Incarnation by Emma Cornwall
What if the Arthurian legends were real…mostly? What if Bram Stoker’s book was based on partial truths? What if Lucy from Dracula was a real person, a woman who is now a vampire, and really annoyed to have her story told in such a way? This is the alternate Victorian England in which Incarnation is set.
Lucy awakens disoriented, buried in the yard of her family’s country estate. After clawing her way out of her coffin, and removing a stake from her chest, she goes about her solitary life eating the animals she can catch and wondering what has happened to her. Eventually she ventures into the rooms of her family’s abandoned house and into her father’s study. There she finds the manuscript of a book called Dracula by a man named Stoker. Recognizing elements of herself in the story she decides to travel to England to get answers. In England she finds others like her, some who hate her kind, and the beings who have shaped the history of her beloved England.
This novel is described as a Victorian steampunk vampire story. While there are elements of steampunk, like police on scooters and dirigibles patrolling the skies, the steampunk part of the story is almost non-existent. However, there is every indication that there will be a sequel and I believe that is where the machines will be much more evident.
