Heart of Steel (2011) (edit title/settings)

Summary edit see section history

Characters edit see section history

show spoilers

• Yasmeen Corsair: "Captain Corsair" - "Lady Corsair" - "Lady Lynx" - A mercenary; Captain of the Lady Corsair; Has an angular face, long black curly hair with braids, cat-green eyes and dark skin; Always wears a colorful bandana on her head to cover the tips of her tufted ears; Has a slight Arabic accent
• Archimedes Fox: "Wolfram Gunther-Baptiste" - An adventurer, antiquities salvager, guide and treasure hunter; Has shaggy brown hair streaked with gold and emerald eyes; Is tall and fit with wide shoulders, narrow hips and a deep tan; About 29 years old
• Zenobia Fox: "Geraldine Gunther-Baptiste" - Archimedes' sister; Author of the Archimedes Fox Adventures; Is tall with brown hair and emerald eyes
• Rhys Trahaearn: "The Iron Duke" - "Duke of Anglesey" - Mina's man; Former pirate captain of Marco's Terror; He freed England from Horde control; Has now built a merchant empire; 36 years old; A very handsome and intimidating man; Is tall and lean with very wide shoulders; Has dark hair, dark eyes and three tiny rings piercing the top curve of each ear
• Mina Wentworth: "Lady Wilhelmina Elizabeth Wentworth" - "The Jade Whore" - Rhys' woman; Detective Inspector; Daughter of the earl and countess of Rockingham; She is half Horde; A rather pretty, petite woman with smooth black hair and dark eyes; 29 years old
• James Scarsdale: "Lord Scarsdale" - "Earl of Scarsdale" - Yasmeen's very good friend; Rhys' friend and his navigator; A tall man with brown hair; A bounder; The eldest son of a marquess; Likes men
• Eben Machen: "Mad Machen" - Ivy's man; A mercenary and pirate; Ex-Royal naval officer and surgeon; Captain of the ship Vesuvius; Is big and intimidating, with a thick coarse scar around his neck and another going from his temple to his jaw; Has tanned skin, overgrown dark hair and dark eyes; His right leg from just above the knee is mechanical
• Ivy Blacksmith: Eben's woman; A brilliant blacksmith; Has red hair, green eyes and freckles; The guild's mark, normally around the wrist is wrapped around her neck; Has mechanical flesh arms
• Obadiah Barker: Machen's friend and quartermaster; Has a leg made from mechanical flesh; Has bushy black hair and brown skin
• The Blacksmith: "Negrüi" - Head of the Blacksmith Guild; The only person outside of Xanadu who can manipulate the nanoagents necessary to create mechanical flesh; No one knows his real name; Every inch of his skin that is not covered by his clothing is the pale gray of mechanical flesh, shaped to mimic human features; Even his face is mechanical flesh and his eyes are silver prosthetics
• Jannsen: Vesuvius' surgeon
• Tenner: Crew member aboard Vesuvius
• Bilson: Archimedes' former partner
• Monsieur Rousseau: Lady Corsair's quartermaster; A highly skilled map reader/interpreter; The most valuable member of Yasmeen's crew; Captain Guillouet's cousin
• Ginger: Yasmeen's cabin girl; A sturdy, dark-haired girl of 12 or 13
• Sven: A dark-haired boy; An aviator; Built his own skipper balloon and regularly races it around the North Sea
• Ms. Pegg: An aviator aboard the Lady Corsair; Mr. Pegg's wife; Has pale blonde hair
• Mr. Pegg: An aviator aboard the Lady Corsair; Ms. Pegg's husband
• Sarah: Yasmeen's cabin girl
• Thema: Yasmeen's cabin girl
• Bebé Laverne: An aviator aboard the Lady Corsair
