The Light Ages
by Ian R. MacLeod
fantasy
copyright 2003
partly read in December 2017
rated 6/10: read to pass the time
The back cover claims that this book is, "A haunting and passionate evocation of a strange Victorian age..." Yes, true. Shades of steampunk, too. And after reading a hundred pages -- of the 450 total -- I decided that there was an awful lot of evocation and nothing actually happening.
Not strictly true. Things do happen. Little things... In terms of "plot" -- the book could be summarised on perhaps one A4 sheet of paper. The rest is ... evocation.
The evocation is well done. It's just that I was hoping that something would happen... something interesting... *anything at all* would be interesting...
After a hundred pages I gave up. My rating slipped to 5/10: readable, but only if there's nothing else. I had something else to read, an old Phantom comic. Sure, I've read it before. But I gave up on Light, the Phantom comic had more action -- and more interest.
Light Ages is not a "bad" book. But nothing really happens -- so there is no real point to the book. Okay, here's an interesting world... but so what?! I'm not going to struggle through 300 more pages -- no matter how evocative -- in the hope of something happening.
A quick skim of the last few pages seems to hint at a happy ending. An improvement in the overall happiness within this "strange Victorian age". Yet I also get the impression that the improvement is due to predestination rather than anyone's action. Ho hum.
Definitely not a book for a lover of escapist fantasy.
==== Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper / Flaneur
Agamedes Consulting / Problems ? Solved
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"Give a man an inch and he'll think he's a ruler" … Agent 86
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Now much more than a clever name for a holiday journal:
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