In his novel Mainspring, Lake created an enormous canvas for storytelling with his hundred mile high Equatorial Wall that holds up the great Gears of the Earth. Now in Escapement, he explores more of that territory. Paolina Barthes is a young woman of remarkable intellectual ability, a genius on the level of Isaac Newton. But, she has grown up in isolation, in a small village of shipwreck survivors, on the Wall in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. She knows little of the world, but she knows that England rules it, and must be the home of people who possess the learning that she so desperately wants. And so she sets off to make her way off the Wall, not knowing that she will bring her astounding, unschooled talent for sorcery to the attention of those deadly factions who would use or kill her for it.
"Theological steampunk set in a mechanical universe -- the debut novel from a noted short-story writer....Good elements -- intriguing alternate history, solid characters, briskly moving plot."
Kirkus Reviews on Mainspring
"Could Mainspring be the opening canto of a metaphysical magnum opus in the vein of Wolfe? Yes, very plausibly. The language is lyrical and perfectly calibrated, the symbolism is profound, the intelligent mystification is just at the appropriate level. With this novel, Jay Lake has ascended from journeyman to Master; let the Masterwork now unfold."
Locus on Mainspring
"A dark, wild mix of machine and magic--an impressive debut novel from short story maestro Jay Lake."
