The Iron Assassin
Hot pulp fiction: A steampunk Frankenstein is a weapon of death in an alternate 19th century England
On an Earth that is not our own, Victoria never ascended the throne; the House of Hanover held England only briefly before being supplanted by the House of Harminster. It is a time of gaslamps and regularly-scheduled airship flights, of trams and steam-driven clockwork with countless smoke-belching stacks. London, the capitol of the Empire of the Lion, is a filthy, crowded, fast-growing city where a series of shocking murders threaten the throne itself.
Energetic young inventor Jack Straker believes he has created a weapon to defend the crown: a reanimated, clockwork-enhanced corpse he can control. He introduces “the Iron Assassin” to the highly-placed Lords who will decide if Straker’s invention becomes a weapon of the Lion — or something to be destroyed.
It quickly becomes apparent that the Iron Assassin is more self-willed than Straker intended, and that the zombie’s past life is far more sinister than Straker thought. Has he created a runaway monster? Or the best guardian the Lion could ever hope for?
Ed Greenwood
Ed Greenwood is known for his role in creating the Forgotten Realms setting, part of the world-famous Dungeons and Dragons franchise. His writings have sold millions of copies worldwide, in more than a dozen languages. Greenwood resides in the Canadian province of Ontario.