A
Heart For Copper
By
Sharon Lynn Fisher
Genre:
Steampunk romance
Publisher:
SilkWords
Date
of Publication: May 9, 2014
ASIN:
B00LDYFKQ6
Number
of pages: 67 pages
Word
Count: 14K
Cover
Artist: Indie Designz
Book
Description:
An
automaton created by an inventor's son, Copper has finally been given
a heart by her young master. Her choice of whether to keep the key or
give it to him will determine what happens next in this "pick
your path" steampunk fairy tale.
Will
she join his family in their English country manor, where she'll be
forced to consider the question of whether she's really human? Or
will she search out the quirky alchemist responsible for giving her
life?
Will
her master hold onto her heart, or will she be tempted by the charms
of an automaton man?
Excerpt:
I
have a heart-shaped hole. Like an empty bird's nest, it rests among
marigold-hued ruffles above the topmost hook of my corset.
The
hole was not left by something removed, but for something
anticipated.
I
am an automaton. I have never moved of my own volition — never
lifted so much as a finger, save by the power of the windup mechanism
at my back. Never felt a chill-bump, or the orange yarn rising on the
back of my chicken-wire neck. My amethyst eyes follow my young master
without motion. The dead, glass eyes of a doll. My face no more than
a bone-colored mask with faint pink smudges where my cheekbones would
be.
If
I were alive.
My
brain is sacking stuffed with cotton, my torso salvaged from a
discarded mannequin. My limbs are dark, spindly things, like they
belong on crows. But my master has wrapped them in ivory silk, and in
the dim light of his workshop, I can pretend they are arms like his.
I
am not a living thing, but the work of man's hands. Man does not give
life. Not since The Regression. The Digital Age machines are all
dead. My master was born into the Neoclassical Age, named not for
cultural or artistic reasons, but for the laws of science to which
all citizens are required to conform. Post-classical physics are
banned. Reserved for the gods, the only ones fit to wield them.
How
does a stuffed-head, cobbled-together, life-sized doll know all this?
Know anything at all? Because my master talks to me. Reads to me.
From the time he was a schoolboy, he has shared every lesson with me,
from The Odyssey to odious French (his descriptor, not mine). I was
his schoolmate. Watched him grow to manhood while I remained the
same, unless he himself wrought change — replacing dingy fabric
with fresh, tinkering with moving parts, shifting my head so I could
watch him work.
I
spend many lonely hours in my master's workshop, when he is away at
school or in the city with his family. In those hours I feel empty
and soulless, and I have often prayed that when he loses interest in
me — which he inevitably shall —he will also unmake me, rather
than leave me collecting dust in my chair.
For
my master is the only light in my life, though I am no more to him
than the toy ships he played with as a boy. Less than the pup who
licked his heels, followed his footsteps, and finally sank into a
straw-stuffed bed near the fire, from which, occasionally, I still
hear the thump, thump, thump of tail against floorboards.
***
"Hullo,
Dutch. Hullo, Copper."
Thump,
thump, thump.
If
I could have wagged, I would have. Master William entered the
workshop, light beaming from his every feature. I knew the expression
well. He'd been out in The World. He'd encountered something — or
someone — interesting. Something he wished to share with me. You'd
think he'd tire of my colossal implacability.
"I
have something for you," he said, sinking onto the stool in
front of me.
At
moments like these I almost imagined that the hole in my chest had
been filled. I could feel an ache there — an ache that should not
have been. His eyes were green as the ribbons of my corset. His hair
black as the coal in the bin. His lips were soft and expressive, like
the women of the house — his mother, his elder sister, the
chambermaids. Master William was everything lovely, everything
beloved, in my dust, dark world.
He
slipped a bronze chain from his pocket. A necklace, with a
heart-shaped pendant — the shape of the symbol, not the visceral,
beating thing itself.
The
shape of the hole in my chest.
Tiny
metal gears and copper springs were encased behind a small glass
window embedded in the crimson resin. It was beautiful, a work of
art. As I watched, he slid open a small compartment in the back of
the pendant and produced a key. He held out the pendant in the palm
of his hand.
"Happy
birthday, Copper," he whispered.
The
echo of my nonexistent heartbeat sounded in my cottony brain, behind
my porcelain mask.
If
my lips had breath, his proximity would have stopped it as he moved
to slip the chain around my neck, letting the heart fall into its
readymade grave. Pinching the key between his fingers, he inserted it
into a tiny keyhole in the tapered bottom of the heart.
Bolts
sprang from the sides of the pendant, penetrating the stuffing in my
chest, locking the heart in place. I felt it as if I were flesh and
bone.
A
loud, dry, sucking sound came from my throat as I took my first
breath.
Master
William's eyes widened — with shock? with horror? — as the change
took me over. The pain was excruciating.
"The
old woman was right," he murmured, aghast.
I
could barely hear him from behind the wall of pain — or over the
very real pounding in my chest. His face blurred, and I was sure I
felt moisture seeping from the holes in my mask. What was happening
to me?
"You
must choose, Copper," he continued. "Hephaesta said if you
want to be like me, you must give me the key. If you want to be like
you, you must keep it."
I
glanced down at the tiny thing of brass still lodged in the base of
my heart.
What
did it mean? A riddle, perhaps? What was I to do?
"Quickly,"
he said, worry dimming his brightness. "The heart will stop
beating without the choice."
Pain
spiked up my arm as I raised it from my side. My wooden, wire-jointed
fingers wiggled to life. I grasped the key and removed it.
1.
I've waited all my non-life for this. I give him the key.
2. I want to find out who I am. I keep the key.
Sharon
Lynn Fisher really gives her readers something to change for! Everyone has a
first time for something in life. Well for me, this was the very first
time reading a book that I could manipulate the actual outcome in the story. I really felt that I was truly taking part in the characters' lives. A book like this actually helps the reader to grow closer to the characters by giving the reader a choice in what happens in the end. It was truly
exciting to go along the journey of the protagonist as well as experience how to manipulate the ending of her story. At first I have to admit that I had tons of trouble utilizing the options, since I
usually read on my smart device or iPod. I eventually gave up trying to access the reading materials on my smart device and had to log in from my
desktop computer in order to actually change the options available in the story. This was somewhat
of a let down for me. But, other than the technological blip, I actually enjoyed the storyline. It
was interesting to find out what would happen to Copper and how
things would turn out for her in the new life that she would choose
or not choose. This was an easy read for
me and when the new options are chosen the story moves super fast. From the beginning I had a hard
time adapting to the initial option that I chose because it seemed to suddenly change everything extremely fast. On the other hand, I suppose this is exactly how Fisher wanted it
to be, so that the reader knows things have ultimately changed for
the protagonist, of course under the direction of the reader's personal choice. Fisher also gives her characters depth as far as
personalities. I also truly enjoyed the old world feeling of the story, even though it was
set in a different future time period. I rate this book four stars and recommend to all
that enjoy choice and like a new outcome for the characters that they grow close to in their readings. For me, change was something positive!
Tour Giveaway
5 Digital Books
A Heart for Copper
Tour giveaway
ebox set of The Harem Club, Storm at SEA, and Fetish Fair
5 ecopies
Thank you for the review, and so glad you enjoyed the story!
ReplyDeleteI am very honored to have read your work and take part in your blog tour and review. Thank you so much for stopping by!
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