Фил Фоглио - Agatha H. and the Voice of the Castle

Critical Acclaim for Phil and Kaja Foglio’s Girl Genius

“Filled with folgian touches—Borscht-belt comedy accents, things that go sproing , adorkable sentient machines, and laugh-a-minute slapstick— Agatha H . is a tremendously fun addition to the Girl Genius canon.”

—Cory Doctorow, award-winning author of Little Brother and Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom

“The Hugo Award-winning Foglios present their popular gaslight fantasy comic in novelized form, maintaining the zany energy, witty repartee, creative characterization, and innovative world-building of the original.”

—Publisher’s Weekly

“This volume by the creators of the Eisner Award-nominated webcomic Girl Genius (Volumes 1-9) is a fantastic reintroduction to the Girl Genius world and will definitely capture new fans. It will appeal to fans of the steampunk genre who like their books riddled with mad science and adventure, along with a liberal dash of humor.”

—Library Journal

“Simply said, Girl Genius has everything I look for in a story.”

—Patrick Rothfuss, bestselling author of The Name of the Wind

“!…the Foglios appear to have been liberated by the [webcomics] format—and that sense of buoyant imagination and unbridled fun runs through every page.”

—The Onion A.V. Club

“…ridiculous, and funny, and a little bit sexy.”

—Portland Book Review

“Phil and Kaja Foglio’s awesome new fantasy … pushes the boundaries of steampunk past the polite boundaries of pseudo-Victorian and into full-on techo-madness!”

—Matt Staggs, Suvudu.com

Fans of the series will enjoy another trip into Agatha’s world, and it is not too late for new readers to jump aboard.”

—City Book Reviews

“I will confess to being a big fan of Phil and Kaja Foglio’s Girl Genius”

—Charles Stross, author of Halting State and Rule 34

“…a madcap comic adventure combined with steampunk and some well-used fantasy tropes.”

—EscapePod

“… bursting at the seams with creativity, humor, and outright weirdness … an infectious and incredibly fun read.”

—Sarah Kuhn, ign.com

“If Jules Verne had written comics, he wouldn’t have written Girl Genius. He would have been jealous of it, though.”

—Comics Buyer’s Guide

“Girl Genius is brilliant. It really is. It’s fun and funky and unlike almost anything else, and it’s Phil and Kaja Foglio doing what they do best.”

—Eric Burns, Websnark.com

Other Books by Phil and Kaja Foglio:

Agatha H. and the Clockwork Princess

Agatha H. and the Airship City

Girl Genius Graphic Novels:

Volume 1: Agatha Heterodyne and the Beetleburg Clank

Volume 2: Agatha Heterodyne and the Airship City

Volume 3: Agatha Heterodyne and the Monster Engine

Volume 4: Agatha Heterodyne and the Circus of Dreams

Volume 5: Agatha Heterodyne and the Clockwork Princess

Volume 6: Agatha Heterodyne and the Golden Trilobite

Volume 7: Agatha Heterodyne and the Voice of the Castle

Volume 8: Agatha Heterodyne and the Chapel of Bones

Volume 9: Agatha Heterodyne and the Heirs of the Storm

Volume 10: Agatha Heterodyne and the Guardian Muse

Volume 11: Agatha Heterodyne and the Hammerless Bell

Volume 12: Agatha Heterodyne and the Siege of Mechanicsburg

Volume 13: Agatha Heterodyne and the Sleeping City

Other books and graphic novels by Phil Foglio:

Buck Godot: Zap Gun for Hire

Buck Godot: Psmith

Illegal Aliens (with Nick Pollotta)

NIGHT SHADE BOOKS

NEW YORK

Copyright © 2014 by Phil and Kaja Foglio.

The ongoing adventures of Agatha Heterodyne can be found online, where they are updated every Monday, Wednesday & Friday at www.girlgeniusonline.com.

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Start Publishing LLC, 609 Greenwich Street, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10014.

Night Shade Books is an imprint of Start Publishing LLC

Visit our website at www.start-publishing.com.

Cover art by Tom Kidd

Cover design by Owen Corrigan

Print ISBN: 978-1-59780-524-7

To Our Dear Mothers, Ottillie & Rose, whom we often drove to despair, and no doubt, still do.

PRELUDE

“As we passed through the last of the great Iron Gates and approached Mechanicsburg for the first time, the Bishop was struck anew by the grandeur of the surrounding cliffs, the majesty of the encircling mountains, and the awe-inspiring fury of the River Dyne as it roared far beneath the Bridge of Thorns.

As we crossed toward the town, he rhapsodized at such length that I feared it would take a double dose of poppy-juice tea to settle him in for the night.

The more strategically inclined Captain Van der Vheer pointed to the same features and glumly explained why, for the last thousand years, the Valley of the Heterodynes deserved its reputation as unconquerable.

I am already resigned to never leaving this place, but I take some small comfort that, at the very least, my last memories of Earth will be filled with some of God’s finest landscapes.”

—Excerpt from the journal “The Building of the Red Cathedral, or Why God Now Hates Us” by Brother Martanus, “The Unkillable.” Located in the Papal Library of Banned and Forbidden Books, Avignon, France .

CHAPTER 1

Mechanicsburg, Mechanicsburg,

Welcome to Mechanicsburg!

There’s no finer city from

Saint Petersburg to Rome.

Mechanicsburg, Mechanicsburg,

The loveliest we’ve ever heard of,

Jewel of Europa and

The place where we call home.

How mighty are her mighty walls,

How shiny are her clanks,

How beautiful her mountains tall,

And for her snails we all give thanks.

How glorious her Hospital

Which helps folk far and near,

Bill and Barry Heterodyne

Built it for us here.

Mechanicsburg, Mechanicsburg,

Welcome to Mechanicsburg,

We thank you so for visiting,

With every erg and ohm.

Mechanicsburg, Mechanicsburg,

The greatest burg we’ve ever heard of,

Jewel of Europa and

The place where we call home.

—“The Mechanicsburg Tourism Song,” Tom Smith

Arella Heliotrope climbed the stairs to her family apartment, her mind buzzing with news. She opened the hidden locks on the front door and peered inside. “Poppa?” she called. The sitting room had been tidied in a rather haphazard manner. Couch cushions were lined up wrong side out, the great salvaged clank head that had been repurposed as a fire-front had been left with jaws agape, books had been stuffed onto bookshelves with no regard to order. Arella sighed. The old man did try to stay useful. She wished he would go out but more and more, he just stayed in the apartment. He was not taking retirement well.

She walked past walls lined with family mementos: portraits of old Heterodynes, monsters, ancestors, and nervous-looking dignitaries.

The apartment itself was more spacious than its exterior would suggest. It actually occupied the top floor of what, observed from the street, would appear to be three conjoined yet separate buildings. Even from the beginning, the family had sought to keep a low profile.

“Poppa?” she called again. He wasn’t in the library, a room lined with meticulously oiled leather-bound volumes containing everything one could wish to know about Mechanicsburg and its former rulers.