Angelmaker

Angelmaker was a wonderful read that left me disappointed it didn't go on longer. It's one of those books you need to take long, savoring pulls at and not middling little sips. The prose meanders but never dawdles.

Chronologically placed in the now, it yet manages to intimate Victorian steampunk, 1920's gangster chic and Bond era villains with global aspirations. Author Nick Harkaway (FUN FACT: He's the son of John le Carre!) renders women well - from the octogenarian Edie, with a few tricks up her sleeve and a vicious, blind pug in her bag - to Polly, the gun moll with an enthusiastic and altogether erotic fixation on passing locomotives. Throw in some mechanical bees. robotic monks, an underground criminal market and a backstory that spans generation - well, you've got yourself a ripping good yarn.

It's a wonder it doesn't collapse into a jumbled mess. There are so many cogs and wheels, pins and pulleys that it should fly apart in all directions but Harkaway, like his protagonist Joe Spork, manages to pull it all together with clockwork precision.