Jane Perrella

The Steel Lady Jane Perrella

It is the dawn of the computer age as it might have been. In an alternate 1850s London, enormous steam-driven Analytical Engines are on the verge of being introduced to the public. Annabella King, an amateur programmer, is not quite what the daughter of a lord should be. When she is chosen to create a program for the Engine as a demonstration for the Great Exhibition, it is an offer she can't refuse. She works alongside Henry Babbage, an engineer and the son of its inventor, and is drawn into his world of new possibilities. But the more some things change, the more others don't. Even as she tries to show the world what she and the Engine can do, Annabella faces rapidly unraveling scandal in her family, disdain for her work as a woman, and danger in the machines themselves. In remaining true to herself, she may have to make a decision that even her beloved Henry will not be able to accept.