The Clockwork Sky Sneak Peek
The Clockwork Sky—a gear-filled nightmare of steampunk London!
Madeleine Rosca is perhaps best known as the creator of Hollow Fields, a manga trilogy that won Japan’s first International Manga Award. For The Clockwork Sky, this talented Australian writer-artist created a steampunk version of Victorian London that is undergoing class warfare. A mysterious factory produces amazing clockwork mechanicals that have replaced humans in manufacturing, service, and most other kinds of labor. This is the brainchild of Erasmus Croach, who grows ever wealthier and more important . . . but who has no control over the infuriating and outrageous activities of his irrepressible niece, Sally Peppers.
Sally chafes at the limitations placed on young women in Victorian society and would like nothing more than to invent her own wonders. But her uncle keeps her literally chained to her desk in the schoolroom, instructed—and guarded—by one of his robots. One day Sally slips those chains and flees on a stolen velocipede, only to discover that London is on the brink of full-blown riots. The unemployed have taken to the streets, demanding not only jobs but an investigation into the disappearances of hundreds of children from the crowded slums of London and other British cities.
Erasmus Croach demands that his missing niece be found. The Metropolitan Police deploy Croach’s latest and most complex mechanical, the police-bot called Sky, to find her.
And that’s when things begin to get really interesting . . . .
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From the Tor/Forge September newsletter. Sign up to receive our newsletter via email.
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More from the September Tor/Forge newsletter:
- A Conversation with Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross
- Me Jane by Robin Maxwell
- Blood Sucking Lawyers (For Real) by Phillipa Bornikova
- Books, the Universe, and Cosmic Oddities by Linda Grimes
- Graphic Novel Sweepstakes