• Big Thom: A salvager; Lives up to his name, with broad shoulders made wider by pneumatic braces across his back and chest and steel prosthetic arms
• Mr. Pessinger: A gunner aboard Lady Corsair
• Henri: A boy of about 14
• Peter Vashon: "Red Shirt" - Paul's twin; First mate aboard the Ceres; Is tall with dark hair
• Paul Vashon: "Blue Shirt" - Peter's twin; Is tall with dark hair
• Mr. Bigor: Leader of the four marsouins aboard the Ceres; Has a precisely trimmed brown beard
• Mr. Dubois: One of the four marsouins aboard the Ceres
• Mr. Durand: One of the four marsouins aboard the Ceres
• Mr. Laurent: One of the four marsouins aboard the Ceres
• Mr. Leroy: Aviator aboard the Ceres; Is very thin
• Mr. Cassel: Aviator aboard the Ceres; Is very shy
• Mr. Simon: Aviator aboard the Ceres
• Mr. Engels: Navigator's mate aboard the Ceres; A bitter man
• Vincent Engels: Mr. Engels' brother; Was killed by a firebomb in Bonaire
• Hassan: Temür Agha's prime counselor, though he has retired from the position; Has a curly black beard
• Terbish: "That One" - A Horde villager; About 18-20 years old; Has a rounded face and brown eyes; A brilliant inventor; A friend of the Blacksmith
• Negrüi: "No One" - A Horde villager; Terbish's grandmother; A gray-haired older woman
• Bishop Mendi: Scientist
• Bloody Bartholomew: "Bart" - Killed by Yasmeen; Was older, with silver at his temples
• The Comte: Yasmeen's ex-lover; Was charming handsome and rich; Killed by Yasmeen
• Emmerich Gunther-Baptiste: Archimedes & Zenobia's father; Yasmeen killed him and took over his airship renaming it the Lady Corsair; He was a lean hard man
• Franz Kessler: Art dealer in Port Fallow
• Peter Mattson: "Miracle Mattson" - A weapons smuggler; Is blond with a neatly trimmed mustache and pale blue eyes
• Temür Agha: A rebel from Morocco; A Horde general; Governor of the Moroccan occupied territories; Has iron gray hair gathered at the top of his head in a narrow tail
• Santos Silva: A Lusitanian mercenary
• Kareem al-Amazigh: Rebel leader from Rabat; Is tall and wiry but gives the impression of strength; Has soft brown eyes, a firm mouth and a full beard in a handsome face
• Vincent Ollivier: From the University in Martinique; A portly man with a long face and ample belly; Has receding brown hair and a mustache and beard in the current French fashion, with chin and jaw shaven and whiskers sweeping to his ears like a walrus'; A Liberé assassin who prefers poison as his weapon
• Captain Guillouet: Captain of the Ceres; Monsieur Rousseau's cousin
• Jasper Evans: A mad scientist; Dame Sawtooth's lover; Went crazy after Cornelius Morgan stole his patent to build armored suits; A tall, wiry man with bright blue eyes, a shiny bald scalp and black tufts of hair over his ears making his head seem enormous in comparison to his thin neck
• Dame Sawtooth: "Marguerite Bonnet" - A pirate with a notorious reputation; Jasper Evans' lover; Former actress turned pirate to seek revenge against Rhys for killing her man, Captain Adams; Has brown hair and serrated blades fill her mouth; Is not know if she is still alive since the last time she was seen she was suffering from bug fever
• Nasrin: "The Wild Rose" - Temür Agha's assassin and guard; A gan tsetseg; Has gray threading her long brown hair, which she plaits to hide the tips of her ears; Has a lethal body that is more metal than flesh; Is originally from the Punjaab but was raised in Daidu

