Heart of an Angel Machine

In Arkland, steel horses run on coal, respirators don every face, and steamships are regularly destroyed by Leviathan, a sea monster that defies even the largest of acid cannons. The air is thick with smog, and the seas are thicker with the blood of crude fish, blood which powers lamps and streetlights, creating a heady glow of Victorian ambience. Together, the fearless captain of the coast guardians, the miraculous survivor of a mining accident, a blind tutor, and a medical student with a dark secret must work to unravel the mystery of the golden angel that is found, beached, on the shore of the Zona Sea. The mistakes of the past have made human-based machinery illegal. This is why, when the queen of Arkland asks the four to reanimate the angel, the project must be kept a secret. The goal is to make the angel reveal its country of origin–and more importantly–its maker. In the process of bringing the angel to life, four young people reveal the most human sides of themselves. The angel, initially a tabula rasa, begins to remember parts of its past. Eventually, the four discover a startling truth: that the angel was the cause of the flood that wiped out half of the world five hundred years ago. They must hide the angel before those in authority can take advantage of the dangerous core of power that lies at the heart of growing friendships and romances. Despite their efforts, the angel is captured, and in a daring rescue, the four must remind the machine about the goodness of humanity before it can be convinced to cause another extinction level flood. In the end, the angel must make the ultimate sacrifice to save the friends they’ve come to love.