On an eighteenth-century Earth crippled by alchemical disaster, a secret American cabal led by Benjamin Franklin strives to prevent the annihilation of humankind

The dark magic that the great alchemist Sir Isaac Newton inadvertently unleashed with his discovery of philosopher’s mercury has taken a devastating toll on Earth: The destruction of Europe and the advent of eternal winter have aided the mysterious malakim in their apparent quest for the annihilation of the human race.

In the American colonies, Benjamin Franklin hones his alchemical skills and prepares the Junto—his secret cabal of scientists, Native American tribesmen, former slaves, and fugitive European intellectuals—for the upcoming battle for humankind’s survival as the army of the Scottish “pretender” king James Stuart invades the continent to reestablish British dominion.

Meanwhile, on the other side of a shockingly diminished world, in the court of the mysteriously vanished Peter the Great, the missing tsar’s chief alchemist, Adrienne de Mornay de Montchevreuil, prepares to depart Russia in search of her lost son, who may well be at the heart of the conspiracy of malevolent angels to eliminate the human scourge.

The third volume in author Greg Keyes’s ingenious Age of Unreason alternate history series, Empire of Unreason broadens the story, elevates the action, and reveals secrets within secrets as the surviving inhabitants of this different, endangered world race frantically toward a climactic confrontation.

**

Amazon.com Review

Ten years have passed since Europe plunged into chaos following a directed comet strike on London by Louis XIV's alchemists. The resulting nuclear winter forced everyone southward. The Russian Empire of Peter the Great holds sway, but Tsar Peter has mysteriously disappeared and his chief alchemist, Adrienne de Montchevreuil, has been attacked by a creature of the malakim, who provide the power for many of the technological innovations created by alchemists. Ben Franklin now lives in Charleston and is part of a secret organization, the Junto, that seeks to destroy the malakim and their agents in the New World. Only here have their evil intentions been fully recognized. Now the enemy is on American soil in the form of Scottish king James Stewart and his troops in the East and a mysterious but terrifyingly powerful army led by the Sunboy in the West. Only an alliance of English, French, and Spanish settlers with the Native American tribes have a chance of defeating them.

The series continues to provide an intriguing blend of fantasy and historical characters, plenty of action, and fine writing. This episode, however, begins and ends abruptly. Read the first two books (Newton's Cannon and A Calculus of Angels) first, and be prepared for a cliffhanger ending that will leave readers anxious for the next book. --Nona Vero

From Publishers Weekly

Keyes's latest addition to his distinguished Age of Unreason series is a disappointment. Set, like its predecessors, in the 18th century, the book explores a world that's been knocked out of whack by Isaac Newton's alchemical discoveries. European leaders, thirsting for power, have devastated the European continent and plunged the northern colonies into a new Ice Age. Meanwhile, malevolent spirits called the malakim are plotting to destroy all of humanity by pitting one faction of mankind against another. Keyes (A Calculus of Angels) guides readers through this world via three separate stories of alchemy and intrigue. One concerns the secret, anti-malakim American Junto, a considerably outnumbered society made up of American Indian tribesmen, liberated black slaves and European intellectual refugees (like Voltaire), spearheaded by Newton's former apprentice, young Benjamin Franklin. Then there's Red Shoes, a Choctaw war prophet who's heading west to slay the malakim-sent dreams that are threatening humanity. Finally, in St. Petersburg, there's a beautiful scientist named Adrienne de Mornay de Montchevreuil who's playing a dangerous political game of Russian roulette with the factions clamoring to replace the missing czar, Peter the Great. She manipulates individual malakim and leaves Russia to search for her son, Nicolas, the prophetic Sun Boy rumored to be leading the malakim in a crusade against civilization. Although embellished by clever sidelong portraits of European and American thinkers of the real Enlightenment--including Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus and Russian Prince Menshikov--this intermediate stage of Keyes's fantasy saga lacks the driving brilliance of its two predecessors. Even Keyes's attempts to compensate for the absence of suspense (via thrilling set-piece nightmares and battle scenes) don't save the book from its hazy, diffuse plot. (May)
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