Overview

Joe Spork repairs clocks, a far cry from his late father, a flashy London gangster. But when Joe fixes one particularly unusual device, his life is suddenly upended. Joe's client, Edie Banister, is more than just a kindly old lady-she's a former superspy. 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 archnemesis. With Joe's once-quiet world now populated with mad monks, psychopathic serial killers, scientific geniuses, girls in pink leather, and threats to the future of conscious life in the universe, he realizes that the only way to 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.

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Reviews

A head-spinning cliffhanger that reads a bit like Harry Potter for grownups. -- Wall Street Journal It's hard to put a finger on exactly why Angelmaker is one of the year's best books. Know this, though: it is. -- Tor Angelmaker strenuously avoids falling into any usual category of fiction. Part science fiction, part philosophical exploration, part steampunk fantasy, and part lovingly realistic description of contemporary London, it pays tribute to Charles Dickens in its quirky names and frequent coincidences, and to pulp fiction in its semi-clad damsels and grisly scenes of torture. It is also mordantly funny. -- Columbus Dispatch A magnificent, literary, post-pulp triumph...Angelmaker is an entertaining tour-de-force that demands to be adored. -- Independent (London) A story of technology and morality. It's a wonderfully strange, rich piece of work-extremely entertaining and exciting-and has a wonderfully comic aspect to it as well. -- William Gibson Brilliant, wholly original, and a major-league hoot. -- Seattle Times A big, gleefully absurd, huggable bear of a novel...Harkaway's prose is playful and beguiling, with a keen satiric edge. -- Slate A lot of books are fun to read for the plot; a smaller percentage display this artful mastery of the language. And precious few manage to do both. Angelmaker falls into that last category. -- Wired An ambitious, crowded, restless caper, cleverly told...A solid work of modern fantasy fiction. -- Observer (London) Harkaway keeps us guessing, traveling the edges between fantasy, sci-fi, the detective novel, pomo fiction, and a good old-fashioned comedy of the sort that Jerome K. Jerome might have written had he had a ticking thingy instead of a boat as his prop...His tale stands comparison to Haruki Murakami's 1Q84. -- Kirkus Reviews [A] wonderful novel...Daniel Weyman's performance of this mystical story is terrific. The lilt in his voice engages the listener as he brings the book's wide variety of characters to life...Weyman's adept use of tone and pacing also defines the personalities of the many secondary characters-from geniuses to crazy monks. He's a joy to listen to. -- AudioFile Harkaway's celebrated debut, The Gone-Away World...was really just a warm up act-a prodigiously talented novelist stretching muscles that few other writers even possess-for this tour de force of Dickensian bravura and genre-bending splendor...This is a marvelous book, both sublimely intricate and compulsively readable. -- Booklist Endlessly inventive...An absurdist sendup of pulp story tropes and end-of-the-world scenarios. -- Publishers Weekly 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...What a splendid ride. -- Guardian (London) An intricate and brilliant piece of escapism...Gleefully nostalgic and firmly modern, hand-on-heart and tongue-in-cheek, this is as far as it could be from the wearied tropes that dominate so much of fantasy and sci-fi. -- Daily Telegraph (London)

Angelmaker strenuously avoids falling into any usual category of fiction. Part science fiction, part philosophical exploration, part steampunk fantasy, and part lovingly realistic description of contemporary London, it pays tribute to Charles Dickens in its quirky names and frequent coincidences, and to pulp fiction in its semi-clad damsels and grisly scenes of torture. It is also mordantly funny. -- Columbus Dispatch [A] wonderful novel...Daniel Weyman's performance of this mystical story is terrific. The lilt in his voice engages the listener as he brings the book's wide variety of characters to life...Weyman's adept use of tone and pacing also defines the personalities of the many secondary characters-from geniuses to crazy monks. He's a joy to listen to. -- AudioFile A big, gleefully absurd, huggable bear of a novel...Harkaway's prose is playful and beguiling, with a keen satiric edge. -- Slate A head-spinning cliffhanger that reads a bit like Harry Potter for grownups. -- Wall Street Journal 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...What a splendid ride. -- Guardian (London) A lot of books are fun to read for the plot; a smaller percentage display this artful mastery of the language. And precious few manage to do both. Angelmaker falls into that last category. -- Wired A magnificent, literary, post-pulp triumph...Angelmaker is an entertaining tour-de-force that demands to be adored. -- Independent (London) A story of technology and morality. It's a wonderfully strange, rich piece of work-extremely entertaining and exciting-and has a wonderfully comic aspect to it as well. -- William Gibson An ambitious, crowded, restless caper, cleverly told...A solid work of modern fantasy fiction. -- Observer (London) An intricate and brilliant piece of escapism...Gleefully nostalgic and firmly modern, hand-on-heart and tongue-in-cheek, this is as far as it could be from the wearied tropes that dominate so much of fantasy and sci-fi. -- Daily Telegraph (London) Brilliant, wholly original, and a major-league hoot. -- Seattle Times Endlessly inventive...An absurdist sendup of pulp story tropes and end-of-the-world scenarios. -- Publishers Weekly Harkaway keeps us guessing, traveling the edges between fantasy, sci-fi, the detective novel, pomo fiction, and a good old-fashioned comedy of the sort that Jerome K. Jerome might have written had he had a ticking thingy instead of a boat as his prop...His tale stands comparison to Haruki Murakami's 1Q84. -- Kirkus Reviews Harkaway's celebrated debut, The Gone-Away World...was really just a warm up act-a prodigiously talented novelist stretching muscles that few other writers even possess-for this tour de force of Dickensian bravura and genre-bending splendor...This is a marvelous book, both sublimely intricate and compulsively readable. -- Booklist It's hard to put a finger on exactly why Angelmaker is one of the year's best books. Know this, though: it is. -- Tor

Author Information

Nick Harkaway was born in Cornwall in 1972. He studied philosophy, sociology, and politics at Clare College, Cambridge, and then worked in the film industry. His novels include The Gone-Away World, Angelmaker, and The Blind Giant. He lives in London with his wife. Daniel Weyman is an actor and an AudioFile Earphones Award-winning narrator. He has appeared on stage in Sam West's Sheffield Crucible production of As You Like It and the Chichester Festival Theatre's production of David Edgar's The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. His portrayal of the title character earned him a nomination for Best Performance in a Play at the 2006 TMA Awards. His television appearances include Colditz and the BAFTA-winning BBC drama Dunkirk. In 2010 he played Tom Jackson in his first lead movie role in the film Just Ines.

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