This novel is set against the background of 16th century Florence, a time of great progress. The new manufactories are turning out mass-produced clothing and products, artists great and unknown walk the streets, debate in taverns, engage in politics and vendettas, and turn their hands to new and innovative techniques, such as 'painting with light' and there is talk of 'moving pictures'. Meanwhile, steamboats ply the Arno and pedestrians have to be sharp on their feet to avoid the steam carriages....

We are, of course, in an alternate Florence, one where Leonardo da Vinci - here simply known as 'The Great Engineer' - turned away from art to more practical pursuits, and kicked off the Industrial revolution some 250 years early. Florence has become a great political and exploratory power, with trade routes to the New World and the empires of the Americas; the Pope is on his way to make his peace with the city, but a Spanish fleet is lurking offshore. Plots and counter-plots are rife. The central character, Pasquale, is apprenticed to an artist and dreams of developing his skill to be able to capture the ineffable beauty of an angel. But he is overtaken by plots and falls in with disgraced politician, turned investigative journalist-cum-private detective Niccolo Machiavegli. Danger and excitement follows....

The Florentine scene is shown in great detail; possibly too great if the reader isn't vaguely familiar with the setting and era. The action flags a little in places, and some of the characters' motivations remain a bit obscure on a first reading. And the denouement may not satisfy all readers as there are loose ends left untied. But the sense of place and era is strong, and possibly the loose ends look untied to us because McAulay's characters act as 16th century people most likely would. Their sense of the immediacy of religion is strong, as it would be; and in a society of rumour and gosssip and vendetta, people's choices of action are not what ours would be in similar circumstances.

Still, this book kept me reading for its setting. Interestingly, part of the plot relies on the discovery and significance of a photographic negative; it's intriguing to think that future readers are as likely to be puzzled by this artefact and the role it plays in the plot as the characters. The difference is that in the novel, this is new and unknown technology, whereas in the future, it will be old and unknown technology! ( )

I first read McAuley's cyberpunk-meets-fantasy-epic trilogy 'Confluence,' liked it a lot, so I got his novel 'Fairyland.' That didn't really do it for me - to the extent that I considered not reading 'Pasquale's Angel' - but I am now very glad that I did read it!

'Pasquale's Angel' is Renaissance-meets-steampunk: in an alternate-history, industrialized Italy, plots and murder are afoot. Pasquale, a young artists' apprentice, is dragged into events when an apprentice of the visiting master Raphael is found murdered. Journalist-cum-private-investigator Niccolo Machiavegli hires him to help with etchings for broadsheets, and next thing he knows, he's at the heart of things. Could the guilty party be Raphael's rival, Michaelangelo? Or possibly the cuckolded husband of the fascinating Lady Lisa Giacondo? Or could a trail lead back to the secretive hermit known as the Great Engineer (Leonardo DaVinci) or the artificer Copernicus?
The novel starts out as if it will be a fairly straightforward murder mystery, but things rapidly get more complicated than that... the murder was just the top layer of plots that may lead to the city of Florence's downfall.
Weird, steam-driven machines, a trained ape, the Pope, satanic rituals, and more figure in before all is said and done...

I don't usually enjoy books which insert historical figures into fiction - but this was definitely an exception, probably because the characters really bore so little actual resemblance to the historical figures bearing their names that there was absolutely no conflict with historical truth going on at all... I found it very entertaining. ( )

Dans cette uchronie, suite à l'assassinat -réussi ici- de Laurent le Magnifique, Léonard de Vinci abandonne les "gribouillages" pour devenir le Grand Ingénieur et donner vie à toutes ses idées. C'est dans ce monde résolument steampunk peuplé de vaporetto et d'armes redoutables que Pasquale, jeune peintre passionné par les anges, et le célèbre Nicolas Machiavel, ici journaliste, vont essayer de voir clair dans une conspiration qui va peut-être les dépasser. Mais quel plaisir de démabuler à leur côtés dans cette Florence uchronique où l'auteur a su magistralement restituer le génie artistique de la renaissance et le génie scientifique nouveau qui va tout bouleverser. Mais l'époque ne peut échapper aux intrigues et aux intriguants, et l'art comme l'artifice serviront les plus malins, et ce n'est pas moins d'une douzaine de personnages historiques, de Raphaël au pape Léon X, qui se croisent dans ce roman très réussi, à l'ambiance dense comme les fumées des usines de cette renaissance industrielle.

La nouvelle qui suit cette édition est plaisante, mais ne tire pas vraiment parti du même monde dans lequel elle est censée se dérouler. ( )

This was a disappointment, sad to say. I've read and enjoyed many of McAuley's books, but this one was quite mediocre. Too bad, since it was such a promising premise. The politics, the factions, the motivations of the characters, were unclear. Never could figure out what was going on in the tower when the guy was killed. Why was he there? No idea. The story would come into focus now and then, but mostly it was a blur. It takes real doing to make Leonardo Da Vinci a boring character. A little background on the Artificers and so forth would have helped a lot. But then again, Pasquale was not a sympathetic character, so maybe nothing would have helped here. ( )

Florence au tout début du XVI° siècle. Mais une Florence bien différente de celle dont nous parlent nos livres d'histoire : Léonard de Vinci a renoncé à la peinture pour donner vie aux machines qu'il dessinait dans ses carnets et l'Italie de la Renaissance connaît déjà sa révolution industrielle...
La perle de la Toscane reste cependant la ville des grands peintres, des grands architectes, des fêtes... et des intrigues sophistiquées, des morts mystérieuses.
Comme celle de l'assistant de Raphaël, puis de Raphaël lui-même. Qui est à l'origine de ces meurtres ? Pour quel enjeu ? Sur fond de rivalité entre l'Italie et l'Espagne et de rébellion fomentée par les disciples de Savonarole, Pasquale, jeune peintre apprenti, même l'enquête en compagnie de Machiavel, journaliste à la Gazette de Florence, qui joue les Sherlock Holmes avant la lettre... ( )