Product Description

In this title, the excavation of an astronomically aligned neolithic grave in Dorset unexpectedly affects the lives of an archaeologist, astronomer, and an entertainer.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1132488 in Books
• Published on: 1996-09
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

From Amazon.com
First Light is not the darkest of Peter Ackroyd's novels (Hawksmoor has that honor), but fans of the macabre will relish its exhilarating combination of cosmic awe, ancient beings, and creepy underground tunnels, in a humorous suspense story as cleverly paced as a Hitchcock thriller. The story is that the excavation of a neolithic, astronomically aligned grave under the pastoral hills of Dorset, England, coincides with the startling reappearance of ancient stars (including H. P. Lovecraft's Aldebaran) in the night sky. A group of deliciously eccentric characters--archaeologists, astronomers, a stuffy civil servant, a stand-up comic, and vaguely menacing local villagers--converge at the site and collide with each other. As Gabriele Annan wrote in the London Sunday Telegraph, "Ackroyd is such a master of mood, of tension, angst, foreboding, frisson, but also of tenderness and exultation, that one is drawn into his tale as by a magus."

From Publishers Weekly
T. S. Eliot biographer and novelist Ackroyd ( Chatterton ) again delivers a fascinatingly ambiguous tale. The discovery of a neolithic grave site on the Devon-Dorset border attracts an assortment of archeologists, astronomers and indigenous characters. Each has his own agenda, from archeologist Mark Clare, hoping to prove a maverick theory, to Joey Hanover, a show-biz character who happens along in search of his roots. Astronomer Damien Fall may have discovered something astonishing, and the exceedingly peculiar Farmer Mint and his idiot savant son, Boy Mint, may hold more cards in this game than anyone knows. The novel is carefully imbued with several ominous portents that lead nowhere, but the tone is so deliciously creepy that it doesn't matter. Ackroyd's sly humor is beguiling; he has given some of the best lines to a lesbian couple and Joey's malaprop wife. (" 'Look at those kikes,' Florey Hanover was saying to her husband. 'Dressed like Winston Churchill.' 'Dykes, dear.' ") Silliness and illumination fit together perfectly in this amusing, eccentric and provocative novel.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Take a neolithic tomb in Hardy's rural, brooding Dorset. Add a cast of oddball characters that includes a hilariously hypocritical lesbian bureaucrat, an ex-Music Hall comic, his malapropism-spouting wife, a gin-swilling dealer in old clocks, and a sly farmer and his son, the keepers of dark secrets. Stir in a generous helping of mystery and of metaphysical speculation on the nature of Time and Space. The result: a tasty, expertly crafted novel that challenges as it entertains. With this book Ackroyd, author of a notable biography of T.S. Eliot as well as Chatterton ( LJ 1/88), a critically acclaimed novel, establishes his reputation as a leading voice in British letters, one willing to confront difficult questions. His most satisfying book to date.
- Vincent D. Balitas, Allentown Coll., Center Valley, Pa.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

No real answers here. But keep looking, Mr. Ackroyd.
The plot in a nutshell: A recent fire in rural Dorset reveals the contours of what is believed to be, and turns out to be, an ancient burial mound. A group of archeologists descend upon the site and begin to uncover the secrets of the tumulus; but as they do so, events in their own lives, and those of an increasingly involved village population, curiously reveal themselves in a parallel, synchronic, and meaningful way.

Mr. Ackroyd displays an inventiveness of character, a timely sense of suspense, and a characteristically smart retelling of observation; but his preoccupation with the ideas of a unity and congruence of life and the universe is sometimes tedious and feels dated. (Think of the Uncertainty Principle, fractals, and the butterfly wing that flooded China - all recently faddish.) The story does, however, contain some wonderful scenes: the most memorable perhaps are the string of interactions between the charmingly backwards Mint clan, father and "Boy", and lesbian socialite, Evageline Tupper.

A Glorious Celebration of Bathos, Pathos and Wit
In this, his latest novel Peter Ackroyd returns to a by now fascinating theme of original forms and repeating patterns in which the individual holds but a brief tenure before relinquishment to the next generation in human kinship. This novel develops a much-loved theme of awe and inspiration in the workings of a tale of ancient beings, cosmic forces, love and madness. To reiterate, repeated patterns over time form a familiar concept to Ackroyd admirers, and can be found in his earlier works, such as Hawksmoor. Where First Light differs from the latter is in the move away from an ancient, pervasive if imperfect evil, depicted in the most sinister way through human sacrifice, as embodied by the fate of Little St Hugh. First Light offers a juxtaposition to the vacuum of evil in Hawksmoor and sacrifice in this latest novel is portrayed in various forms as part of a general, metaphysical good. In comparing Ackroyd's novels, it is worth mentioning the music hall motif, which stands as a literal backdrop to chilling murder in (UK edition) Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem, known to USA readers as the less successfully entitled The Trial of Elizabeth Cree etc. Here the music hall is brilliantly reintroduced into this novel as a glorious celebration of poignant and hilarious bathos, with the reminder that its absurd and often grotesque characterisation is more often eclipsed by the antics and eccentricities of the so-called 'ordinary person'. Peter Ackroyd's reputation as an exceptional author whose ability to weave a powerful and haunting tale hardly requires further testimony. Ackroyd however, always demands a good deal of work by the reader and is not in the business of providing glib answers and conclusions. There is always far more to his novels than can be found by a desire for the easy gratification of titillated curiosity and consequently any criticism of his ability as 'whodunit' manque, completely miss the mark