Angelmaker
ISBN: 9780099538
Description
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...
Reviewed on 31st December 2023
I finished this epic late last night and somehow am still not entirely sure I know what was happening. It’s a book about a potential end of the world and one clockwork repairer’s attempt to stop it. And yet it’s also much more than that.
There’s a rich tapestry of characters, who I’ve enjoyed getting to know and to visit their varied worlds. Everything starts fairly tame and the level of suspension of disbelief feels like it just needs ratcheting up chapter by chapter. And they are very long chapters.
In general, the prose takes effort. I’m not saying that as a bad thing - just an observation that this is not a tale for skimming, as the words are dense and important to follow events. And that for me makes it a slow read, and still engrossing.
What I loved most though was the small moments of levity. It’s a serious tale, but there are just small patches of dialogue littered throughout which felt almost Pratchettian in their humour.
I would probably pick up another Harkaway novel, but not for a while if it’s going to feel quite as much commitment as this.