In spite of my only chosing 2 stars for the book, I can see why "The Light Ages" was chosen for the World Fantasy Award. Macleod obviously is an experienced and careful writer, and his depictions of the town of Bracebridge and the lives of the people there are so well done that I could almost see the individuals he described.That said, though, I was not able to finish the book because the action is so slow moving. Macleod loves his descriptions of the people and the work of removing aether from the ground, but he spends so much time on those depictions that the narrative just creeps along. I finally gave up, even though I enjoyed reading about the world Macleod was creating, because I felt it was taking too long to get to the action.