Jack Faust

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Title Jack Faust

Cover of first edition (hardcover)
Author Michael Swanwick
Cover artist Nadine Badalaty & Greg Spalenka
Country United States
Language English
Genre(s) Steam-Punk,
Science fiction novel
Publisher Avon Books
Released September 1997
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages 337 pp
ISBN ISBN 0-380-97444-4 (hardcover)

Jack Faust (1997) is the third published novel by American author Michael Swanwick. It was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1997.

[edit] Plot introduction

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The plot is based around a modernization of the anti-hero, Dr. Johannes Faust, who struggles with his growing discomfort with modern thought and questions how and why things happen without scientific explanation. After burning his library and contemplating suicide, a mysterious being named Mephistopheles comes to Faust and offers him all the information of the universe. With Mephistopheles' help, the madman Dr. Johannes Faust becomes savior Jack Faust by accelerating human progress at a blinding speed, reshaping Germany and then all of Europe in his own image.


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