Maddie Angler has a terrible world on her hands.  She was going to marry Alvin Roth, help take care of Randy, Alvin's mentally-impaired brother and be welcomed into the Roth family by their cat-loving mother.  If it had happened, it would have been wonderful.

But it didn't happen that way at all. Alvin vanished and the police consider him dead. No investigation has been able to find a trace of him.  No one knows where Alvin has gone, not even his Ph.D. degree mentor, Dr. Keats.  Heartbroken and betrayed, Maddie is trying to put the past behind her and move on when Dr. Keats calls, looking some of his books.  Before she knows it, Maddie has not only agreed to take the doctor his books but also to take child-like Randy along for the ride. 

From this unlikely start Maddie embarks on her hero's journey into a bigger, different world.  One with gas lamps lining the streets filled with programmable, magnetically-propelled carriages that carry her from one conspiracy to another; where the Church's entire doctrine has completely changed which axis its worship hinges upon. This is where Maddie wakes up in the body of Matilda Roth, a scheming woman who works the rooms of the affluent and elite with her husband, the wily Randall Roth. 

Both of these people are near doppelgangers of Maddie and Randy from the world she knew before.  Just before she faints away in Matilda's body, Randall tells her that not only is her missing fiancé Alvin alive, he is here in this world, and she can see him again.  In fact, she must if the many worlds she has been thrust into are to be safe!

Natania Barron's first book, "Pilgrim of the Sky" from Candlemark & Gleam publishing is magical romp between worlds mundane, affluent, spectacular, primitive, and then back again.  This is a work of romantic Steampunk fiction where faces and bodies can be switched almost as quickly as fortunes and loyalties.  Behind those faces and - as she learns - behind Maddie's own face, lie enormous power that brings the various worlds into great peril if she cannot solve the mystery of her beloved Alvin's machinations and decide which allies she will draw close and which enemies she must draw closer.

Throughout Barron deserves credit for delivering a female lead who is by turns loving, furious, indignant and even funny without relying on stereotype.  Barron lists Meg Murry from "A Wrinkle in Time" By Madeleine L'Engle as an influence, and I do get that same sense of Maddie Angler as being a strong, feeling, female lead as I did when reading L'Engle's books, albeit with a much more modern rendition, particularly in her relationship morays.  In some ways I liken Barron's narrative line to Tim Power's use of the hero's journey where an unknowing neophyte gets thrown to the sharks for a swimming lesson. Maddie not only has to .learn to swim fast, but how to keep herself out of harm's way while surrounded by people who all seem to want a chunk out of her.

But don't panic when I say this is a romantic fantasy; while there are plenty of adult relationship scenes and grown-up interaction, this is not a corset-ripper fable.  For those of you counting your gears and cogs, there is little real science or fake science to worry about here.  Much in the same way that most of us don't really understand how our cars or computers actually function, the driverless carriages, floating estates and tiny communications devices are acknowledged briefly and then moved on from.  This isn't a technical journal, this is the story of how one woman learns to get past her fear of the past to let her own personal power light the way towards her future.  Right now I'm predicting a very nice future for Natania Barron's "Pilgrim."

The book goes on sale to the general public December 13, 2011.  However, your can pre-order your copy via their Kickstarer Promotional Site by December 1st.  

Professor Upsidasium is a contributor to Steampunk Chronicle.  He uses the Visuatronic Audiographic Steampunk Archive to capture images and sounds of events he has been to and individuals he has had the pleasure of speaking with.  You can follow his ramblings on Twitter or explore the current iteration of the archives on YouTube.