Paris 1880, the City of Electric Light

Clockwork nobles of the Court promenade through the halls of Versailles, while Watcher spheres and cyborg police menace citizens of France in the streets.

The Royal Scientist Doctor works frantically on an automaton designed to replace the failing sovereigns, but will it be ready in time to save the monarchy?

In the cafes of Montmartre, Henri paints the common people chafing under the reign of the Augmented monarchs and dreams of a France free of machines.

John yearns to capture the essence of beauty in his paintings with the luminous Marie-Ange his muse-and handmaid to the ancient Queen of France.

With his brother Henri entangled in revolution, he must choose between the artificial beauty of Court and the movement to restore France.

How much humanity can be lost before you are no longer human?

Paris 1881: the new Naturalist king of France has banned all technology. Adelaide, formerly a high-ranking Scientist, is in hiding from his enforcers at the Hotel-Dieu, a Paris hospital run by nun-nurses with strange powers. She’s driven to use her forbidden scientific skills to help the Augmented veterans even though she faces execution if she’s discovered.

The Vitruvian Mask continues the story of Adelaide Coumain, the Roboticist of Versailles, that began in The Archimedean Heart but can be read as a standalone.