Angelmaker

By: Nick Harkaway

Narrated by: Daniel Weyman

Length: 18 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

Joe Spork repairs clocks, a far cry from his late father, a flashy London gangster. But when Joe fixes one particularly unusual device, his life is suddenly upended. Joe's client, Edie Banister, is more than just a kindly old lady - she's a former superspy. And the device? It's a 1950s doomsday machine. And having triggered it, Joe now faces the wrath of both the government and a diabolical South Asian dictator, Edie's old arch-nemesis.

With Joe's once-quiet world now populated with mad monks, psychopathic serial killers, scientific geniuses, girls in pink leather, and threats to the future of conscious life in the universe, he realizes that the only way to survive is to muster the courage to fight, help Edie complete a mission she gave up years ago, and pick up his father's old gun.

©2012 Nick Harkaway (P)2012 AudioGO

Harkaway delivers again!

After I fell head over heels for Harkaway's spectacular "The Gone-Away World," "Angelmaker" became my most anticipated book of 2012. My patience was well rewarded! With scintillating wit and seemingly effortless style, Harkaway delivered another absurd and glorious adventure, introducing vibrant, complex characters and a frenetic, magnificently layered world for them to inhabit.

Better still, Daniel Weyman gives one of the most animated, engaging audiobook performances I've experienced. This is a must-buy!

And now I want to reread "The Gone-Away World."

Outstanding! Unexpected and thrilling.

I chose this book knowing nothing about the author or the story. So I could not have been more delighted with this production. The narrator was fantastic. Clear, not rushed and clearly engaged with the story.

And the story! Nick Harkaway has a kind of meandering narrative style, that reminds me of my own inner monologue as my day goes by. There are lots of non sequiturs, some taken to absurd (and sometimes very funny) lengths, that later in the book always seem to come back around somehow. The story, told from the point of view of two main characters is a delight, a rollicking sort of steampunkish fantastic adventure with the fate of the world at stake. I don’t want to give anything away, I’d like everyone to have the same experience that I had and come into the story with a blank slate. It’s so smart, so well constructed and so full of fascinating characters and imaginative situations, I was sad that it ended. I’m just a guy on the internet but FWIW I highly, highly recommend this book. Outstanding.

stick with it...it's worth it!

The beginning had me realizing I wasn't paying attention and having to rewind several times. I almost gave up, but then it got really good and stayed good until the end.

Wonderfully produced, but story was ordinary

The performance was wonderful. The narrator did a great job of keeping each character unique and recognizable through the story. He had the correct energy for the various scenes and was able to portray a good sense of action when appropriate. There were many distracting pauses (poor audio editing?) at odd times throughout.

The story was creative, but somewhat ordinary. The main plot device, described in the synopsis as a doomsday device, seems to take a back seat to the plight and development of the individual characters. The doomsday device is built up throughout the story, but felt effectively dismissed by the end.

I came to this book because Nick Harkaway's "The Gone Away World" was amazing and really took me for a ride at the end. Both stories had similar gradual pacing for the first 3/4 or so, but "The Gone Away World" spiked to a climax worthy of the build up, while "Angelmaker" continued on a linear path (well, several parallel but straight paths) throughout, lacking any satisfying twist or treat to conclude on. The parallel paths were tied together neatly at the end, with some new ideas thrown in to explain things, but it didn't snag my interest.

Great Rolicking and Madcap Fun

What did you love best about Angelmaker?

It's humor and pacing and the expert way it mixed action and brutality with a wink and a nod and a lot of heart.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Yes. It has all the charms of an espionage mystery, but has that wonderful British sense of humor and some unforgettable characters. You want to see how everyone came to be where they are and how they will save the world.

What does Daniel Weyman bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He does an amazing job differentiating the characters and much of the dialog is brought to life by his delivery. It truly is a book that you could see as a movie because the back and forth between characters is so pointed and fun.

A Long Road

The book took a long time to make a point. I almost gave up on it a few times but stuck it out. It does get interesting, but I think it could have gotten there a lot sooner. A little more complicated than it needed to be. If you are going to go with it, patience will be the word of the day...it will eventually get there.

fascinating!

agelmaker is an incredible tale of fancy and intrigue. i Hung on every last word!

It's not often...

I write a review. Even more so before chapter three is finished.

Whoever decided to pair Mr. Hardaway's considerable writing prowess with that of Mr. Weyman's stellar delivery as narrator should be considered a genius of the same caliber. I am a sucker for a book that has witty humor. Mr. Hardaway has crafted these skills in such a way that it becomes its own character within the story.
Simply amazing.

Mr. Weyman not only brings the named characters to life with such a tremendous subtle force he also brings out the unnamed character of witty humor. Its voice is clearly heard without having any formal lines written to introduce itself to the listener.

All this is so utterly apparent before the end of chapter three. Should the entire book and performance fall apart in chapter four, it will still have been enough to drag the rest of the book and its narration into solid five star territory.

In short, if you cannot enjoy this audiobook it is because you are determined to putting in a maximum effort not to. That would be a disservice to your brain and the combined intellect of the human race as well.

FYI- I was not paid nor held at gunpoint by the parties mentioned above to write this review.

Great action

Purchased this as a Daily Deal and what a deal. Joe is an unsuspecting clockmaker who unknowingly reanimates a doomsday device that was created by a wicked, mathematical genius in the 1950's, who had hopes of becoming God like. Hidden within the device is an undecipherable mathematic, apocalyptic formula that is the trigger for the device.

The authorities know there is a key(calibration drum), and are convinced that Joe knows where it is, so when they come to the end of their legal limits, they hire experts to torture him. During one of the relentless sessions, he is in a state of drug induced delusion, when he realizes that his Grandfather gave him the key without telling him what it was.

After what seemed like many weeks the abductees become lax and Joe attempts an escape with another inmate, only to find out it was a planned escape and the other inmate was a rube. Joe catches on, knocks the rube out and truly does escape. He is picked up by a friend and taken to Eddie.

Eddie is an elderly woman who has been hiding in a convent as a nun for many years but in fact is an ex-super spy. She was friends/lovers with Joe's late Grandmother, Frankie. Frankie had re-calibrated the device and if it was left alone would improve the world by nine percent over time. Before Frankie disappears she gives Eddie the task of hiding the machine. Eddie has done so for half a lifetime until an old nemesis re-enters Eddie's life.

Shem Shem Tsien a super villain who impossibly retains his youth after century's and will do anything to obtain the device. He is insane and in his many, unnatural years has obtained beastly, carnal knowledge of the human condition beyond any ever measured.

Even though Joe is an innocent clockmaker he grew up around some of the most prominent, violent gangsters and crime bosses of his fathers day. While they have remained dormant, Joe's many inherited, ruthless skills eventually must come back in to play for the survival of all.

A fun combination of splashy characters that jumped off the page with the help of Daniel Weyman's artful narration.

Fabulous.

This book is fantastic. I've re-listened to it, and every time I delight in the writing, the plot, the characters. It really is an adventure. Daniel Weyman does an amazing job at bringing the characters to life and keeping up with the wild pacing. Honestly on of my favorites, ever.