The Sky's Dark Labyrinth Blog

I am utterly thrilled to have The Sensorium of God picked out by the Daily Mail in their round up of the year’s fiction:

“I cannot commend highly enough Stuart Clark’s The Sky’s Dark Labyrinth trilogy.  This is the second volume about the great men whose knowledge and passion did so much to advance our understanding of our planet and the skies above us.

The Sensorium Of God focuses on the professional rivalries between Isaac Newton, Edmond Halley and Robert Hooke.  Thwarted in his understanding of Johannes Kepler’s century-old explanation as to why the planets move as they do, Halley enlists Newton’s help.  But accusations that Newton is actually stealing Hooke’s research threatens to derail any progress that is being made.

This novel is not just for those of a scientific bent: Clark’s narration is easy to follow and his prose flows. This volume can be read in isolation, but with the final book due in February you may want to add the first to your Christmas package, to be fully up to speed.”

You can see all the selections here.

I cannot tell you all how pleased I am that The Sensorium of God is soon to be published by McArthur Books in Canada. It has already been chosen by Quill and Quire as one of the fall's biggest books.

Quill and Quire say: "The second book in the Sky's Dark Labyrinth trilogy by Stuart Clark once again delves into a world in which science and religion go head to head. In The Sensorium of God (McArthur & Company, $24.95 pa., Aug.), astronomer Edmond Halley visits Isaac Newton to help find mathematical proof of Kepler's Law of Planetary Motion - a meeting that catapults their lives into crisis and pushes Europe headlong into the Enlightenment. ..."

To celebrate the release, I shall be in Canada for 10 days, later this month. All my Canada trip jigsaw pieces have fitted together perfectly to promote the publication of The Sensorium of God by McArthur Books in Canada. The official publication date is 30 October. You can pre-order from Chapters or Amazon. We very much hope to have copies at the events as well.

I have an extremely exciting programme of events coming up and I look forward to seeing some of you in either Toronto or Montreal.

Click here for full itinerary details.

I have a new story published on my Across the Universe blog over at The Guardian.

"Isaac Newton's belief in spirits and alchemy may have been essential to achieving his towering scientific achievement: gravity. A new science and arts festival begins this weekend to explore this complex man

Hot on the heels of Isaac Newton's apple appearing at the Paralympics comes a new celebration of his life and achievements. The Gravity Fields Festival begins on Friday in Grantham, Lincolnshire. For eight days, Newton's life and times will be commemorated by more than 100 events around the town, during what could become a biennial event.

Grantham lies close to Newton's birthplace, Woolsthorpe Manor, and contains the King's School, which the young Isaac attended. On Saturday at 3pm a blue plaque in his honour will be unveiled by the Astronomer Royal, Sir Martin Rees.

Often wrongly portrayed as a cold rationalist, Isaac Newton is one of history's most compelling figures. It is true that he was capable of the most precise and logical thought it is possible for a human to achieve: his three years of obsessive work that gave birth to the Principia, containing his theory of gravity, stand as the greatest achievement in science.

Just as certainly, though, he was also consumed with what we would now view as completely unscientific pursuits: alchemy and biblical prophesy. ..."

Read the full story here.

I will be talking in the Angel & Royal at 12.15 on Thursday 27th. Details here.

It is with great pleasure that I announce the publication of the Finnish edition of The Sky's Dark Labyrinth. Taivaan Labyrintti is published today by Moreeni. Click here for more details. 

The Italian edition, L'oscuro labirinto del cielo, is coming in November.