Come to Britain in an Industrial Revolution powered by Magic Aether rules the world. Aether runs the engines, the telegraphs, the very lights of London. Through spells and aether, England has created a mighty Industrial Revolution. In that world, Robert Borrows is insignificant, yet his past holds the truth of the world's future... Growing up in the Yorkshire town of Bracebridge, a town dominated by the mighty aether mines and engines, Robert sees the way in which proximity to aether can poison a life when his mother gradually becomes the thing all families dread - a changeling, less than human, awful to see. Running away to London, Robbie encounters Anna Winters, who he first met on a trip with his mother in happier times. Mercurial and mysterious, Anna becomes his fata morgana. Exploring the Brobdignian city, all colours, smells and danger, Robbie comes into contact with myriad social classes and types, and people who take him back to Bracebridge and the mysteries of aether. This Age is ending, in fire and death... World Fantasy Award-winner Ian R MacLeod creates an England that is recognisable yet entirely different in this massive novel of an Industrial Revolution fuelled by m