Quotes edit see section history

• “You've already proven susceptible to them, and refrained from killing me at least twice: when you discovered who my father was after I first boarded your airship, and again when you threw me from it. I'm certain that means we're destined to be together.”

  Archimedes Fox

• “You offer me nothing? Stupid man. You already give me what few men could. It is rare the man who has the confidence to let me be what I am, whether it is captaining an airship, climbing atop you in a steamcoach, or brawling in a tavern.”

  Yasmeen Corsair

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• “You offer me nothing? Stupid man. You already give me what few men could. It is rare the man who has the confidence to let me be what I am, whether it is captaining an airship, climbing atop you in a steamcoach, or brawling in a tavern.”

  Highlighted by 6 Kindle customers

• “I never only have a blade—but the only weapon I bring to a conversation is a knife. A gun means the talking is over.”

  Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers

Setting & Locations edit see section history

show spoilers

• Lady Corsair: Yasmeen's airship; A long and shallow wooden ship tethered beneath an enormous white balloon; The fastest skyrunner around
• Vesuvius: Eben Machen's blackwood pirate ship
• Ceres: Captain Guillouet's airship; Constructed in the fashion of a sugar sloop, a fat balloon holds up her heavy-bellied ship and two propellers flank a tapered tail
• London, England
• Venice, Italy
• Fladstrand, Upper Peninsula, Denmark
• Port Fallow: A notorious walled city built on Amsterdam's remains
• Morocco
• Steel Flower: Lady Lynx’s skyrunner
• Lady Nergüi: An airship
• The Swan: Airship
• Windrunner: A passenger airship
• The Grecian Queen: An airship
• Bath, England
• The New World
• Wien University
• Atlantic Ocean
• The Silk Road
• Hapsburg Wall
• Europe
• Wien, Ludwig Principality, Johannesland
• Copenhagen, Denmark
• Chatham, England
• The Ivory Market
• Sweden
• Jutland Peninsula
• Norway
• Danish Islands
• Limfjord, Denmark
• The Rose & Thorn: Tavern in Fladstrand
• Africa
• Arabian Peninsula
• Liberé
• The Gold Coast
• Constantinople
• North Sea
• Australia
• Adriatic Sea
• Pflaum
• Cairo, Egypt: Horde city
• Oyapock, Liberé: The Liberé capital on the coast of the southern American continent
• Ural Mountains
• Lusitania
• Reval
• Baltic Sea
• Xanadu: The Horde capital
• Asia
• Underwater Perils of Porto
• The Charging Bull: Tavern in Port Fallow
• Egypt
• Greece
• Rabat
• Martinique University
• Caribbean Sea
• South America
• Great Cinnamon River
• Castile
• French Islands
• Johannesland
• Calais, France
• Brenner's Pass
• Italian Peninsula
• Vienna
• Arctic Circle
• Bonaire
• Vienna
• Punjaab
• Daidu
• White Mountains
• Black Sea
• Far Maghreb
• The Antilles
• The Eternal Sky
• Brindisi
• Sea Fort: On one of the islands in Brindisi
• Mediterranean Sea
• Goryeo
• Khmer
• Paris, France
• Port-au-Prince

Organizations edit see section history

• The Lamplighter Gazette: Add a description of this organization.
• The Horde: Was originally the Mongol Horde, which moved east and west from Mongolia, occupying and taking over territory.
• Marsouins: French marines skilled in aerial and underwater combat
• Huguenot
• The Vashons: "The Flying Vashons" - A famous French aviator family

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• Megalodons: "Meg" - Giant sharks altered and bred by the Horde until they were aggressive and territorial; A full-grown megalodon could leave a ship rudderless or damage the hull; The shark's armored plating makes it very hard to kill; The best course is just avoiding them.
• Nanoagents: "Bugs" - The tiny machines that are used like an infection to (a) control and/or alter a population, or (b) create zombies.
• Gan tsetseg: "A Flower of Steel" - One of the elite guard who serves the Horde royalty and the favored governors; They are babies pulled from the creche's and have their DNA combined with that of the Persian Lynx; Can be distinguished by their tufted ears
• khanate: Describe this term.
• djellaba: A Musulman's robe
• dargas
• kasbah

Series & Lists edit see section history

Preceded by The Iron Duke, and followed by Riveted.

Preceded by The Iron Duke, and followed by Mina Wentworth and the Invisible City.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Meljean Brook (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 813

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Add a note to help parents select a book for a child.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• Meljean Brook: The Iron Seas page

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history