Faction Paradox: Newtons Sleep

Faction Paradox #6

by Daniel O'Mahony

Don't tell her what it was like. Don't tell her how you had to dig your way out through heavy layers of clay to reach the fresh air, because that would distress her. Don't tell her about the box, because that would confuse her.

And don't tell her about the light, because that was sacred.

Lately cannonballs have flown their arcs, leaving the crystal sky unbroken, while on Earth their traces are all too visible. Yet though Heaven has never seemed so far away, the divine is terribly closer. War on Earth presages War in Heaven; the struggle between the holy houses of Christ and their eternal Adversary has erupted among the living.

These are the signs of the last days: in 1651, a dead angel is found in a tree in Lincolnshire and a nymph rises from the waters of Kent; in 1642, a dying man is miraculously healed in the grave; in 1665, uncanny skull-masked doctors descend upon a plague house; in 1683, the French secret service unveil mirrors that show the futures; in 1671, Aphra Behn - she-spy and poetesse - infiltrates a gathering of alchemists; in 1649, the English kill their king, and history begins...

Newtons Sleep is a stand-alone science fiction novel set in the universe of Faction Paradox.

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Fantasy

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 12, 2008

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Newton's Sleep is set in 17th century England, and follows the stories of three main protagonists, who brush across each others' paths in only brief and occasional moments until everything pulls together at the end. Most of the story focuses on Nate Silver, a man mysteriously risen from the grave as a youth. His mysterious benefactors, those he deems angels, gift him with a glowing egg that whispers wisdom to him, and he gains a reputation as both a philosopher and scientist. Determined to do good with the second life he's been granted and enthusiastic in his endeavors, Nate finds himself wrapped up in secret societies and intrigues far beyond his imagining.

Part of the Faction Paradox, Little Sister Greenway is still a novice of the sect, caught up in events she doesn't fully understand. In her struggle to prove herself to her faction cousins, she becomes intricately woven in the sequence of events that will change history forever, one way or the other.

Then there's Aphra Behn, a spy for the Service who since girlhood has pledged herself to an otherworldly, red-headed nymph. This nymph is keeping track of Aphra and pops into her life at random moments, determined to follow the spy who she believes will lead her to what she hunts.

For those who don't know (I didn't!), Faction Paradox is a Doctor Who spinoff, a sect of Time Lords who like to go through history and tweak things. You don't have to be familiar with Doctor Who to get through the book, though, which is fortunate for me, since I know almost nothing about the series. I know, bad genre fiction fan! Slap on the wrist for me.

O'Mahony has put a lot of wonderful historical details in here, with a clever use of language. Covering about 50 years during the tumultuous mid-to-late 1600s, there's clearly been a lot of research done, and it's a pleasure to visit some of these historical places and people, particularly Aphra Behn, who was a real woman.

The complex storylines, woven and intermingled in surprising ways, involve a whole lot of politics and scheming as well as the edges of an intergalactic war. A lot of this is spoken in subtleties, especially considering most of the characters are from the time period in which the book is set and have no concept of time travel or worlds outside their own.

Between the sophisticated, occasionally overwritten language and the non-linear flow of the narrative, this is decidedly not a quick or fluffy read. Actually, I spent more time than I would have liked completely confused, trying to figure out where and when this part of the book was set. That whole last chapter I read, did that already happen? Or is that in the future compared to the bit I'm reading now? Wait, did that bit of history just get erased, as in the characters won't remember any of this for the rest of the story? Bwuh?

[Alex Sarll]

Daniel O'Mahony is perhaps the oddest and most underrated of the fine writers to retool Doctor Who during its absence from TV. Faction Paradox may look like a spin-off, but is more an excuse for writers with some Who connection to publish tales too outlandish for most publishers to fancy. The combination of the two results in something equal parts earthy and uncanny, which boldly takes on the same territory as Neal Stephenson's mighty Baroque Cycle - that new world of gods and monsters which arose between Britain's two revolutions, where the modern world was born. And where, in this version, it might easily have been derailed by the principals of the War in Heaven. I am left keen to further investigate the real Aphra Behn, because the version of her who stars here is a stroppy delight.

[Leo H · Rating 5 out of 5]

Completely fantastic, the first Faction Paradox book I've read which you can read without having read several other books or even knowing anything about the series. Full of filth, gore and feminism, and again taught me more about a period of history I knew nothing about.

[A Vertx · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't think I'll be finishing this one.

The prose is very purple, and the storyline to start had my attention as we switched from one narrator to another; the philosopher who was saved by Angels during the war was interesting to read, but on switching narrators, I can't stomach the explicit sex scenes and sudden sexual brutality and violation the female narrator is facing with no real warning, and no idea how many pages its going to go on for.

IF I manage to finish the book, I'll leave a detailed review, including trigger warnings.

Trigger Warnings: explicit sex scenes, and the female narrator is knocked unconscious and is woken up by her attacker urinating on her and hitting her in this face with his genitals.

Yeah. Probably not gonna finish this book.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rather convoluted but compelling time-travel/historical novel. Isaac Newton is a surprisingly peripheral character for all that the plot hinges on him. The book defnitely has its fair share of violence, sex, and gratuitous bodily fluids of all sorts, but some very compelling characters and a plot that puts Earth's history itself in jeopardy.

This was my first foray into the Faction Paradox novel series, and I'll definitely be picking up some of the earlier books in the series.