The Ghost Engine
by Theresa Fuller
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Pub Date Mar 20 2018 | Archive Date Jan 26 2019
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Description
She thought she could change the world...
When Lady Elizabeth Ada Lovelace, a beautiful, arrogant suffragette, purchased the 19th-century Algorithmic Engine in order to become the world's first programmer, she planned to break the shackles of inequality for Victorian women.
Until her world became that of the machine...
Instead she learns the true meaning of equality when she ends up trapped, brought down to the level of the machine. Inside the double-crossing computer, Elizabeth must match wits with a stubbornly idealistic ghost and a chillingly handsome doppelganger in the computer's endless series of mind games. But as the machine learns to become a sentient being, time is ticking away. Elizabeth finds herself falling in love with the ghost trapped in the machine. Together they are pitted in a race against the machine to escape before the Algorithmic Engine shuts down – killing them all.
Now all their worlds hang in the balance.
A Note From the Publisher
Of course, I kept everything as simple as possible."
- Theresa Fuller -
Advance Praise
"Theresa Fuller primes The Ghost Engine with vivid description to transport readers on a steam punk journey into a dangerous world with her defiant heroine in this audacious challenge to Victorian oppression laced with historical insight." - Gregory Lamberson, author of Johnny Gruesome and Black Creek
“The Ghost Engine is a non-stop thrill ride fueled by adventure and suspense. Readers will find themselves captured by a magical world where the concepts of humanity and AI become blurred and reality loses its meaning. This one will have you turning the pages faster and faster to keep up.” – JG Faherty, author of The Cure, Ghosts of Coronado Bay, and The Burning Time.
The Ghost Engine is a sharp and intriguing re-imagining of the Ada Lovelace/Charles Babbage Analytical Engine. The writer takes us on a fantastical journey into the heart of the Engine, and the societal struggles of women at that time. - Amanda J Spedding, two-time Australian Shadows Award winner (short fiction; graphic novel).
Available Editions
| EDITION | Ebook |
| ISBN | 9781925748017 |
| PRICE | $7.99 (USD) |
Featured Reviews
Educator 436733
What a wonderful novel! I loved The Ghost Engine by Theresa Fuller! The world building was magnificent, and so were the characters and plot! Amazing book.
Reviewer 425114
I love steampunk romance! The premise of falling in love with a ghost stuck in a machine is wild! I enjoyed seeing Elizabeth grow and the world that is built!
Thank you netgalley for providing this ARC for an unbiased review!
Bookseller 389914
IN SUMMARY: I absolutely went in expecting to love a steampunk adventure with a pinch of technology and romance. THE GHOST ENGINE opens strongly, with a feisty heroine and a fun premise, but unfortunately fails in execution with forced romance, lifeless world-building and slow prose.
MY THOUGHTS:
DNF at 40%. The love interest, Charles, has no consistent character traits. One moment he is aloof and hostile, the next he swoons and swaggers. His personality has some leeway for in-story reasons, but the flip-flop makes it difficult to connect with his character. I couldn’t root for him when his only stable trait was his supposed hotness.
It’s equally difficult to care when his and the protagonist’s romance springs up fully-formed when they’ve known each other for less than a day. It’s fine to find him handsome, but them suddenly mooning over each other killed off my appreciation for Berd’s character, and any connection I may have had to Charles completely.
The world-building of the Engine is confusing and not at all concrete. The descriptions feel hollow and lifeless. It was so hard to imagine what the landscape looks like. Is it supposed to be a city? A collection of metals? A forest? Also, why is the Engine attacking them? How did Berd get sucked into the Engine? She never asks the obvious questions, and because nothing is explained, there’s no urgency, and the stakes feel too low to fear for the protagonist.
Some decisions the protagonist makes are utterly nonsensical; at one point, she asks the love interest not to take in the Engine’s energy as if she knows best, as if she’s lived in the Engine for a whole year like he has. Though the quirky prose style was fitting for the setting, the writing itself was too slow, wallowing and convoluted and focused on the wrong details, and especially in action scenes, it ruined the momentum and excitement.
Even some of the world-building is absurd, and not in an endearing way. For example, the protagonist and love interest are forced to perform CPR on a bunch of mutant insects for power. Enough said.
WILL I READ MORE BY THIS AUTHOR? Probably not. I'm so disappointed because I really want to read a good steampunk book.
Readers who liked this book also liked:
Jane Yolen; Harry Turtledove; Premee Mohamed; Lisa Morton
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