Angelmaker

'Angelmaker' is a thriller every bit as complex and intricate as the clockwork doomsday device at the centre of the plot. Joe Spork, a clockmaker with some dodgy underworld connections, finds himself at the heart of a supervillain's end-of-world plans when he accidentally activates said machine. In order to save the universe he will have to unravel the mystery of the 'angelmaker' and how it connects up with his own family history. He is aided by his former childhood friends - now running the go-to law firm for organised crime - and by a 90 year old secret agent who refuses to go quietly into retirement.It's a long book with weighty content and requires a degree of concentration to read. The descriptions of all the various devices and how they worked were beyond my powers of visualisation, and I didn't really understand all the philosophy behind the plot. But that didn't necessarily prevent me enjoying it. The action sequences are exciting, although the between-bits can be slow. The section where a character is imprisoned and tortured felt needlessly long and unpleasant. Joe is a likeable character and the supporting characters, particularly Edie, are interesting. The sections set during the war from Edie's perspective were perhaps the best, although I did care about the modern day story as well.Harkaway writes with a vein of humour which is critical to balance the weightiness and complexity of his world building. It may only come in flashes but it definitely makes the wold thing more readable. He's an author who uses a lot of interesting long words, the sort you look up and try to remember for future use.Overall this is an ambitious, challenging thriller, and ideal of readers who want action but are also looking for more intellectual heft than you might get in the typical plot-driven romp. If you're looking for something that's a quicker read or doesn't require too much concentration, it's not the best choice, so best save it for a time when you can focus and spare enough time to read it in longer sections.

Joe Spork is the son of one of England's most notorious criminals, after making a promise to his dad before he died, Joe just wants a quiet life, repairing clockwork just like his Grandad in his shop in a corner of London. Little does Joe know that only is his Dad not the criminal he thought he was, but his Grandmother is involved in something far bigger than Joe could ever imagine. A friend of his Grandmother's, Edie Banister, and her marble eyed pug Bastion, live quietly. Not a situation that sits well with an ex superspy trained since school, and used to living on a continuously moving train at 150mph or in a Submarine. She decides to finish what her old friend Frankie started. Through covert means she asks Joe to fix an unusual piece of clockwork. The clockwork is in actual fact, a 1950's doomsday device that he's just accidentally triggered, and is none the wiser until his friends suddenly turn up dead, there's mad monks in black shrouds, the governments telling tales about him, a South Asian dictator who will just not stay dead, a village that disappeared into the sea under suspicious circumstances, mechanical bee's, a serial killer and scientific geniuses parading all over London and invading his once quiet life and turning it upside down. Joe is the only one who knows where the device everyone wants is....but he doesn't know he knows where it is. He needs to go back to his roots and remember what he was taught in order to survive and save the world and help Edie complete her old mission. Armed with his Dad's old gun and most of London's criminal underworld...can he do it?I picked this book up because despite not being my usual kind of book, the back cover drew me in and made me very curious...I mean seriously who can resist mad monks, clockwork and scientific geniuses, it sounds like a script for a movie. From the first page I was entirely hooked. Here I am at 5:37 am having just finished the book after feverishly reading it for 2 days straight.Angelmaker is one of the most beautifully written and complex books I have read this year. The characters jump off the page, the scenes and descriptions are just beautiful and atmospheric and so vivid. The story centers on Joe and is mostly told from his perspective but we also get chapters from Edie's perspective as well as Young Edie and Young Joe. There's little insights into the characters past threaded throughout the story that relates to the main plot but sometimes you don't know it relates at the time! There are whole chapters about Edie's past, so at one point it's like you're reading two different stories, until eventually it all fits together and the pieces start to click that it's all one giant story, spanning generations.I'm at the stage where most books now are okay but nothing outstanding, I've either become really cynical or books are getting predictable because I can almost always tell exactly what is going to happen next. This was not the case with Angelmaker. I had no idea what was going to happen from one chapter to the next, and believe me I concentrated really hard on this book so it wasn't for lack of trying.Angelmaker is a fast paced book that steams along so fast you can barely keep up, there's never a dull moment, or a moment where you get bored, there's always something happening, something to make you think. Angelmaker is a thrilling, complex blend of the past and the present, with a complex plot. It has parts that will make you laugh out loud, huge amounts of suspense, action and criminal behavior with a tiny tiny dash of romance. My mind has been blown by this book, it's a blend of reality and fantasy, I literally can't praise this book enough!I would highly recommend everyone reads this book because it's one of the most entertaining and imaginative books I have read this year, that will keep you guessing until the end!

Nick Harkaway's second effort is one hell of a book. It tells the tale of Joe Spork (forgive the name). He is a clockwork repairer who also happens to be the son of one of the most famous criminals in London. When he fixes a piece of obscure machinery strange things start to happen and enemies lurk and menace Joe. His quiet and straight life seems to take a different turn. In fact the fate of humanity itself now depends on Joe Spork.Angelmaker is a steampunk/fantasy/thriller with lots of positive reviews. It promises much and at first it seems unlikely to deliver. However, give it time and it will. Some of the reviews are a little too complimentary (unguessable??? Some of it is a little guessable actually) howeverit is really very good. The style of writing takes a bit of getting used to. Its quite dense in prose and will sometimes take four pages to say what could be done in a couple of sentences or a paragraph. However, get past this and the actually descriptives language is rather wonderful and fulfilling. Each chapter (fairly long each one) has three titles underneath which tease what is happening. At first I ignored this but then took notice and liked it. The characters are great. Joe Spork is a good centre for this novel but the Cradle family are utterly brilliant. Edie Banister (ex superspy) is a fantastic draw and her tale, telling the past as well as the present is very good and boys own stuff.What I really enjoyed was the utter creativity of the whole thing. If I described the device that is at the centre of all this then you would think I am bonkers in liking this. However, this book is a bit bonkers at times. But its always readable, always entertaining and very rewarding. Recommended for those who like to think a little bit about what they are reading and want something a little left field.