discovery? Author Keyes presents a fascinating story, obviously well researched, which demonstrates that humankind's inability to mature morally as fast as it does scientifically, leds for horrifying consequences. The story weaves around numerous historical and fictional characters and the pace is kept lively. In particular, the author does a good job with the female characters, making them much more than simple cardboard cutouts. The ending is particularly good and I immediately read the sequelA Calculus of Angels" to find out what happens next.

I agree with the reviewer who pointed out that the story veers into the reckless and bizarre toward the end. This kept me from feeling the satisfaction of having read a truly great book of speculative fiction that the high quality of the opening and middle chapters had led me to anticipate. After adroitly sidestepping many potential cliches and stereotypes in developing the plot, the author tumbles into a couple of obvious sandtraps in wrapping it up. As I finished the book, I imagined the author's editor phoning him while he was working out the direction of the final chapters, and putting pressure on him to hurry it into print. The result is three-quarters of a five-star book whose ending threatens to give it feet of clay.

I didn't like the ending much, but I still consider "Newton's Cannon" to be a good read, well worth your time and easily deserving the four stars I've given it. I also agree with the earlier reviewers who have noted with pleasure that Greg Keyes did his alchemical homework well. I especially enjoyed the "aetherschreiber" device, the masterfully-sketched underpinnings for its plausibility, and its pivotal role in developing the main plot. I would have preferred to see the story continue further along that trajectory and avoid degenerating into fast-paced "horse opera with magick" at the end. In particular, omitting the alchemical pistols would have helped the story a great deal. Without them, the author might have successfully resisted the temptation to turn the final confrontation in London into an unsatisfying "spy vs spy vs spy" caricature with overtones of Zane Grey. The French portion of the ending was better, but still leaned too heavily on Dumas for my taste.

I did like the very last paragraph, though. It sent a chill up my spine as it detonated a couple of subtle landmines that had been laid quite carefully in earlier parts of the story.

Book 1 of The Age of Unreason

When I first heard of this book some time ago I was initially hesitant to read it. The subject did not sound like something that I would be interested in. But then I read The Briar King a couple of months ago and realized that Greg Keyes is an author I would like to read more of. So I picked this book up again and finally started reading. It was a whole lot better than I expected.

The story begins with Isaac Newton discovering a substance (called Philospher's Mercury, I believe). While Newton was a great scientist, he unsuccessfully dabbled in alchemy. The prologue takes a "what if" approach to Newton and his alchemy. In this book, Isaac Newton is ultimately successful and it is this new substance that changed the course of history. This aether allows for the creation of devices that could exist today (even though it is during the time of Benjamin Franklin) as well as some that have never existed. There is a cannon mentioned (not the one in the title) that when the cannonball strikes a castle, it turns the walls to glass and then shatters the castle. This aether (Philosopher's Mercury) is the most influential discovery in human history and it has changed the nature of the 1700's.

Flash forward several decades. Our hero is Benjamin Franklin (yes, that Benjamin Franklin). He is 14 years old and every bit the genius that history has told us. He is an apprentice to his brother, a printer. With some of Franklin's theories and inventions on how to adapt some of the existing technology even further, his life is threatened. We see how Franklin begins to work some things out and how he ends up chased out of Boston to London.

At the same time, there is intrigue going on in the court of Louis XIV in France. France is in the middle of a war with England (and is on the losing end), but they are developing a super weapon that could potentially destroy all of London. The main character in these sections is not Louis, as one might expect, but rather a young woman named Adrienne. Adrienne secretly studies mathematics in a place where women are not treasured for their learning, but she is thrust onto a path filled with secrets but also the opportunity to learn more.

Starting with an interesting concept (though not one that initially attracted me to the book), and executed very well and believably, Greg Keyes has written a very good first book (out of 4 for this series). While I did not find it as stunning as The Briar King, I remain interested enough in this series that I intend on reading book 2 (A Calculus of Angels).

What if Newton - who was interested in such things - deduced the rules for it as here he did for physics? And what if this new science created new weapons for the wars of the 18th century?

That's the basic premise of the "The Age of Unreason" series. All four books are out now and my basic review is that the series has been excellent, and I highly recommend it!

