The
Pre-Programming
Circo del Herrero
(The
Blacksmith’s Circus)
Vol.
2
B.L.A.
and G.B. Gabbler
Genre: Mythpunk, Urban Fantasy
Publisher: SOBpublishing
Date of Publication: October 2018
Number of pages: 421
Word Count: 143,700
Cover Artist: SOBpublishing
Tagline: Vulcan’s ancient
Automata find their purpose rebooted in the second installment of the CIRCO DEL
HERRERO series.
Book Description:
The crippled god of metallurgy,
fire, and alchemy has many names and many faces—sometimes Hephaestus, Ptah, or
Vulcan. He changes to suit his needs. And just like his names, his creations
have gone through countless revisions. This time, he’s finally onto
something—his Automata have turned the heads of other gods. They’ve noticed
their pre-programmed potential. There’s a reason Vulcan didn’t scrap the
Automata—a reason he left them in the care of humans all this time. They were
just the beta testers for his most intricate windup toy yet…
Vulcan’s ancient Automata find
their purpose rebooted in the second installment of the CIRCO DEL HERRERO/THE
BLACKSMITH’S CIRCUS series. Their immortal human Masters will drop like
flies—superfluous in the next round as the gods shuffle in a new deck of
fateful cards. The Masters can choose how and when, but they will all die to
free the Automata of their earthly chains. Odys and his Automaton, Maud,
struggle to protect his twin sister from the plotting of his dual-bodied
adversaries. But his sister, Odissa, finds herself a willing participant in The
Blacksmith’s latest exhibition—could she be the missing cog to the god’s
tightly wound machine all along?
In
this thrilling sequel to THE AUTOMATION, the Narrator and Editor drag readers
deeper into the dark history and even darker future of Automata. When the
subterranean god emerges with his postlapsarian blueprint, so will the truth
about B.L.A. and G.B. Gabbler. Ideal for fans of Scott Hawkin’s The Library at
Mount Char, Jo Walton’s The Just City, and all the way to Homer’s The Odyssey,
THE PRE-PROGRAMMING is a literary outrage that dares you to keep reading
between the lines and the footnotes.
The Automation
Book One in the Circo
del Herrero Series
Available at
Excerpt:
‘“Why did you
call me Dorothy?” Odissa seized the sides of his face, as if she had Dorian
trapped now.
“Why? Do you not
like this yellow brick road I’m escorting you down?” He sunk lower into the
tub, angling her grip on him. Her fingers slid a little on his wet skin. His
hair touched the water and fanned out like an aura. He wanted to make sure her
hands were still playing nicely.
“That’s not a
real answer, Dorian.” She leaned into him.
He floated away
from her. He spread out his arms along the tub. His grey eyes closed, readying
himself. “I suppose you have a right to know. Odys will tell you eventually,
I’m sure. He couldn’t keep his mouth shut.”
“About what?”
He rubbed a
finger over his pink upper lip at a false itch. “I knew your real parents,
Odissa. At least, I think I did. But I won’t tell you more than that.”
“Why not?”
“Not only would
your brother hate me for it, but…” He trailed off.
“Since when do
you care what my brother wants? I think he’ll be too distracted about the other
stuff we’ve done to care if you tell me. And does this mean he knows? Why does
he know but I don’t? It isn’t fair.”
“Your brother
knows as much as I do. And believe me, that means he’s not sure of anything.”
“Not sure of
what, Dorian?”
He merely
smiled. “I’m going to make the others adore you, Odissa. Just you wait. I need
to warn you that when they start arriving they might be a little suspicious
about what we’ve been up to. They might not understand. Don’t worry. I’ll
handle it. They’ll love you. They’ll let me save you.”
“Save me?”
“When we find
Madus, he’ll be perfect for you. A twin for a twin.”
She had no idea
what he was talking about.
“Then Leeland
will never get to you. No one will ever take you away from me again.” He was
smiling to himself once more, his finger back at that lip.
“Exactly how
many times have I been taken away before?”
“Once, in the
past. But an Automaton will keep you here with me forever. You understand?
Maybe then—once you have an Automaton—you’ll understand what happened to your
parents, why I did what I had to. The Automaton will explain everything.”
“What did you do
to my parents, Dorian?” Her heart was making the water ripple despite her body
remaining still. “I don’t want an Automaton.”
“Your brother
wants you to have one too.” To himself, “That’s why he went so willingly to
Rosemund.”
Not sure what he
meant, “He won’t give me one if I do not want one.”
“None of us were
really given a choice, Odissa. You think you will be? And the others will want
to make me happy. I will win them over. I will gain their votes. Why wouldn’t
you want an Automaton? You either become one of us or we get rid of you
eventually. Why not finalize the deal? You have no life to go back to.”
“You’ve made
sure of that, haven’t you?”
He licked his
lip, wondering why she was so obstinate. Could she not see what he meant? Surely—for
she could see everything else.
“Then let me
know why you won’t tell me. Why can’t you tell me why I’m Dorothy?”
His jaw
clenched. He did not like her persistence. “You would hate me, that’s why.”
“What if I
promised I wouldn’t? Why would it change so much between us? Aren’t we destined
to be in love with each other?”
“No. I’m
destined to be in love with you. The gods promised us nothing about your love.”
“You were angry
with me when I didn’t say I was married. Now you’re the one hiding the truth.”
The water
rippled as he huffed. “Leeland has leverage—family members, pets, friends. He
uses leverage to try and get our Automatons. He had leverage on me, but…I still
have an Automaton, Odissa. You understand what I’m saying?”
He heard her try
to swallow.
“Do you
understand, Odissa?”’
About
the Authors:
BLA and GB Gabbler [really just a
pen name – singular] are the Editor and Narrator behind the Circo del Herrero
series. THE AUTOMATION, vol. 1 of the series, is a mythpunk novel that puts a
postmodern spin on how we interpret myth and literature. Gabbler’s work
typically explores ways in which robots and religion intersect. You can read
more of their work on the Fanzine. Their second volume, THE PRE-PROGRAMMING, is
scheduled for release in 2018. You can read the first volume for free.
Find out more at:
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