512 pages
English language
Published April 15, 2023 by Doherty Associates, LLC, Tom, Tor Books.
A time-traveling, futuristic saga of a family trying to outlast and remake a universe with a power unlike any we've seen before. When Raisa Hopeland, determined to win her race to become the next electromancer of London, bumps into Amon Brightbourne - tweed-suited, otherworldly, guided by the Grace - in the middle of a London riot, she sets in motion a series of events which will span decades, continents and a series of events which will change the world. From rioting London to geothermal Iceland to the climate-struck islands of Polynesia, from birth to life to death, from tranquillity to terror to joy, Raisa's journey will encompass the world. But one thing will always be true. Hopeland is family--and family is dangerous.
This novel really set a hook early in with crazy parkour electromancer battles, then sort of jumps sideways in a disconcerting series of lines of love stories, epic familial curses, climate emergency, corporate empires, heroic coups and and and and.
I am a huge fan of most of Ian McDonald's stuff, but unfortunately this one hit kind of flat and was a major struggle to finish.
I had a little trouble with the whole magical reality aspect of the book, for starters. It seemed incredibly present in the first section, and then largely disappeared into the background until near the end, so it felt rather jarring when it returned after so long.
Also, the whole Hopeland thing wasn't quite strongly enough envisioned for me to get a handle on it?
Honestly, this may largely be me. Like I said, I had a lot of trouble connecting to this book and the characters so I might have just drifted off and lost details that are actually obviously there.
But that's my 2¢ FWIW…
