Ghost Engine

Berd dreams of being the first programmer, but Charles has her beat with his inventing the Ghost Engine. Charles has now been missing for a full year and with his father’s recent passing, Berd can now purchase the machine to understand how it works and how to program others. The machine has different ideas for her, however, and literally sucks her into the computer. Now she must traverse the perilous pitfalls of love, artificial intelligence, and 1880’s societal rules.

"Ghost Engine" is a bold jump back to 1880 with a uniquely modern look at the other edge of the machine age. Descriptions simply leap off the page and the reader feels they are watching a movie rather than merely reading words. It is difficult to move past a computer set in this time, however, the programming lingo is thoroughly realistic and explained well. There are places in this compelling story that are desperately hard to follow and leave one to question what the devil is happening, though the reader does not wish to step away as they don’t want to miss the characters doing anything without them. The vocabulary used is compatible with the era and if this is just a sample of Fuller’s writing, this is an author to keep an eye on.

Yannie Sorensen