Angelmaker

Description

From the acclaimed author of The Gone-Away World - an adventure story, a war story, and a love story, all wound into one brilliant narrative that runs like clockwork. From the acclaimed author of The Gone-Away World - an adventure story, a war story, and a love story, all wound into one brilliant narrative that runs like clockwork. Shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Science Fiction Literature. Joe Spork, son of the infamous criminal Mathew 'Tommy Gun' Spork just wants a quiet life, repairing clockwork in a wet, unknown bit of London. Edie Banister, former superspy, lives quietly and wishes she didn't. She's nearly ninety and the things she fought to save don't seem to exist anymore. She's beginning to wonder if they ever did. When Joe is asked to fix one particularly unusual device, his life is suddenly upended. The client? Unknown. The device? A 1950s doomsday machine. Having triggered it, Joe now faces the wrath of both the government and a diabolical South Asian dictator, Edie's old arch-nemesis. Joe's once-quiet world is now populated with mad monks, psychopathic serial killers, scientific geniuses and threats to the future of conscious life in the universe. The only way he can survive, is to muster the courage to fight, help Edie complete a mission she gave up years ago, and pick up his father's old gun...

Nick Harkaway is the author of The Gone-Away World and Angelmaker, and of an even better and more exciting novel whose name will probably end up being Tigerman, or possibly Man, Island, Boy. Contrary to what you may have heard, the title really is the hard part. When he's not writing, he spends his time being the husband of a brilliant lawyer and the dad of two small children who are secretly bent on world domination. He likes Italian red wine and lives in a bit of London where the taxis still have a horse at the pointy end.

Angelmaker is another cracking book from Nick Harkaway. It's a mix of sci-fi, steampunk, adventure and romance and the mix of genres work really well together ... Harkaway's Angelmaker is a brilliant piece of escapism. It's a wonderful example of how an irreverent approach to much loved genres can lead to a truly great story. * Nudge * Splendid cornucopia of a novel * The Big Issue (Wales) * Nick Harkaway's joyfully reckless invention is as intricate as clockwork ... Edie has a tangled history, the uncovering of which is one of the chief pleasures of Nick Harkaway's novel ... is one of the most enjoyable books I've read in ages ... brilliantly entertaining, and the last hundred pages are pure, unhinged delight. What a splendid ride. -- Patrick Ness * Guardian * What kind of a mind dreams up Angelmaker ... It could only be Nick Harkaway: bonkers, brilliant and hilarious ... clever and entirely fantastic. * Sunday Times * An entertaining tour-de-force that demands to be adored. * Independent on Sunday *