S.J. Davis’ ‘Ghost in the Machine’ provides a genre-bending adventure into a world controlled by the barcodes humans are forced to bare, as a team of net-runners arrive from the future to call on Steampunk Victorians to aid in overthrowing the evil OmniCorp dictatorship. Those pesky barcodes contain a person’s bank accounts, medical history, measured intelligence and even itemized purchases. Can heroes from the past help save the personal privacy and freedoms of the future?

Novi, MI -- (SBWire) -- 03/04/2015 --There's no way to sugarcoat it; today, technology controls everything. Many argue that the world's obsession with new technology could in fact destroy it and, in a gripping new novel from S.J. Davis, the past and the future meet to prevent exactly that.

'Ghost in the Machine' bucks literary trends to fuse cyberpunk, steampunk, adventure and fantasy. It's a thought-provoking race against the clock that will have readers re-examining their own feelings toward technologies they claim they can't live without.

Synopsis:

GHOST IN THE MACHINE is a steampunk meets cyberpunk fantasy. Josephine, Bodhi, and Caroline, live in a scientifically advanced Victorian London as the Industrial Revolution is in full swing. Infrared goggles, dirigibles, and analog computers exist alongside bustles, parasols, and high tea. On the grounds of an Old Saxon church, three strange net-runners arrive from a future where everyone is assigned a barcode from the moment of birth. What you buy, what you read, your health care history, your bank accounts, your measured intelligence, are all captured by this barcode and sent to the feed of OmniCorp. Human data mining forms the basis of a massive Industrial Complex, a thinly veiled profit center, based on the control of human behavior. To interrupt the inception of OmniCorp, the net-runners, a subversive underground group, enlist the aid of the steampunk Victorians to thwart a meeting between two men, who hundreds of years earlier, laid the foundation for OmniCorp. Extraordinary figures race toward a rendezvous with history, weave in and out of time, fight evil steampunk automatons, hide in Victorian brothels, fight Indian mutinies, and take refuge in dystopian cyberpunk pawnshops, to insure a future where personal privacy is protected over corporate power.

"The world in my novel, very much like our own, has been molded around the gradual rise in technology," explains Davis, who shares a love of afternoon tea with her characters. "But they have gone further than we have and allowed technology to start destroying their world. Now they need to save the freedoms of the future, through answers and people that lay in the past."

Continuing, "While we are not all walking around with barcodes, readers will be able to draw shocking parallels between my narrative and the world they live in. I hope my novel isn't a prophecy, because we'd better get started on a solution!"

Davis diligently crafted her story to appeal to a wide audience.

"The great thing about steampunk is that it's often a family affair. To that end, my book can be enjoyed by both adults and younger readers. If you're also into cosplay – there's heaps of inspiration to be drawn for that next extravagant dress-up event," she adds.

'Ghost in the Machine', from Steamworks Ink, is available now: http://amzn.to/1w52ZKZ

For more information on the publisher, visit: http://www.steamworksink.com

About SJ Davis
SJ Davis is the daughter of an ex-patriate British mother and a Southern Baptist ex-CIA father. As a child, she spoke in silly accents and recounted outlandish tales of fantasy over afternoon tea and to this day it remains her favorite activity. Born in Long Island, NY, she was raised in the suburbs of Washington DC and went to school for a very long time (University of Virginia and George Mason University), married an all-around wonderful man, had two kids (smart, funny, full of opinions), moved from Virginia to New Jersey to Philadelphia to Chicago to Detroit, and began her writing career.

She is a believer in passionate romance and love at first sight, an avid tea drinker, a stiletto aficionado, Doc Marten worshipper, punk rock listener, and lover of flip flops and cardigans. She has a terrible sense of direction, loves twizzlers, and is a Johnny Depp fangirl.