A sophisticated and controlled novel, Aegypt is Crowley's most mature work.

A much different novel from his four earlier efforts, Aegypt is not easily classified into the fantasy or science fiction categories Crowley has employed previously. Despite the fact that the novel begins with a mage peering into a molestone and communicating with the world of angels, the novel is not a fantasy — no more a fantasy, at least, than is Robertson Davies's What's Bred in the Bone, a novel which purports to be recounted by the Angel of Biography and the protagonist's guardian angel. Composed of two major plot lines, those of Pierce Moffett and Rosie Rasmussen Mucho, the novel integrates its fictional world with historical personages from the classical period through the Renaissance. Thus, Crowley introduces the young Shakespeare, James Burbage, Giordano Bruno, and others as he advances his fiction. In one sense, this method...