Greetings ladies and gentlemen! Please steel yourself as you are in for quite a dark delicacy of a very strange and metallic kind. For you have entered into the Circus Tresaulti! The one and only mechanical circus of wondrous and sometimes hideous proportions!
Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti is Genevieve Valentine's just released debut novel. It is quite an original piece of fiction and once I found my footing in the world I carried away with the circus . I'm nearly done with it and although it is short I can't bring myself to finish it as this is a world unlike any others. The style challenges the reader like few do as it is at once both beautiful, mystifying, and horrifying. I'll hold most of my thoughts until my final review, but if you couldn't tell I think quite highly of Valentine's work. The closest comparison I can think of is Jeff VanderMeer's Ambergris books as Mechanique is a very fractured story jumping around in time and also perspective.
Valentine has been working on her dark Steampunk circus placed in a post-apocalyptic world for many years and it has its origins in the short story work. Below are three stories of the Tresaulti Circus, which will give you a very good idea of what to expect in the pages of Mechanique. Each piece adds a new facet to this world and at least one is placed during the events of Mechanique.
The recently released “Study, for Solo Piano” is available though Fantasy Magazine here or as an audio piece here.
"The Finest Spectacle Anywhere" can be read at Beneath Ceaseless Skies, which just went live today, I believe.
“Bread and Circuses”can be read online at Beneath Ceaseless Skies or as an audio version here.
More about Genevieve Valentine and here work can be found on her site and a special site setup just for the Circus Tresaulti.
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