In an alternate historical Renaissance Florence, an apprentice artist considers his master work in the light of his rivals, Raphael and Michaelangelo, and turns detective when a murder takes place.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Scotsman McAuley (Philip A. Dick Award-winning Four Hundred Billion Stars; Red Dust) has written an ambitious, often brilliant novel of alternate history. Renaissance Florence provides the richly portrayed historical backdrop. But, in McAuley's evocation, the city's skies are tainted by industrial waste from foundries and manufactories; its monumental buildings are designed and fiercely watched over by the Great Engineer, whose identity readers will easily deduce as that of Leonardo da Vinci. In this alternate Florence, a division has arisen between artisans and artists, with the former?those who work with their hands?holding more prestige than the creative artists. The protagonist is Pasquale, an apprentice painter determined to create a true image of an angel. He meets Niccolo Machiavegli, who lost his foreign policy position under the Republic rule and is now a journalist and political commentator on a broadsheet offering gossip and scandal. As the two become involved in investigating a string of murders, including the death of Raphael (Florence's most honored artist since Michelangelo fell from grace when he failed to complete the Sistine Chapel ceiling), Pasquale and Machiavegli uncover conspiracy after conspiracy, including the "demonology" of the followers of prophet-orator Savonarola and the obligatory "Spanish conspiracy." McAuley adroitly ties all these events together in a complex plot. His most noteworthy accomplishment is that Machiavegli sounds Machiavellian even in ordinary conversation. Indeed, the only moments that give a reader pause are those that seem more anachronistic than they probably truly are?Pasquale turns out erotic paintings called "stiffeners"; a corpsemaster wishes for "sloppy seconds." McAuley's spectacularly realized chiaroscuro world is a highly entertaining tour de force.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Although they were, respectively, a universe-spanning space opera and a dark depiction of the last days of human colonization of Mars, McAuley's Eternal Light (1993) and Red Dust often strained science fiction conventions. Now, McAuley leaves sf altogether, producing a vividly imagined, historically meticulous murder mystery set during the Renaissance. Just before an auspicious papal visit to Florence, a fierce argument breaks out between a local apprentice to Leonardo da Vinci and an assistant of the notorious Florentine painter, Raphael. When the assistant is found murdered in a locked tower, famed essayist Niccolo{•}Machiavegli [sic] accompanies Pasquale, a novice artisan, on the detective trail. As suspects proliferate, including, among others, the great Michelangelo and Raphael himself, Machiavegli and Pasquale uncover Florence's darker secrets. McAuley makes excellent use of period scenery, celebrities, and art history to create an absorbing suspense vehicle. May the novel's release under Morrow's sf imprint, AvoNova, not mislead readers in search of a first-rate murder mystery. Carl Hays
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More About the Author
Paul McAuley's first novel won the Philip K. Dick Award, and he has gone on to win almost all of the major awards in the field. For many years a research biologist, he now writes full-time. McAuley's novel The Quiet War made several "best of the year" lists, including SF Site's Reader's Choice Top 10 SF and Fantasy Books of 2009. He lives in London. Visit him online at unlikelyworlds.blogspot.com .
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Those wacky alternate histories,
This review is from: Pasquale's Angel (Paperback)
I don't know enough about Italian history (which is probably sad, being that I'm Italian) to say definitely where history went wacky and we got this book but I can say that this is definitely a book that can be worth your time. McAuley has turned into one of the more versatile and consistent authors around, especially in SF. He may not be world shatteringly exceptional but he rarely repeats himself and his writing is clear and concise, not relying on complicated narrative structure or knotted sentences. Here he presents a gritty, almost industrial age Italy where Da Vinci didn't really go into art but instead made lots of engineering feats and kick started a whole lot of things before they should have been kicked into starting. Pasquale is a young artist who happens to be drawn into the murder of one of the assistents of the "immortal" (ignore the book jacket when it says that, he's as mortal as everyone else) Rapheal. He is joined by a reporter who used to be a noted political figure before his downfall (I won't even try spelling his name) and together they try to piece together what turns out to be a large conspiracy that is apparently everywhere. McAuley does a great job of churning out a first rate murder mystery, plots and suspects rebound with apparent ease and your head is spinning by both his great attention to period detail and almost left field plot twists. However, at some point the conspiracy gets so complicated that it stops making sense at all and towards the end you're probably going to start scratching your head and wondering what the heck is going on. Don't fret, buckle down and keep going and while everyone might not be explained to your satisifaction, McAuley manages to pull a resolution out that makes everyone mostly worthwhile. McAuley's an author that instead of stunning us with one far out book, has steadily and swiftly built up a solid record of varied and entertaining science-fiction/fantasy, and if this book is any indication, his track record should hold long into the future.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Nice alternate history yarn, but a flawed thriller,
This review is from: Pasquale's Angel (Hardcover)
This is a detective novel in the spirit of Sherlock Holmes in an alternate history setting. The alternate history is fine, but the closed room murder mistery is lifted out of a very famous early detective story and should be immediately recognizable to any mistery novel aficionado. Still, it's a fun read.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Alternate history Renaissance Italy thriller,
By
This review is from: Pasquale's Angel (Paperback)
Pasquale's Angel is set in Florence, in 1518, but history has not gone quite as it did in our own world. Leonardo da Vinci became interested in mechanics and science, not art; the Medici are not returned to power in Florence, and indeed Savonarola is still alive; and Machiavelli (spelled Machiavegli here), instead of falling from favour when the Medici return, as happened in our world, is brought down from power by the suspicion that he is a Medici sympathizer.However, a reduced Machiavegli has opportunities he did not have in our world. Da Vinci's focus on science has brought Renaissance Florence technologies from the printing press to engines of war, and Machiavegli has become a journalist. The protagonist, Pasquale, is a young artist, and art is big business and major politics in this world. A major figure is murdered, and Pasquale and Machiavegli get on the tracks of a conspiracy. Pretty soon the conspiracy is on to them, and the book is a fairly straightforward thriller after that. The period detail is good, and the ways in which the new technologies have changed and yet not changed the world are well-imagined. The characters occasionally sound more like twentieth century actors wearing period costumes, but McAuley maintains the tone pretty well, and he's a clean, transparent writer, without clumsiness or affectation. On the plot level, there are a couple of implausibilities. When you finally find out how the locked room murder was committed, a couple of fairly serious problems with the explanation will doubtless occur to you as they did to me. The conspiracy does seem a little hydra-headed and all-seeing; in places the book starts to sound like Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum", and not in a good way. But Pasquale is a good character, and the book is a satisfying though not exceptional read.
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