Picked up Ian MacLeod's The Light Ages from the library on a whim. I'm only a hundred pages in, but I am already flabbergasted. This book is awesome. The writing, the tone, the elaborate and brilliantly realized world... unless he completely flubs the ending, this one is getting bought for realsies and cheerfully added to my overstuffed bookshelves, Kindle be damned.
Interested to hear your after-thoughts. I loved that book.
Finished the last 350 pages last night. An excellent book all around. A bit of Dickens, a bit of "The Great Gatsby," generally intriguing and fascinating. The last bits weren't quite as amazing as the first bits, but he managed to maintain pretty well and end properly.
If I have one criticism, it is that Robert (the protagonist) is almost comically passive. I kept being startled whenever he interjected with a question or - rarity of rarities! - actually took action to seek a goal. Hell, I forgot he was there half the time. The whole book is him being pulled along by others and just kind of drifting on the currents, and then suddenly at the end he goes completely apeshit for about three chapters, then back to vague inaction again. With particular regard to his romantic endeavors, I wanted to throttle him and scream, "Would you just DO SOMETHING already!?"
Mind you, it's a bit of a sticking point with me, as I tend toward inaction myself and must force myself to be proactive, and the events of my life have made me very strongly aware of the risks of drifting and the rewards of acting. (My first relationship was one I kind of went along with because I didn't have any better ideas, and it ended badly. My second relationship was one I pursued against my inherent laziness and fear, and we'll have been married six years in another month or two and been happily in couplehood for nine. [Long engagement, partially due to logistics and educational issues.])
Overall, a book I unhesitatingly recommend, particularly if you have any fondness at all for Victorian-flavored narrative.
