The Untold Tales of Dolly Williamson: An Occult Steampunk Thriller: Prequel to The Guild Chronicles (The Guild Chronicles: A Steampunk Fantasy Book Series 0)
Not Your Typical Guns and Gears Steampunk!
This one is steam-powered, alchemy fueled and boosted by the supernatural. The first of six books!
Fredrick “Dolly” Williamson is a young detective in the newly formed special crime detection branch at Scotland Yard. When he is called on to investigate the murder of an investment banker, he is reminded of past encounters with the occult and requests help from Rose Caldwell. Problem is Rose is an outsider whose very presence grates on the Victorian society she protects from the paranormal threats they want to ignore. Sister Rose an expert in the mystical arts uses her ingenuity to craft devices that straddle the latest scientific and metaphysical discoveries to create defenses against the dark arts.
As the body count continues to rise and the mystery deepens after the enigmatic Necronist Guild provide clues to the origins of the murderer. The clues from the secretive French death cult are not enough and Rose and Dolly must reach out to a cast of characters that include a young lord that is possessed by a Sufi mystic from the thirteenth century and an up and coming triad gangster.
A tightly wound thriller set in an alternative 19th century where powerful guilds use mechanical power, occult rituals and alchemy to vie for influence in the courts of Queen Victoria and the ever-youthful Emperor Napoleon.
The untold tales of “Dolly” Williamson is an occult steampunk thriller and the prequel to The Guild Chronicles, a steampunk fantasy book series.
This book is what steampunk is all about with the right dose of technology and wizardry to make you wonder what our world today would be like if our past was like this. The story respects the steampunk genre and the intellect of the fans of steampunk.
This is the prequel to the Guild Chronicles
Book 1 The Alchemists
Book 2 The Necronists
Book 3 The Mechanists
Have a look inside now and see if the untold tales is the steampunk yarn for you.
FAQs
What other books have you written and what order should they be read?
The Alchemists
The Necronists
Why should a reader pick up your book?
If they are looking for a series with character driven stories that include fantasy and science fiction but also a nod to history then pick up this book. I love it when a reader writes me that I introduced them to a historical figure they never knew existed and after researching learned that the life they lead was not all that different from how I portrayed them.
What is Steampunk?
Steampunk is an esthetic and for some a way of life. One key point is that steam is the main mode of power. So, the car would have an external combustion engine rather than an internal combustion engine. From there things can be wildly different, some steampunk is set in the future and is dystopian some is set in the past. I heard a good tag line
“When the Victorian comes together with science fiction like clockwork.”
My rules for the Steampunk world I have built is this is an alternative history to our timeline. Many things are the same, and I use historical characters along with my fictional characters. In this world things happen slightly earlier and better mechanically and there are paranormal aspects along with fervent study of the physical sciences this world had also pursued study of the metaphysical. I like to say it is Urban Fantasy before electricity.
Not edited properly, loads of Punctuation mistakes; felt like I was rewriting Joes whole bk for her n so I’v forgotten the plot,
Such a shame. Sounds a real good series, and itâs got a lot of promise, but unfortunately a book that hasn’t been edited and that has loads of mistakes is a horrible book to readâeven if the story is brilliant in itself.
I edit for a lot of people that appreciated my help. It is hard work, especially for me as I am slightly dyslexic. I try hard. My friends have nick-named me Eagle Eyes because I don’t miss spelling mistakes, and now itâs Punctuation also that I am spotting. They also say that I am even better than some of the professional editors and prove-readers.
I don’t ask for much. I don’t ask for any money. I just can’t read a book without spotting errors, and if I know the author then I will let them know. I can’t help it. I suppose I am a perfectionist. Thatâs autism for you! I want everyoneâs book to be perfect, and I work real hard to ensure that happens, but they have got to acknowledge me; only say thanksânot much I am asking is it?
Please, Joe, get your books professionally edited. I wish you all the luck because you have got a lot of promise.
2.5 stars – awful punctuation and a very disjointed read,
There were long sentences without commas or with them in the wrong place. I had to read some 2 or 3 times to make
any sense of it. Quotation marks were left off half the time so you didn’t know who was speaking.
Apart from that I found the book very disjointed. I realized it was set in an alternative Victorian London, but there was
too much pseudo-scientific explanations of the engines for the airships, etc. and for the “magical” equipment Sister Rose
Caldwell used in her detection of crimes. The peculiar murders would have been a story enough along with the theft of the
gold. However there were side stories about a Prussian factory built in London causing unrest with British unions and,
towards the end, a quite unnecessary story about the Emperor Napoleon. It didn’t help with the flow of the book in my
opinion. I found myself skim reading.
I give the book 2.5 stars and will not be reading any follow on books.
Strange but interesting,