But consider this. The very cosmology of this world is an enigmatic astonishment, and it underpins every single bit of action and character.

Lake's Earth is part of a celestial clockwork mechanism, moving through a solar system literally composed of gigantic supernal brass gears and tracks. Around the equator is the Wall, an inhabited "vertical continent" that serves as the interface between the planet and the rest of the cosmos. Hidden engines power the whole setup. Confronted with the implacable reality that the planet and probably all of existence is an artifact of some unknown creator, humanity has developed over the last several thousand years into a welter of conflicting philosophies and secret orders. Our prior volume followed the efforts of a young man named Hethor in his quest to save the whole shebang from an entropic end. Hethor succeeded, and so the affairs of mankind can continue.

We will follow three points of view in this narrative, belonging to three very different characters whose lives eventually intersect and tangle. First we are introduced to Paolina Barthes. An instinctive genius attuned to the subliminal beat of the world, Paolina has the misfortune to grow into her teens on a bleak "island" at the foot of the Wall. Eventually seeking to better herself and acquire knowledge, she flees upward. Atop the Wall she will encounter many dangers and wonders. Finding an ally in the brass man she calls Boaz, she will journey to the ancient city of Ophir and beyond.

Our second protagonist is Threadgill Angus al-Wazir, part Scotsman, part Arab, loyal sailor in the English navy. Al-Wazir is given the assignment of shepherding Professor Lothar Ottweill to a point on the Wall where the professor can unleash his rock-boring machines to carve a tunnel through to the unknown Southern Hemisphere, ripe for exploitation. But they are not counting on resistance from Ophir—and the Chinese.

And finally we have librarian Emily Childress of Yale University. Her secret affiliation with the avebianco order will result in her abduction by the Chinese and transport halfway around the globe, all in search of a magical "bridge." A bridge actually inherent in the innate abilities of Paolina Barthes.

Mixing philosophy and intrigue

The first volume in this series was a Joseph-Campbell-style odyssey, archetypal in its narrative patterns and self-contained. Having told the tale of a world savior and his painfully purchased victory, Lake could have left his cosmos behind with satisfaction, both authorial and readerly. But he took a bold leap that many pedestrian fantasy and SF series do not make: What happens after the Hero With a Thousand Faces buys the world a new lifespan? How do people go on? How do they make use of the new life bestowed on them? What happens next?

Stepping back from the forestalled apocalypse necessarily mandates a diminishment of scope, to some extent, from the macrocosmic to the microcosmic. This second entry (which, unlike the first, ends on a cliffhanger that demands another volume) has more of the sense of a realpolitik thriller mixed with a Burroughisan romp mixed with a Vernean scientific romance. The characters are all swept up in their "mundane" affairs (although there's so much zesty weirdness here that "mundane" is hardly the word). Yet echoes of Hethor's macrocosmic deed continue to resonate among those in the know. And certainly Paolina's "magical" abilities portend earth-shattering developments in more consequential spheres.

Lake has a ball transporting his characters up and down this magnificent world, subjecting them to all sorts of perils and escapes in a wild variety of settings. His three main protagonists all exhibit distinct and memorable personalities that allow us to filter their world through three prisms of intelligence and attitude. And secondary characters—especially Boaz the metal android—are endowed with attraction and depth as well.

Beneath all the stimulating excitement Lake layers in several potent themes, continuing, for instance, his former philosophical debate about the nature of the cosmos and its creator. But a new theme is reflected in the title of the book. Sure, "escapement" literally refers to a mechanism in a clock. But the punning word "escape" also applies. Paolina is trying to escape her male-chauvinist island and upbringing. Librarian Childress is escaping her old identity and role among her sect. Al-Wazir is seeking to change from soldier to civilian. And Boaz wants to escape his servitude to Ophir. Fantasy has always been "escapist" in the best sense of the word, and Lake engineers a fine tale of humans in search of liberation from the clockwork and customs that ensnare them and us as well.