Josephine, Bodhi, and Caroline, live in a scientifically advanced Victorian London as the Industrial Revolution is in full swing. Infrared goggles, dirigibles, and analog computers exist alongside bustles, parasols, and high tea. On the grounds of an Old Saxon church, three strange net-runners arrive from a future where everyone is assigned a barcode from the moment of birth. What you buy, what you read, your health care history, your bank accounts, your measured intelligence, are all captured by this barcode and sent to the feed of OmniCorp. Human data mining forms the basis of a massive Industrial Complex, a thinly veiled profit center, based on the control of human behavior. To interrupt the inception of OmniCorp, the net-runners, a subversive underground group, enlist the aid of the steampunk Victorians to thwart a meeting between two men, who hundreds of years earlier, laid the foundation for OmniCorp. Extraordinary figures race toward a rendezvous with history, weave in and out of time, fight evil steampunk automatons, hide in Victorian brothels, fight Indian mutinies, and take refuge in dystopian cyberpunk pawnshops, to insure a future where personal privacy is protected over corporate power.
REVIEW:
“Ghost in the Machine” by S. J. Davis is a very interesting steam punk story. This story is action packed with time travel mystery. Davis creates two different worlds of Victorian England in 1865 and the future during the time of 2134. The story starts off with three characters from the bast Caroline, Josephine, and Bodhi. Then these three meet up with their equivalents in the future, Minnow, Yeshua, and Nico. All of them have the same goal. They want to destroy Omni, the cyber corporation that governs the society. The six of them are on a mission to make sure that Omni is never founded.
"Ghost in the Machine" is a very interesting story. It creates mystery and action that keeps the reader hooked to the story. Throughout the story, issues are addressed in both the past society and the future society. The author tries to show real issues in the story that the reader can relate too.
Davis did a great job with writing this story. It brings a lot of fun and suspense to the story. I feel like she did an amazing job with bring two worlds together. The characters become so real in the story, so it is like they were really there. The only thing bad I have to say is that some of the steampunk elements of the story make it a little strange or goofy. I think that is pretty much expected from a steampunk story.
SJ runs three Indie Publishing companies: Crushing Hearts and Black Butterfly, Hot Ink Press, and Vamptasy Publishing, UK.
Ten percent of all proceeds for SJ's books go to Turning Point, a counseling center for women in crisis or experiencing domestic abuse.
On a personal note, SJ Davis is the daughter of an ex-patriate British mother and a Southern Baptist former CIA father. As a child, she spoke in silly accents and recounted outlandish tales of fantasy over afternoon tea. To this day it remains her favorite activity. Born in Long Island, NY, she was raised in the suburbs of Washington DC and went to school for a ridiculous amount of time. She moved from Virginia to New Jersey to Philadelphia to Chicago to Detroit, and began her writing career once her children were old enough to reach for the goldfish themselves. SJ is an avid tea drinker, a stiletto aficionado, Doc Marten worshipper, punk rock listener, and lover of flip flops and cardigans. She has a terrible sense of direction, loves gummy bears, and is a Johnny Depp fangirl.
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