MacLeod's triumphs come in various ways. First of all is the depth and consistency and physicality of his creation. The 300-year-old world of aetherish England is palpably real, encrusted with hoary traditions, ancient legends (the tale of a redeemer figure known as Goldenwhite is particularly significant, for Anna's career will parallel Goldenwhite's) and odd customs. Yet strange and beautiful and resonant as all these counterfactual adornments are, they are perfectly balanced by the things in common with our world: social climbing, Oedipal longings, the allure of the big city for the rural youth. In other words, MacLeod has succeed in fusing Great Expectations (1861) or Look Homeward, Angel (1929) with Peake's exoticism, producing a book that is at once real literature and real fantasy, betraying neither tradition.

Paul di Filippo on scifi.com

The Publisher says:

...the Light Ages is the story of a time of wonders and delights, mysteries and nightmares. Events both great and small are mirrored in the life of Robert Borrows, an ordinary man born into extraordinary times. Richly detailed, joyous, visionary. World Fantasy Award-winner, Ian R MacLeod, has produced a tour-de-force of imaginative fiction.