The Factory World
Steam Press is very excited to announce that its first title for 2013 is Joseph Ryan’s
“Some people can’t see certain things the world makes. It gets in them like a thorn and turns in a bad way. Cuts them up from inside, and gets a bleed going. And that makes a person weak. And in a world like this, kid, that's enough to get you killed.”
Waking in a pipe in a silent forest, unable to remember how he got there or where he came from, Simon finds himself walking a rusting railway track with a mysterious stranger who cannot even remember his own name. Abandoned factories and eerie mannequins dot their path, falling stars lighting the night sky and searing holes through the earth to reveal a maze of pipes beneath. A dream, and a thousand miles away is their only way home.
But they are not alone on this factory world, and soon realise that they are fighting for their lives...
- Part 1: The Boy in the Pipe – 12 April 2013
- Part 2: The Silver Witch – 26 April 2013
- Part 3: The Secret Storeroom – 10 May 2013
- Part 4: The People in the Glasshouse – 24 May 2013
- Part 5: Black Bulb, Pink Light – 7 June 2013
- Part 6: The Girl in the Hole – 21 June 2013
- Part 7: The Emerald City – 5 July 2013
The full
Praise for The Factory World
“Ryan has constructed an intricate puzzle box of a story, with a pair of characters that you will love. You’ll be biting your nails even as you explore their new dangerous and curious world along with them.” – Philippa Ballantine
“A powerful and original evocation of a world where the distinction between the human and the machine is problematic ... The story flows straight from the page to the imagination.” – Phillip Mann
“Simon is a wonderful character – plucky, compassionate and inventive – in a sinister and unsettling world that lived on in my imagination long after I finished the book.” – Mandy Hager
“Weird and intriguing ... strange and disturbing ... a wonderful antidote to the ubiquitous fat fantasy trilogy.” – Simon Litten, SFFANZ Reviews
“Dark and foreboding as any great New Zealand novel but full of original twists,
