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The House of Storms |
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The House of Storms |
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基本信息·出版社：Ace Books
·页码：464 页
·出版日期：2005年12月
·ISBN：0441012809
·条形码：9780441012800
·版本：第1版
·装帧：精装
·开本：0开 Pages Per Sheet
·丛书名：Light Ages
·外文书名：暴风之屋
内容简介 在线阅读本书
When Great Grandmistress Alice Meynell, ruthless matriarch of the Great Guild of Telegraphers, brings her son to Invercombe, west of Bristol, she expects him to die there. Though her power and grace are legendary, not even she can halt her son's disease. Now ensconced in the magnificent old house, forgotten outpost of the Guild, with its disused weathertop, its formal gardens, its long tradition, at least there might come some tranquility to his death.
The age of aether still reigns; its pale glow illuminating the land. All bear the mark of aether's strange influence, except the changelings, banished to Einfell, that strange land untouched by the Ages of Industry, that lies uneasy at England's troubled heart. And it is to Einfell that Alice turns in desperation, to plead for her son's life to one who once trusted her, and suffered the consequences.
Ralph is cured. Far away from the filth of industrial London, he is drawn away from his family responsibilities to the world of nature and to a fisherman's daughter, Marion Price. Together they plan to run away, to defy the rule of the Guilds, even to change the world and how it understands itself.
But his mother will not let love stand in the way of her lust for power, nor the very land she professes to love - even if it means plunging England into a long and bloody civil war.
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. In MacLeod's brilliant The Light Ages (2003), the discovery of a substance called aether revolutionized technology, ushering in a Victorian age radically different from our own. Now, a century later, the Age of Light has come to an end in this more tightly plotted sequel. Alice Meynell, Greatgrandmistress of the Guild of Telegraphers, is willing to commit murder to establish her own power and assure the future of her tubercular son, Ralph. To save his life, she makes a deal with the Chosen, magical beings so warped by aether that they can no longer live in human society. As Ralph's health improves, however, he falls in love with Marion Price, a servant girl who eventually bears his child. Alice, acting in what she believes is Ralph's best interests, forces them to separate, secretly sending the baby to live with the Chosen. Years pass, civil war breaks out, and Alice, Ralph and Marion pursue their varied destinies. Full of detailed descriptions of landscapes and complex human feelings, this rich, leisurely novel bears some similarities to the more frenetic fiction of China Miéville, though the author's affinity to A.S. Byatt is even stronger. This is a major work by a master writing at the top of his form.
From Booklist
The successor to the superb Light Ages (2003) depicts MacLeod's alternate Victorian society as more advanced technologically but with magic still strong in it. Alice Meynell, greatmistress of the Telegraphers' Guild, is about ready to turn to magic to save her son and heir, Ralph, from consumption, for all medical remedies have failed. She hopes that the sea air at Invercombe on the west coast of England will help, and she puts even more hope in the magic that may still linger there, centered around a community of changelings. One of those changelings once loved Alice, and a bargain is struck so that Ralph regains health. Consequently, Alice regains the hope of a dynasty. But then Ralph falls in love with a servant girl, and that so threatens his mother's plans that she sets in motion powerful countermagic that in turn threatens the basis of society. MacLeod has again imagined and written superbly, and be it noted that his erotic scenes should be the envy of many of his professional peers. Roland Green
Book Dimension
Height (mm) 236 Width (mm) 161
作者简介 Ian R. MacLeod
Ian R. MacLeod (born 1956) was born in Solihull, United Kingdom. He is a science fiction and fantasy author.
He is the author of the novels The Light Ages and The House of Storms, which are set in an alternate universe nineteenth century England, where aether, a substance that can be controlled by the mind, has ossified English society into guilds and has retarded technological progress.
MacLeod's first novel, The Great Wheel, was published in 1997, and won the Locus Award for the Year’s Best First novel.
MacLeod's shorter works have been collected in Breathmoss and Other Exhalations and Voyages by Starlight. His novella "The Summer Isles" won the Sidewise Award for Alternate History in 1998. The story also received the World Fantasy Award. Originally written at novel length, MacLeod published the shorter version, with the full-length version only being published in 2005.This full length version also won the Sidewise Award in 2006 (for a novel first published in 2005), thus becoming the only story to win the same award twice, albeit in two differing formats, novel and novella. He won the World Fantasy Award again in 2000 for his novelette "The Chop Girl."
媒体推荐 Customer Reviews
1.Fantastic - almost Dickensian, a powerful writer!, 4 May 2005
Reviewer: "methusaleh"
House of Storms is an immensely moving novel. Macleod is clearly an excellent writer, both in skill, and in terms of plot. Without giving too much away, the story seems almost conventional - set in a Victorian England, about young love fighting against almost insurmountable forces. However, there is a great deal of complexity and depth in the novel - England is different from what we know, suffused with a mysterious substance called aether which is both magical and corrupting. The character of Alice Meynell is both dark and compelling, and unlike many fantasies, Macleod manages to portray everything in an original and fresh way, without resorting to cliches.
If you like great descriptive writing and detailed characterisation, without a plot moving at 100 miles an hour, I would recommend this book. ie not like Eddings or Brooks or Feists more recent works. More like a Dicken's novel, with a hint of Peake.
Spotlight Reviews
Part social critique, part adventure, June 2, 2005
Reviewer: Matthieu Hausig (Brooklyn, NY)
House of Storms is the loose sequel to The Light Ages. Loose, because it takes place chronologically after the first book but with a different cast of characters. At the core of the novel is a bizarre love triangle between Alice Maynell, the mother who ruthlessly climbed her way to the top of the social ladder, Ralph, her son who is thrust into a position of power, and Marion Price, a fisherman's daughter who steals Ralph's heart. As events progress, Ralph and Marion go their separate ways and find themselves on either side of a class war brought about in part through Alice's political maneuvering.
The book is split into two parts, dealing with Ralph's youth and relationship with Marion, and years later the final stages of the war enveloping the East and West of Ian MacLeod's fictional Britain. I felt that the first half of the story was the stronger of the two as there was more development of the characters and better dialogue. The second half was more disjointed and lacked some of the charm of the first half.
It may be my lack of a British perspective but alot of the social themes were not clear to me. As with Light Ages, the overarching message was that despite changes the status quo stays the same. Perhaps someone with more experience with the British class system will take more away from the novel. That said, the story stands on its own and is an enjoyable if slightly overlong read.
As a final note, magic or aether as it is referred to in the novel plays a central role here as it did in The Light Ages and is creatively integrated into the storyline.
