1722: A second Dark Age looms after the devastating impact of an asteroid, unnaturally drawn to Earth by dire creatures who plot against the world of men. Sir Isaac Newton and his young apprentice, Benjamin Franklin, have taken refuge in ancient Prague, seeking the secrets of aetheric beings whose vast powers and new sciences have so nearly destroyed humanity ... yet who may prove to be its last, great hope.

But their safety is tenuous, as Peter the Great marches his unstoppable forces across Europe. And half a world away, Blackbeard the pirate leads a party of colonial luminaries back across the Atlantic to discover what has befallen the Old World. With sails a Choctaw shaman whose mysterious connections to the invisible world warn him of a confrontation as violent as it is decisive ...

`Masterful...a bravura performance...lavish and thoughtful' Publishers Weekly (starred review)

`Exciting, suspenseful, and beautifully written' Amazon.com