Keyes has an excellent book here. In many ways, it is similar to "Celestial Matters," where Richard Garfinkle took the idea of "What if Aristotelian physics was real" and ran with it, creating an alternate world where that science ruled, creating an Earth - and a history - wildly different from our own.

Here, Keyes is asking "what if the alchemists were right?" - but unlike "Celestial Matters," the POD is close enough to the current events of the story that the world, while changed, is still recognizably our 18th century world. And because it is recognizably our world, Keyes gets to use real historical figures as his characters - Franklin, Newton, Louis XIV, etc. - and he does so very well.

He also seems to have a good grasp on the changes his POD would render to the world. The new alchemical miracle machines (such as ever-glowing lights, the aetherscreiber, and even a steam-engine of a sort) are just beginning to make their way into common use. There are groups (mostly religious) opposed to them as "magic," there are others - such as Franklin - fascinated by the new "science" and it's possibilities.

And it seems that along with the Philosopher's Mercury, "demons" may walk the Earth...

I loved the book. If it's got any real problem, it's that it's the first book of a series - and because of that Keyes is introducing almost too much stuff to us, stuff that will be useful in the rest of the series, but here make the book a little cluttered. We've got the primary story of Louis, Franklin, and the weapon (of which I will only say the primary creator of which - Fatio - chuckles when he thinks how appropriate it is to call it "Newton's own cannon"), but then we've also got a secret society of women - the "Korai" - playing their little power games with some of the main characters, "demons" running their own mysterious plans, and - heck - even a brief walk-on by Blackbeard the Pirate, of all people (well, "limp-on," actually). It's all just that close to being too much.

However, as I said, I loved the book and read it and all the rest of the books in the "Age of Unreason" series. This is Alternate History writ very large - and very strange...

I'm a big fan of alternate histories, sometimes the weirder the better. Usually they're based on some change in a real-world event: what would happen if Stonewall Jackson wasn't killed by his own men? What would happen if Hitler had successfully invaded Great Britain? Some, however, are a bit more fantastical, and those can be even better. J. Gregory Keyes has created just such a series in his "Age of Unreason" books, the first of which is Newton's Cannon. If the first book is anything to go by, it's going to be a fun read.

The first scene is 1681, where Sir Isaac Newton has had a startling revelation in his study of alchemy, unleashing "Philosopher's Mercury" which allows people to manipulate the four elements of Earth, Air, Fire and Water. This produces things like floating balls of light that make candles obsolete, and powerful weapons as well. We then move to 1720. The French and the English are at war and King Louis XIV of France demands a weapon that will turn the tide, a weapon so devastating that even he doesn't know what he's unleashed. a device known mysteriously as Newton's Cannon. Over in the Colonies, a young apprentice named Benjamin Franklin has stumbled upon the secret. Using the new devices that allow words to be transferred over vast distances, he stumbles upon a mathematical problem that he has the answer for. But is he helping the English, or is he making a terrible mistake?

Newton's Cannon is a great blend of science, a little bit of magic, and a whole lot of "what-if." The historical characters, while much younger than we are familiar with (Ben Franklin starts at age 12), are still fairly recognizable. Ben is very intelligent, a writer and a printer's apprentice to his older brother, James. He's also an inventor, which unfortunately brings him a bit of trouble in this book. The story follows two plot lines: Benjamin Franklin's and a woman named Adrienne, who becomes involved with King Louis. Occasionally, the viewpoint switches to the king's, and it gets a bit distracting when it does that, but it's not too bad. For the most part, though, the chapters alternate between Ben and Adrienne, with no variance in that pattern. Of course, most of the chapters leave off with cliffhangers which make you want to read just one more chapter (actually two, though, considering you have to read a chapter with the other character first). This pattern can get a bit tiring after a while, and it would have been nice to have another viewpoint character to liven things up a little bit.

