The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia is a steam punk fantasy that explores an issue usually left to sci-fi--and it does a great job. Matti is an "emancipated" automaton who has a love/hate relationship with her creator (with some strange sexual overtones). Matti's creator refuses to give Matti the key necessary to wind her up, thereby forcing her to maintain a bond with her creator that she resents.
Sedia does a nice job looking at this relationship from a "female" automaton's perspective. She also builds an interesting world filled with machines, magic, and gargoyles.
The Alchemy of Stone was printed by a small speculative fiction press called
Prime Books. Given the quality and uniqueness of this novel, I'll look forward to reading more of Prime's offerings.
Thanks for the reading suggestion, Editor Betsy. :)
ReplyDeleteAm I starting to look like Betsy?
ReplyDeleteOops.
ReplyDeleteI meant Editor Dave. :) The Gremlin made me write Betsy!