The demon not only promises Faust power and might, but provides him with technologies that are very, very far from medieval ones. The result is an unprecedented, unrealistic man-made breakthrough - which, however, did not change the main thing - the essence of human consciousness. “In much knowledge there is much sorrow...” Jack/Faust has yet to find out how people used his gifts... Pictures of alternative history from Swanwick can plunge even a very prepared reader into a trance!