Alchemy of Glass
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- $17.99
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
In the catacombs of an ancient ruined monastery, a place hidden away in the Eildon Hills, a legendary land of myth, of mystery, and of magic—the place where he’d found sanctuary as a lad. The network of caves lead him to a steep, decaying staircase, where he discovers a journal, apparently written by Gaelan’s old friend Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, describing his journey to the Otherworld, a land of fairy castles and magical, turquoise rivers and filigree trees hung with Spanish moss. Falling from the journal’s pages a small piece of glass, which Gaelan recognizes as a piece long missing from a stained glass panel he’d created a century earlier. When the opalescent glass piece seems to come alive in Gaelan’s hand, he is suddenly thrust into world far from the fantastical dreamscape Conan Doyle has described.
Gaelan doubts his sanity, wondering whether he is caught in an elaborate, surreal nightmare. Is it possible he has traversed a portal into the future? But how? And why?
The Alchemy of Glass weaves a tale magical as spun glass and terrifying as a shattered mirror, drawing upon cutting edge science and the most ancient of Celtic mythology, intertwining the magic of fairy lore and the harsh reality of difficult choices, returning us to the world of immortal apothecary Gaelan Erceldoune, as his past, present and future collide, in an attempt to prevent a catastrophic future.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Barnett follows 2016's The Apothecary's Curse with this well-researched but convoluted sequel about the ways in which an alchemist's attempts to free himself from the curse of immortality cause dangerous ripple effects through the centuries. Scenes set in 1826 told in ornate, period-accurate language see immortal apothecary Gaelan Erceldoune resettle in a town just outside of London. Soon Gaelan becomes embroiled in local drama, saving the life of a young woman who took a risky measure to end her pregnancy and hiding her from her angry family. At the same time, an illness thought to have been eradicated sweeps through town and the only cure is somehow linked to the immortality curse. Alternating sections set in present-day Chicago demonstrate how a mishap while curing the illness led to a catastrophic future. Barnett overloads her tale with historical and medical detail, delving into worldbuilding minutiae at the expense of narrative momentum. This ambitious fantasy is strictly for series completionists; new readers will be lost.
