Ink and Steel

Table of Contents

 

 

“The many varied plots skillfully and subtly interweave into a finale with serious punch. Elizabeth Bear's writing style is as dense, complex, and subtle as her plots and characters. The style reminds me a little of Tolkien. This is definitely not a book to sit down to for a light, fluffy read. But if you immerse yourself in this rich, dark world, you will be rewarded with characters with layers of motivation and relationships that weave through the world's destiny like an intricate spider's web.” —SFRevu

“[
Whiskey and Water
] reaffirms [Bear's] skill at creating memorable— and memorably flawed—characters as well as her sure hand at blending together the modern world with the world of the Fae. Her elegant storytelling should appeal to fans of Charles de Lint, Jim Butcher, and other cross-world and urban fantasy authors.” —
Library Journal

“Bear brings a new level of detail to the subject, and her magical creatures are an interesting mix of familiar and unfamiliar traits.”

—Don D'Ammasa, Critical Mass

“Bear succeeds in crafting a rich world. . . . It's a book that I couldn't put down, with a world in which I found myself easily enthralled and enchanted, not necessarily by Faerie, but by Bear's poetic expression and knife-sharp narrative.” —Rambles

“ ‘Intrigued' and ‘delighted' sum up my reaction to
Whiskey and Water
as a whole. Don't think of it as a sequel, because it's not: It's the next part of the story, and just as rich, magical, and poetic as its predecessor. ... I'm hoping for another one.” —The Green Man Review

“The wonderful Promethean Age series just keeps getting better. Bear has a knack for writing beautifully damaged characters, who manage to be both alien and sympathetic at the same time, and then putting them in situations where they have no choice but to go through the fire. The result is glorious.” —
Romantic Times
(Top Pick)

“Cleverly designed and well written . . . a delightful tale filled with all sorts of otherworldly species.” —Alternative Worlds

"
Blood and Iron
takes everything you think you know about Faerie and twists it until it bleeds.” —Sarah Monette, author of
The Mirador

“Bear works out her background with the detail orientation of a science fiction writer, spins her prose like a veil-dancing fantasist, and never forgets to keep an iron fist in that velvet glove.”

—The Agony Column

“Complex and nuanced. . . . Bear does a fantastic job with integrating these centuries-old elements into a thoroughly modern tale of transformation, love, and courage.” —
Romantic Times

“Bear overturns the usual vision of Faerie, revealing the compelling beauty and darkness only glimpsed in old ballads and stories like ‘Tam Lin.' ” —
Publishers Weekly

“This is excellent work. Bear confronts Faerie head-on, including the dangerous and ugly bits, and doesn't shield the reader with reassuring happily-ever-after vibes. . . . She also writes a few brilliant scenes and set pieces, the most memorable for me being . . . the beautifully handled (and beautifully explained) Tolkien homage near the climax. . . . I'm looking forward to spending more time in this world.” —Eyrie

“A gritty and painstakingly well-informed peek inside a future world we'd all better hope we don't get, liberally seasoned with VR delights and enigmatically weird alien artifacts. . . . Elizabeth Bear builds her future nightmare tale with style and conviction and a constant return to the twists of the human heart.”

—Richard Morgan, author of
Altered Carbon

“Very exciting, very polished, very impressive.”

—Mike Resnick, author of
Starship: Mercenary

“Gritty, insightful, and daring.”

—David Brin, author of the
Uplift
novels and
Kiln People

“A glorious hybrid: hard science, dystopian geopolitics, and wide-eyed sense of wonder seamlessly blended into a single book.”

—Peter Watts, author of
Blindsight

“Elizabeth Bear has carved herself out a fantastic little world. . . . It's rare to find a book with so many characters you genuinely care about. It's a roller coaster of a good thriller, too.” —SF Crowsnest

"What Bear has done . . . is create a world that is all too plausible, one wracked by environmental devastation and political chaos. . . . She conducts a tour of this society's darker corners, offering an unnerving peek into a future humankind would be wise to avoid.” —
SciFi.com

“An enthralling roller-coaster ride through a dark and possible near future.” —
Starlog

“[Bear] does it like a juggler who's also a magician.”

—The Mumpsimus

Novels of the Promethean Age

Blood and Iron
Whiskey and Water
Ink and Steel
(7/08)
Hell and Earth
(8/08)

ROC
Published by New American Library, a division of
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street,
New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto,
Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
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Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices:
80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

First published by Roc, an imprint of New American Library,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

First Printing, July 2008

Copyright © Sarah Kindred, 2008

All rights reserved

REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Bear, Elizabeth.
Ink and steel : a novel of the Promethean Age / Elizabeth Bear.
p. cm.

eISBN : 978-0-451-46209-1

1. Prometheus Club (Fictitious characters)—Fiction. 2. Secret societies—Fiction.
3. Magicians—Fiction. 4. Fairies—Fiction. 5. Imaginary wars and battles—Fiction.
6. Dramatists—Crimes against—Fiction. 7. Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616—Fiction.
8. Great Britain—History—Elizabeth, 1558-1603—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3602.E2475155 2008
813'.6—dc22 2008000746

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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Principal Players in Ink and Steel
combined with a selection of historical and
Literary figures as may be convenient to the reader.

Alleyn, Edward:
(Ned) A player. Principal Tragedian of the Lord Admiral's Men.

Amaranth:
A lamia

Arthur:
A King of Britain. Mostly dead.

Baines, Richard:
An intelligencer and Promethean