The Archimedean Heart (Paperback or Softback)

An artist in a Belle Epoque Paris ruled by automatons is caught between the cyborg queen he must please and the revolutionaries who want her gone.

Paris 1880, the City of Electric Light
Clockwork nobles of the Court promenade through the halls of Versailles, while Watcher spheres and cyborg police menace citizens of France in the streets.
The Royal Scientist Doctor works frantically on an automaton designed to replace the failing sovereigns, but will it be ready in time to save the monarchy?
In the cafes of Montmartre, Henri paints the common people chafing under the reign of the Augmented monarchs and dreams of a France free of machines.
John yearns to capture the essence of beauty in his paintings with the luminous Marie-Ange his muse-and handmaid to the ancient Queen of France.
With his brother Henri entangled in revolution, he must choose between the artificial beauty of Court and the movement to restore France.
How much humanity can be lost before you are no longer human?

BJ Sikes is a 5'6" ape descendant who is inordinately fond of a good strong cup of tea, Doc Marten boots, and fancy dress. She lives with one large cat, two sweet teenagers, and one editor-author, plus an array of chickens.After writing a dissertation on avocado root rot, she was drawn back to her first love, fiction. Her debut novel, the Archimedean Heart, is the first book in the Roboticist of Versailles world, a French Belle Epoque that never was. A follow-up novella appears in the anthology The Clockwork Oracle. The Vitruvian Mask is the second full novel set in that world.She was the chief cat-wrangler/editor/contributor for three short story anthologies (Twelve Hours Later, Thirty Days Later, and Some Time Later). Her most recent short story was Riverhag, a solarpunk piece in the anthology Next Stop on the #13.Her next book, the Cultist's Wife, is the story of an Englishwoman who takes her family to 1908 Bahamas and almost loses herself and her children to a sinister cult.The new book will be available as soon as the story goblins allow.Come and see me at https: //bjsikesblog.wordpress.com/