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Pasquale's Angel (Paperback)

by Paul McAuley (Author)
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Gollancz; New edition edition (9 Sep 1999)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1857989090
  • ISBN-13: 978-1857989090
  • Product Dimensions: 17.8 x 11.1 x 2.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 1,649,556 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

In his fifth SF novel, the versatile Paul McAuley turns from outer space to alternate history and a 16th-century Florence where many of the strange, wonderful devices sketched in the notebooks of the "Great Engineer", Leonardo da Vinci, have been built and made to work. The skies of Italy are darkened with sulphurous smog from Industrial Revolution factories, crude engines throb loudly everywhere, and steam-powered automobiles chug along the streets. Young artist Pasquale--threatened like other painters by Leonardo's latest invention of photography-- finds himself working hand in glove with cynical journalist Niccolo Machiavegli on the investigation of a locked-room murder which is one small symptom of the corruption at the heart of this transformed Florence. Michelangelo, Raphael, Aretino, Copernicus and other historical notables are entangled in events, while ancient Leonardo's now ageing toy-boy Salai plays a sinister part. War with Spain looms, and one particular creation of the Engineer must be kept out of enemy hands. This rearranged history is plausibly and cleverly developed, climaxing with a set-piece assault on the mansion of a supposed magician, using some eccentric state-of-the-art war machines. But Pasquale's art is more important to him than any technology, and McAuley persuades us to sympathize with his private goals. A satisfying read. --David Langford


Product Description

Florence in the year 1518 is riven by scientific and sociological change caused b the wonderful devices of the Great Engineer, Leonardo da Vinci. Now he is old and lives as a recluse working behind the walls of his castle. The Raphaelites, artists and anti-technologists led by Raphael of Urbino, call for his excommunication. Pasquale di Cione fiesole, an apprentice painter witnesses an assassination attempt on Raphael at a Cathedral service. The weapon falls into his hands, and he is soon on the run from engineers and artists, desperate to prove his innocence.
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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
5 star:
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4 star:
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3 star:
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2 star:
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Average Customer Review
3.8 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Great idea, but the plot..., 27 Jun 2002
It's a neat idea. DaVinci puts all his energies into engineering projects, rather than art, and suddenly Renaissance Florence is full of dark satanic mills.

It's very well, and originally, thought out. McAuley eschews special effects and whizz-bang anachronisms (apart from a cheeky little car chase, bravo!) for clever social and political extrapolation, giving us a plausible picture of an unexpectedly industrialised Italian city state. In a pleasing twist, for example, the hi-tech, relatively secularised Italians get first dibs on America, ensuring more cordial relations with the native population, and hence a small dollop of Native American culture taking hold back home (while the rabidly Catholic Spanish froth desparately at the mouth to get some converting done).

All this is done subtly, through convincing, earthy dialogue and unobtrusive, passing details that never feel like the idea is being indulged at the expense of the story. However, it's that very story that undoes all this good work, a locked room murder that develops somewhat incoherently into a full blown MacGuffin chase.

McAuley introduces too many characters, a shame because his two central ones are so well-drawn that we could spend more time with them. He layers up the intrigue so heavily that I had to read certain chapters twice before I could figure out what was going on: not good in something that's supposed to be a ripping thriller.

The major problem, however, is the Big Red Herring. What are all these shady characters after? McAuley spends so much time misleading us on this, that when we finally discover the real object of desire, it feels perfunctory and irritating, like those bad detective shows where the murderer is always, by default, the one least likely to have done the deed. McAuley could, and can, do better.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Exquisite Renaissance Industrial Novel, 9 Sep 2006
This review is from: Pasquale's Angel (Paperback)
IMHO "Pasquale`s Angel" is one of best novels by Paul J. McAuley. First of all it is very beautifully written, secondly - it is very interesting political criminal novel set in industrial Florence of the 15th century, where all technical inventions of Leonardo are used in everyday life.
The worst mistake of all alternative history novels - to use historical environment as rich decoration for modern story with contemporary minded heroes. Usually, by the way, the knowings of history by sci-fi authors who used to write such fiction are very poor. I`m a historian, so I don`t like the majority of such writings.
Paul McAuley deeply knows and understands the spirit of the Renaissance and the Mannerism culture, and because of it he gives to the reader lively 3D vision of this imagined world. So if you like the art and literature of the Renaissance - this novel would be a gift for you, you would meet there many familiar persons. And if "Da Vinci`s Code" - IMHO - with its stupid ideas - could only blur your vision of history and Leonardo`s art, this novel could help to understand Renaissance culture better (there were some dark aspects in this art and in the lifestyle of that epoch).

If you are lover of more hard sci-fi and fantasy - read "Confluence" by Paul McAuley.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Exquisite Renaissance Industrial Novel , 15 May 2006
I`m not agree with the previous reviewers. IMHO "Pasquale`s Angel" is one of best novels by Paul J. McAuley. First of all it is very beautifully written, secondly - it is very interesting political criminal novel set in industrial Florence of the 15th century, where all technical inventions of Leonardo are used in everyday life.
The worst mistake of all alternative history novels - to use historical environment as rich decoration for modern story with contemporary minded heroes. Usually, by the way, the knowings of history by sci-fi authors who used to write such fiction are very poor. I`m a historian, so I don`t like the majority of such writings.
Paul McAuley deeply knows and understands the spirit of the Renaissance and the Mannerism culture, and because of it he gives to the reader lively 3D vision of this imagined world. So if you like the art and literature of the Renaissance - this novel would be a gift for you, you would meet there many familiar persons. And if "Da Vinci`s Code" - IMHO - with its stupid ideas - could only blur your vision of history and Leonardo`s art, this novel could help to understand Renaissance culture better (there were some dark aspects in this art and in the lifestyle of that epoch).

If you are lover of more hard sci-fi and fantasy - read "Confluence".
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Out of the Ordinary
After 4 fairly straight ahead hard-sf novels, Paul J McAuley makes a slight detour with this excellent historical thriller. Read more
Published on 27 Dec 2003 by dogbarkssome

2.0 out of 5 stars Not his best novel despite the compelling plot...
I read this after the absolutely fantastic "Fairyland" and was disapointed I'm afraid. The plot is compelling... Read more
Published on 4 Aug 2001 by Jess (jez@vesicapisces.fsnet.c...

4.0 out of 5 stars First Sidewise Award Winner
McAuley's Pasquale's Angel was the first winner of the Sidewise Award for Alternate History. It skillfully tells a story of intrigue in a Renaissance Italy in which Leonardo da... Read more
Published on 6 Nov 1998

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