The Sky's Dark Labyrinth (Sky's Dark Labyrinth Trilogy) [Hardcover]

This book is a moving and eye-opening story of brilliance and bravery, and the fight against bigotry and closed-mindedness. --The Daily Mail

Puts fictional flesh on the bones of Kepler s life and times to enjoyable effect ...The Sky s Dark Labyrinth deserves a broad readership. --Nature

'Clark spins a fascinating, pell-mell tale of intrigue, ignorance and irrationality in a new Europe struggling to be born.' --The Globe and Mail

'Clark's exposition of the men in the midst of this time of upheaval leaves us wanting more. Luckily for us, this is just the first in a trilogy about the mysteries of astronomy and the important players in its discoveries' --Canadian Blogspot

At the dawn of the seventeenth century, the Sun revolved around the Earth according to God's plan and as set down in the Bible. Yet some men knew that the Heavens did not move as they should and began to believe exactly the opposite - a heresy punishable by being burned alive. The Sky's Dark Labyrinth follows the stories of Johannes Kepler - a German Lutheran and the first man to distill how stars and planets moved according to mathematical laws - and Galileo Galilei. An Italian Catholic, Galileo will try to claim Kepler's success for his own Church, but he finds himself enmeshed in a web of intrigue originating from within the Vatican itself. Both men are trapped by human ignorance and irrational terror to the peril of their lives and those of their families in one of the darkest, yet also one of the most enlightening, periods of European history. The Sky's Dark Labyrinth is the first in a trilogy of novels which dramatically bring to life key moments in our understanding of the cosmos - when our view of the Universe changed forever through the stories of Sir Isaac Newton and Sir Edmund Halley (The Sensorium of God, due autumn 2011), and Albert Einstein and Edwin Hubble (The Day Without Yesterday, due spring 2012). Praise for Stuart Clark's The Sun Kings: 'Fast-paced beautifully crafted story' - Dava Sobel. 'Undoubtedly the most gripping and brilliant popular science history account I have ever read . . . Clark's ability to write so vividly makes me seethe with jealousy' - Owen Gingerich, Professor of Astronomy, Harvard. 'The Sun Kings is a real page turner which will open your eyes to the number of scientific discoveries throughout history that might have been lost. The real majesty and power of the sun shines through and, if you've never given a second thought to your nearest star, you will now' - The Royal Society

Journalist, author and broadcaster, Stuart Clark has devoted his career to presenting the dynamic world of astronomy to the general public. He is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and a former Vice Chair of the Association of British Science Writers. In 2000, UK daily newspaper The Independent placed him alongside Stephen Hawking and the Astronomer Royal, Professor Sir Martin Rees, as one of the 'stars' of British astrophysics teaching. He divides most of his time between writing books and writing for the European Space Agency in his capacity as senior editor for space science, alongside producing features for the BBC and many publications. He has written seventeen books to date, selling more than 250,000 copies worldwide, which have been translated into twelve languages so far. He regularly lectures throughout the UK and, increasingly, across the world. www.stuartclark.com