"Newtons Sleep is one of those Jackpot! moments, combining wonderfully-written historical fiction with a dash of time-travel and interdimensional war. The characters are sharp, varied and entirely believable; the historical detail is accurately and intelligently presented... this is a fantastic book, and comes very highly recommended." - Sandstorm Reviews

Don't tell her what it was like. Don't tell her how you had to dig your way out through heavy layers of clay to reach the fresh air, because that would distress her. Don't tell her about the box, because that would confuse her.

And don't tell her about the light, because that was sacred.

Lately cannonballs have flown their arcs, leaving the crystal sky unbroken, while on Earth their traces are all too visible. Yet though Heaven has never seemed so far away, the divine is terribly closer. War on Earth presages War in Heaven; the struggle between the holy houses of Christ and their eternal Adversary has erupted among the living.

These are the signs of the last days: in 1651, a dead angel is found in a tree in Lincolnshire and a nymph rises from the waters of Kent; in 1642, a dying man is miraculously healed in the grave; in 1665, uncanny skull-masked doctors descend upon a plague house; in 1683, the French secret service unveil mirrors that show the futures; in 1671, Aphra Behn - she-spy and poetesse - infiltrates a gathering of alchemists; in 1649, the English kill their king, and history begins...

Newtons Sleep is a stand-alone science fiction novel set in the universe of Faction Paradox. (Amazon.com)

Newtons Sleep is an original novel by Daniel O'Mahony set in the Faction Paradox universe. It is the first Faction Paradox novel to be published by Random Static, and was launched on the 12th of January 2008.

Although taking place in a shared universe, it is a stand-alone work that does not require any prior knowledge of Faction Paradox. The events of Newtons Sleep occur on Earth in the 17th century. One of the central characters of the book is the historical playwright and spy Aphra Behn.

The lack of an apostrophe in the title is intentional, and alludes to both Finnegans Wake and the original punctuation of the William Blake quote from which it is drawn:

Now I a fourfold vision see And a fourfold vision is given to me Tis fourfold in my supreme delight And three fold in soft Beulahs night And twofold Always. May God us keep From Single vision & Newtons sleep.

Blake is objecting to the literalism of the Newtonian mindset. He would have us see multiple significances in everything. (Wikipedia.org)

Visit Newtons Sleep by Daniel O'Mahony Download Page

You can download full publication in PDF format.

First published in New Zealand in 2008 by
Random Static Ltd
PO Box 10104
Wellington 6143
This edition published online in 2009
www.randomstatic.net

Chapter 0: The Waste Book
Impelled as though in sympathy with the earth, a spittle’s-worth of dark humour slips from between the high branches of the tree into the mild air. So it plunges from its zenith, drawn by its yearning for the honest Lincolnshire lime. Thus does base matter descend, while pure spirit rises to join the light.

This hungry glob does not however find the soil, but impacts instead upon the head of a boy stretched out in quiet contemplation upon the ground at the foot of the tree. So a story is a-borning, one that shall bear repetition until Judgement and yet grow more grand and pregnant with each telling.

Like a coin it shall be passed from party to party, its sovereign features slowly obliterated by the erosion of hands, until the markings be smoothed and unrecognised. Thus the fallen matter, which in fact most keenly resembles the manure from which all garden idylls spring, becomes in fiction a happier symbol; how sly that it should be the apple, that sweet fruit of bitter knowledge and exile.

But this is not Eden bounded by the Witham, and this boy, this youth, is no Adam. He is a child of nine summers with shite on his brow. ...

About the Author
Daniel O’Mahony was born in Croydon in 1973. Since then, his life has been quiet. His first contributions to Faction Paradox appeared in The Book of the War in 2002. He has also written the novel Force Majeure (2007), as well as various Doctor Who novels and audios. He lives in Hampshire, England, without any cats.

Comments (0)

Name

Email

Comment

smaller | bigger

Add Comment