Newton's Cannon

A world where the heroes of science are literally the masters of the world. Enter Benjamin Franklin and Isaac Newton, masters of the new science of…magic? The basic premise to this series is that Isaac Newton, instead of discovering the secrets of Calculus, discovered the secrets of alchemy and magic. Throw in a number of other historic figures (and not necessarily from the exact same time) who all end up either affected by or meddling with the new secrets of Alchemy. This series is also a cautionary tale of man’s inability to balance morality with scientific discovery and the consequence of this. It’s an interesting story and one that combines quite a few real historical details with the fantastical. The female characters in particular are well drawn by Keyes – they are far from the simple cardboard cutouts that usually populate fantasy, especially considering that the series is over a decade old.