Age of Unreason
4 primary works • 5 total works
Book 1
Come on a journey sideways through time, and lose yourself in a world both deeply familiar and wondrously strange.
In 1681, Sir Isaac Newton turns his restless mind to the ancient art of alchemy, and successfully unleashes Philosopher's Mercury, the key to manipulating the four elements. Powerful kings will battle to control it, till London itself is threatened with obliteration by a hellish device - unless a pair of unlikely geniuses can defuse it in time.
This is a fantasy woven from the stuff of history, an enthralling quest whose outcome may raise humanity to unparalleled heights ... or bring down the curtain of endless night.
Book 2
1722: A second Dark Age looms after the devastating impact of an asteroid, unnaturally drawn to Earth by dire creatures who plot against the world of men. Sir Isaac Newton and his young apprentice, Benjamin Franklin, have taken refuge in ancient Prague, seeking the secrets of aetheric beings whose vast powers and new sciences have so nearly destroyed humanity ... yet who may prove to be its last, great hope.
But their safety is tenuous, as Peter the Great marches his unstoppable forces across Europe. And half a world away, Blackbeard the pirate leads a party of colonial luminaries back across the Atlantic to discover what has befallen the Old World. With sails a Choctaw shaman whose mysterious connections to the invisible world warn him of a confrontation as violent as it is decisive ...
`Masterful...a bravura performance...lavish and thoughtful' Publishers Weekly (starred review)
`Exciting, suspenseful, and beautifully written' Amazon.com
Book 3
When Sir Isaac Newton uncovered the secrets of alchemy, he could never have imagined the tragic results. Dark sorcery rules. Europe is lost and the American colonists have been driven south. The demonic creatures known as the Malekim won't tolerate even a flicker of hope. Any who oppose them - Franklin, Voltaire and even the mysterious daughters of Lilith - will be swept away.
However, Benjamin Franklin and his secret society, the Junto, manage a precarious existence founded on the mutual trust of Native Americans, whites, and freed blacks. And as armies and alchemy clash, the Choctaw shaman Red Shoes witnesses a vision of an ancient, implacable evil - and of a young boy who shines as brightly as an angel...the fallen, avaricious kind...
'An iconoclastic tale of science and sorcery leavened by a set of otherworldly villains offers deliciously skewed portraits of historical figures as well as a genuinely intriguing plot' Library Journal
Book 4
As the ruthless forces of Russia lay waste to the New World, English troops make landfall in the east, determined to reconquer the colonies. Trapped in between are the Native Americans, ex-slaves, and European refugees, led by Benjamin Franklin and the Choctaw shaman Red Shoes. But the balance of power rests with the French woman Adrienne de Montchevreuil, whose grasp of science is the equal of Franklin's, whose magic may be stronger than the Choctaw, and whose shocking secret may call into question where her true allegiances lie . . .
'Inventive and exciting, filled with clever details and high adventure, this brings to a close a sequence that seems likely to establish Keyes as one of the more significant and original new fantasy writers to appear in recent years' Science Fiction Chronicle
'Thrilling . . . The book builds to a climactic confrontation to see who will reshape the universe' Publishers Weekly
Books 1-4
