INTRODUCING
Thiona Masters, Mechanist
A.E. Cleanslate, Gentleman Spy
No. Eight, Clockwork Automaton
A neofuturist political adventure set in a rich geopolitical and cultural Victorian-era landscape.
WITHIN WHEELS
Being a History of the
Great Disruption
Vol. 1
By J. M. Sattler
An accident during an airship regatta kills Thiona Masters’ apprentice and implicates her in a political assassination. With the help of an enigmatic gentleman spy named Cleanslate and an inscrutable automaton known only as Number Eight, she sets out to clear her name – only to discover the forces she’s fighting are far larger than she anticipated. Driven through the richly detailed Steamlands, she encounters a range of unique characters and situations, and ultimately finds herself back where she started, equipped to meet her destiny.
Imagine a Sherlock Holmes-style political thriller in a world as detailed and sweeping as Game of Thrones.
NOW AVAILABLE
DIRECT FROM THE AUTHOR
Trailer
Charting a Course For the Steamlands
In the Steamlands steam reigns supreme — a relentless force perfected over centuries, its hissing pistons and roaring engines the lifeblood of a world where electricity never came.
Four hundred years of innovation have transformed simple boilers into masterpieces of engineering, powering airships that glide like iron phantoms and automata whose precision rivals the human hand.
Steam-fueled city-states, gleaming with brass and shadowed by ambition, rise above landscapes carved by iron rails and soot-streaked skies. But this mastery comes at a cost: power breeds conflict, and every invention sparks a new intrigue.
Step into the Steamlands, where ingenuity and peril go hand in hand.
Steamlands Stories and Snapshots
Learn more about the Steamlands in these short videos produced by the Archivist.
A Steamlands Snapshot
Concerning Ancona
Deep within the snowy forests of Ancona, three families once fought over control of the mighty Ancona River. Will the Crown Regent be able to maintain his grip?
A Steamlands Snapshot
Concerning Vender
The Commonwealth of Vender prides itself on equality, but behind the scenes the Magistrates hold immense power. Will the will of the masses challenge their dominance?
A Steamlands Snapshot
Concerning Yldania
The Confederation of Yldania has become a juggernaut of wealth and power. But will the great estates follow the Heritor to global ascendancy? Or will old rivalries eclipse their rise?
A Steamlands Snapshot
The Compact of Universal Euphony
The Great Collapse destroyed the Second Empire, but a new order was established by the survivors that has lasted centuries. But how long can Balance be maintained?
A Steamlands Story
The Archivist
What if you were given the impossible duty of caring for the world’s largest Archive … alone? And what if the greatest powers in the land were trying to prevent you from doing so?
About The Author
Born in Honolulu, Hawaii and educated on the East Coast of the United States, J.M. Sattler is a serial entrepreneur, startup executive, technologist, speaker, and writer.
A lifelong reader, Sattler has been immersed in the craft of worldbuilding since his first readings of J.R.R. Tolkien and spent countless hours developing multilayered environments for roleplaying games in his younger years.
Inspired by historians like Arnold Toynbee Sattler studied history at Princeton and specialized in comparative studies, doing extensive independent work on the U.S. Civil War and the roots of totalitarianism in pre-World War I Germany and Japan.
As an adult he turned his creative focus towards technology, using it as a canvas for creating companies, products, and experiences. He now serves as an investor, senior advisor, and fractional executive for several early-stage companies in a number of industries.
His first novel-length book, Within Wheels, was released in 2024 as the first of a series. He lives in Boston, Massachusetts with his family.