One other aspect of Keyes's writing that also got a bit annoying was his tendency to open a chapter with either Ben or Adrienne knocked out or asleep, and having to have the events of the last little while explained to them. It happened three or four times, and while it can be a valid technique at times, I think it should be used sparingly. It's almost as annoying as constantly starting chapters in the middle of the action and explaining how they came about in flashback. Thankfully, Keyes doesn't go that far. With the exception of these little things, though, his prose is decent. There were no turns of phrase that made me shiver in appreciation, but he didn't make any real mistakes either. It's a pleasant read that grabs you and holds on to you.

While the historical characters are done well, I can't quite say the same thing for the other incidental characters. The French chief of security, Torcy, isn't too bad though he doesn't get a lot of characterization until the end. Adrienne, of course, is fleshed out greatly, but her scientific companions (especially Fatio) don't get much. This is a shame, because Fatio is actually the driving force behind the fiendish plot and it would have been nice to get a little motivation from him. We get the picture that he is a former student of Newton's and they had a falling out, but that's it. It's unclear who survives the book (except Newton and Franklin, of course) so we don't even know if they will appear in the next books to flesh out their characters a little bit. It's a shame, because they could have been interesting. Newton's philosophical companions suffer from sounding much the same, with only MacLaurin's Scottish brogue distinguishing him from the rest (except for the woman, of course). All in all, they get just enough characterization to do their jobs, but not enough to always be interesting.

This is a very plot-driven book. Two main characters drive most of it and they are what makes the plot interesting. You can feel Ben's horror as he realizes what he's done and tries to take steps to rectify it. Adrienne is trapped in a situation not of her devising, and she has to decide whether to be the queen or the pawn in the situation. Then again, if she can work things right, she can be one of the players instead of one of the pieces. There's something else lurking in the background, just waiting to jump out and make their decisions moot. There are some questions that are left hanging (just who is Bracewell and what was he doing with Ben before Ben made his discovery that made him dangerous?), but they may be explained in the next book. Then again, circumstances in this book make it so that's not very likely.

All in all, Newton's Cannon is a very good first book and will definitely make you want to go further. It's not your normal alternate history, but rather a historical fantasy. People who don't like alternate history should not necessarily stay away from it. It just uses a historical background to make the setting easier for both author and reader. It's well worth picking up.

David Roy

I'm not into alternative history at all. As a matter of fact, I normally would have found the subject matter very boring. However, this book was awesome! I'm not a huge fantasy fan, I dabble in it here and there. I actually had to read this book so I could write a book review on it for a newspaper internship I had. But once I started it, I couldn't stop reading. The characters were well develpoed and exciting. There was even a great female character (and that's rare when the author is male). This is a must read.

For example, Newton's assistant for much of his alchemical work in our world really was his younger cousin Humphrey Newton, just as Keyes portrays him in the prologue. Fatio, the Swiss alchemist who really was Newton's associate and confidante for many years in our world, also plays a pivotal--but very different--role in Keyes' alternate world. (See the essays collected in John Fauvel's book <<Let Newton Be!>> for more biographical information on them. And Newton's comment about "the eagle" and "Jupiter" on the cusp of his discovery in Keyes' prologue is also fully authentic: see the Amazon.com readers' reviews of Dr. Betty Jo Teeter Dobbs' excellent study <<The Foundations of Newton's Alchemy or 'The Hunting of the Greene Lyon'>> for a hint of where it came from.

Fantastical history taking a very real fascination of Netwon with Alchemy and twisting in on its head. We have to remember, at the time of Newton alchemy was seen as a very real and possible scientific area of investigation - its only seen through our historical filters that we view it as 'occult'. This takes the truth of this and weaves a very engaging, well written and believable tale of mystery, magic and science.

One of the best suprises i've had in some time (I picked it up in the bargain bin - a definite read!)

As I read this book, I noticed threads that reminded me of the best moments in "The Eight", "Lucifer's Hammer" and Harlan Ellison's "Flop Sweat". I found it to be a marvelous and original story, easy to get swept up in, and full of subtle "aha" moments for the omnivorous reader.

I thoroughly enjoyed the story and found it hard to put down. One flaw in this book, however, was the ending. It almost seemed that the author had hit the number of pages promised and tried to tie up all the loose ends in five pages. I realize that this is the beginning of a series and some loose ends are actually needed but I don't see that it was necessary to finish so abruptly.