Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Iron & Blood | 2015 | Gail Z. Martin | Buy |
| 2 | Spark of Destiny | 2023 | Gail Z. Martin | Buy |
The Jake Desmet Adventures series is a steampunk collaboration between Gail Z. Martin and Larry N. Martin. Set in an alternate 1890s America, the books combine steam-powered technology with magic and the supernatural. Iron & Blood (2015) introduces Jake Desmet and a world where Nikola Tesla’s inventions work alongside actual sorcery, and where the dangers of the industrial age include both mechanical hazards and magical ones.
Spark of Destiny (2023) returned to the setting after an eight-year gap, continuing Jake’s story in the same alternate-history America. The series shares its world with The Storm and Fury Adventures, a companion series of short fiction that expands on the setting and characters. The Martins’ steampunk work has a different flavor from Gail Z. Martin’s solo fantasy, leaning into gadgetry, mad science, and the specific atmosphere of the Gilded Age.