Ghost in the Machine
SJ Davis
language
(CHBB Publishing, Feb. 21, 2015)
GHOST IN THE MACHINE is a steampunk meets cyberpunk fantasy.Josephine, Bodhi, and Caroline, live in a scientifically advancedVictorian London as the Industrial Revolution is in full swing.Infrared goggles, dirigibles, and analog computers exist alongsidebustles, parasols, and high tea. On the grounds of an Old Saxonchurch, three strange net-runners arrive from a future where everyoneis assigned a barcode from the moment of birth. What you buy, what youread, your health care history, your bank accounts, your measuredintelligence, are all captured by this barcode and sent to the feed ofOmniCorp. Human data mining forms the basis of a massive IndustrialComplex, a thinly veiled profit center, based on the control of humanbehavior. To interrupt the inception of OmniCorp, the net-runners, asubversive underground group, enlist the aid of the steampunkVictorians to thwart a meeting between two men, who hundreds of yearsearlier, laid the foundation for OmniCorp. Extraordinary figures racetoward a rendezvous with history, weave in and out of time, fight evilsteampunk automatons, hide in Victorian brothels, fight Indianmutinies, and take refuge in dystopian cyberpunk pawnshops, to insurea future where personal privacy is protected over corporate power.