January 2013

The Steampunk Series: Book One

THE INCORRUPTIBLES is Lawrence and Trengove’s first new novel in many years, the first of series of FRANKENSTEIN VIGILANTE books. It’s a steampunk adventure which, while it features many of the genre’s tropes (coal-powered steam technology, forbidden Victorian fashions and sensual eroticism, for example) pushes steampunk fiction into original and startling territory.

The story is set in The Smoke, a dystopian city-state whose overlords keep the population firmly in their place with the help of corrupt law enforcement and unimaginably cruel mobsters the Silencios. The heroes are a crew of youthful vigilantes, the Incorruptibles, set on overthrowing the venal and oppressive ruling class. They’re led by Cerval Frankenstein, direct descendant of the original Doctor, and they have a fearsome secret weapon: Thorsten Laverack and his mighty steam-powered prosthetic arm. Prominent among the heroes are four powerful and very individual women.

THE INCORRUPTIBLES is an original, one-of-a-kind book, reflecting the kind of unique world portrayed in Ian Grainger’s cover image. Polluted, dark and dangerous, city-state The Smoke is surrounded by impenetrable jungle, the home of warring tribespeople, on the far fringes of which lies the Frankensteins’ ancestral estate. The book adds wild retro-futuristic inventions – giant rubber-powered aircraft, for example – to the lexicon of steampunk technology.