In his book Aegypt John Crowley explains that within the memory of man there is a vague distinction between Egypt, the modern country, of warfare and oil barons, and Aegypt, the ancient mysterious land, where the wonders of the Pharoahs' dynasties occurred. The distinction is unconscious for most of us, in fact very few among us even mark the difference with the change in spelling, it is only when Pierce Moffet delves and re-delves into the subject of history in this extraordinary story by John Crowley, that one gives any real thought to the concept, that the world of our age is not the world that always was.

In this first novel of what is to be a tetrology Crowley outlines the bones of the much larger creature of his theory. Pierce Moffet, a historian of little importance, goes questing within himself, in a search for love, fame and three elusive wishes, which may or may not have already come true.

The quest takes Pierce on a journey through the Faraway Hills, to a little town called Blackbury Jambs, where he meets his destiny in the manuscript of a dead author named Fellows Kraft, who has written the book that Pierce himself is seeking. The key to his fortunes may or may not lie so much within his abilities as a historian, but instead within his ability to search within himself for that one elusive element that has survived from the era our earth once knew, but which is no longer.

Of course this tells you everything and nothing about the book, but truthfully, it is the best encapsulation I can muster, without entirely delving into an outline of the plot.

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