From the acclaimed author of The Gone-Away World - a new riveting action spy thriller, blistering gangster noir, and howling absurdist comedy- a propulsively entertaining tale about a mobster's son and a retired secret agent who are forced to team up to save the world. All Joe Spork wants is a quiet life. He repairs clockwork and lives above his shop in a wet, unknown bit of London. The bills don't always get paid and he's single and has no prospects of improving his lot, but at least he's not trying to compete with the reputation of Mathew "Tommy Gun" Spork, his infamous criminal dad. Edie Banister lives quietly and wishes she didn't. She's nearly ninety and remembers when she wasn't. She's a former superspy and now she's... well... old. Worse yet, the things she fought to save don't seem to exist anymore, and she's beginning to wonder if they ever did. When Joe fixes one particularly unusual device, his life is suddenly upended. The client? Unknown. And the device? It's a 1950s doomsday machine. And having triggered it, Joe now faces the wrath of both the government and a diabolical South Asian dictator, Edie's old arch-nemesis. With Joe's once-quiet world now populate
From the acclaimed author of The Gone-Away World - a new riveting action spy thriller, blistering gangster noir, and howling absurdist comedy- a propulsively entertaining tale about a mobster's son and a retired secret agent who are forced to team up to save the world. All Joe Spork wants is a quiet life. He repairs clockwork and lives above his shop in a wet, unknown bit of London. The bills don't always get paid and he's single and has no prospects of improving his lot, but at least he's not trying to compete with the reputation of Mathew "Tommy Gun" Spork, his infamous criminal dad. Edie Banister lives quietly and wishes she didn't. She's nearly ninety and remembers when she wasn't. She's a former superspy and now she's... well... old. Worse yet, the things she fought to save don't seem to exist anymore, and she's beginning to wonder if they ever did. When Joe fixes one particularly unusual device, his life is suddenly upended. The client? Unknown. And the device? It's a 1950s doomsday machine. And having triggered it, Joe now faces the wrath of both the government and a diabolical South Asian dictator, Edie's old arch-nemesis. With Joe's once-quiet world now populate
An adventure story, a war story, and a love story, all wound into one brilliant narrative that runs like clockwork.
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)*
This brilliant, boundless mad genius of a book runs on its own
frenetic energy, and bursts with infinite wit, inventive ambition
and damn fine storytelling. You finish reading it in gape-mouthed
awe and breathless admiration, having experienced something very
special indeed.
*Matt Haig, author of The Radleys*
You're in for a treat... Dickens meets Mervyn Peake in a modern
Mother London.
*William Gibson*
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...Like his debut The
Gone-Away World, this is a joyful display of reckless, delightful
invention, on a par with the rocket-powered novels of Neal
Stephenson, if in rather more ironically diffident English form.
Ideas come zinging in from all corners, and do so with linguistic
verve and tremendous humour. Even the bad-tempered pug is funny and
accurate in every detail...brilliantly entertaining, and the last
hundred pages are pure, unhinged delight. What a splendid ride.
*Guardian*
Clockmaker and repairman Joe Spork, the reluctant heir to a London wise guy, has just encountered his most intriguing customer to date. Kindly Edie Banister may be in her 80s, but she's a former international spy in possession of a 1950s doomsday machine. Now triggered, the machine draws the interest and ire of an assorted cast of dangerous characters (including government agents and dictators), all of whom cause Joe to summon his inner gangster to remain safe. An eclectic mix of fantasy and crime fiction, Harkaway's narrative is descriptive but lags somewhat. Because of the mashup of disparate literary elements, readers might love this title or hate it. The audio performance by Daniel Weyman is average. -VERDICT Hard to classify into just one category, fans of Michael Olson, Harry Dolan, and Ruth Rendell might want to give Angelmaker a listen. ["Immense fun and quite exciting, this novel also has a kinship with the bizarre scenarios and feverish wordiness of writers like Martin Amis and Will Self, with its huge cast of British eccentrics and the dark forces of paranoia and totalitarianism lurking everywhere," read the review of the Knopf hc, LJ 3/15/12.-Ed.]-Nicole A. Cooke, Montclair State Univ. Lib., NJ (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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) *
This brilliant, boundless mad genius of a book runs on its own
frenetic energy, and bursts with infinite wit, inventive
ambition and damn fine storytelling. You finish reading it in
gape-mouthed awe and breathless admiration, having experienced
something very special indeed. -- Matt Haig, author of The
Radleys
You're in for a treat... Dickens meets Mervyn Peake in a modern
Mother London. -- William Gibson
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...Like his debut
The Gone-Away World, this is a joyful display of
reckless, delightful invention, on a par with the rocket-powered
novels of Neal Stephenson, if in rather more ironically
diffident English form. Ideas come zinging in from all corners,
and do so with linguistic verve and tremendous humour. Even the
bad-tempered pug is funny and accurate in every
detail...brilliantly entertaining, and the last hundred pages
are pure, unhinged delight. What a splendid ride. -- Patrick
Ness * Guardian *
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