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Heartcoil
In a city built on steam and silence, one broken invention could ignite a revolution.
Eastland is a monument to control — a soot-choked metropolis ruled by the Guild and their brutal automata legions. Beneath its gears and gold, the resistance welders, scavengers, and outcasts forging defiance from scrap.
At the center is Link — a quiet mechanic with a dangerous the Heartcoil. Power flows through its core, unpredictable and untested. The Guild wants it silenced. The city might not survive it.
As ash rains and factions fracture, Link must choose whether to remain a builder in hiding… or become the symbol of everything the Guild was built to crush.
For fans of Gundam, Iron Widow, and Mistborn, Heartcoil is a firelit tale of rebellion, sacrifice, and the cost of forging your own future.
Eastland is a monument to control — a soot-choked metropolis ruled by the Guild and their brutal automata legions. Beneath its gears and gold, the resistance welders, scavengers, and outcasts forging defiance from scrap.
At the center is Link — a quiet mechanic with a dangerous the Heartcoil. Power flows through its core, unpredictable and untested. The Guild wants it silenced. The city might not survive it.
As ash rains and factions fracture, Link must choose whether to remain a builder in hiding… or become the symbol of everything the Guild was built to crush.
For fans of Gundam, Iron Widow, and Mistborn, Heartcoil is a firelit tale of rebellion, sacrifice, and the cost of forging your own future.
279 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 11, 2025
3 people are currently reading
7 people want to read
About the author
Daniel Sheley
4 books8 followersDaniel Sheley has been telling stories for most of his life, shaped early by myth, folklore, and writers such as Thomas Malory and William Shakespeare. Those influences, combined with lived experience, inform his focus on character, belief, and the cost of choice.
He served in the U.S. Navy in both technical and leadership roles, experiences that deepened his understanding of systems, pressure, and human behavior. He is the author of Heartcoil, Lux Mendacium, and For Scales Alone. His forthcoming novel, The Soul-Sung, was a finalist in the Writers’ League of Texas Manuscript Contest and launches The Vaeritas Saga.
Daniel lives in Midland, Texas, with his wife and blended family and continues to explore the space where myth, memory, and meaning meet through his fiction.
He served in the U.S. Navy in both technical and leadership roles, experiences that deepened his understanding of systems, pressure, and human behavior. He is the author of Heartcoil, Lux Mendacium, and For Scales Alone. His forthcoming novel, The Soul-Sung, was a finalist in the Writers’ League of Texas Manuscript Contest and launches The Vaeritas Saga.
Daniel lives in Midland, Texas, with his wife and blended family and continues to explore the space where myth, memory, and meaning meet through his fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 3, 2025
This book is a challenge to review. It is not for everyone. It shouldn’t even appeal to me. But I loved it, and I am in awe of the writing style.
This is essentially an epic prose poem in a personified Steampunk setting, the ultimate “man versus environment” conflict, because the city itself is a major character.
And, since usually excess description gets in the way of the story, how could I enjoy a novel that was mostly description? But this book is filled with the poetry of decay. It is imbued with the myriad smells and sounds of rot and rancid oil, falling buildings, leaking steam pipes and shorted electrics, sweat and human fear.
This writer handles the English language better than most of the poets who present their volumes for review, showing the superior power of poetry to evoke emotion. One can picture it as a black-and-white surrealistic film from 1920.
The tale is steeped in metaphor at many levels. The biggest comparison is that of human spirit to mechanical strength, and the concern that each will fail under stress. The difference, is that humans can respond by becoming stronger.
Meanwhile, technical jargon flows like spilt oil, but always within the scope of our ability to understand the action.
We also get brief glimpses of the point of view of the other side in the battle: not sympathetic, but at least understanding. This should lessen the suspense, but the way this author presents the characters, our split viewpoint merely confirms the idea of a never-ending conflict in the human psyche: freedom versus control, and the danger of becoming the authority we struggled against.
Unfortunately, the brevity of the terse action information sometimes leaves us uncertain about what is happening. There are gaps in the plotline and many unexplained events. For example, the Heartcoil appears out of nowhere on page 66, already in play, and we don’t even know what it is. Likewise the Ghostframe.
There are also a couple of strange, repeated sections, and given the experimental nature of the writing, I can’t tell if they are purposeful or in error.
The only structural complaint I have is the sameness of tone. This is a dreary, destructive universe, and we could use a few more of the relaxed, human-to-human moments that flash between the two main characters.
Highly recommended for fans of emotional and poetic writing. And, of course, Steampunk
This review was originally published on Reedsy Discovery.
This is essentially an epic prose poem in a personified Steampunk setting, the ultimate “man versus environment” conflict, because the city itself is a major character.
And, since usually excess description gets in the way of the story, how could I enjoy a novel that was mostly description? But this book is filled with the poetry of decay. It is imbued with the myriad smells and sounds of rot and rancid oil, falling buildings, leaking steam pipes and shorted electrics, sweat and human fear.
This writer handles the English language better than most of the poets who present their volumes for review, showing the superior power of poetry to evoke emotion. One can picture it as a black-and-white surrealistic film from 1920.
The tale is steeped in metaphor at many levels. The biggest comparison is that of human spirit to mechanical strength, and the concern that each will fail under stress. The difference, is that humans can respond by becoming stronger.
Meanwhile, technical jargon flows like spilt oil, but always within the scope of our ability to understand the action.
We also get brief glimpses of the point of view of the other side in the battle: not sympathetic, but at least understanding. This should lessen the suspense, but the way this author presents the characters, our split viewpoint merely confirms the idea of a never-ending conflict in the human psyche: freedom versus control, and the danger of becoming the authority we struggled against.
Unfortunately, the brevity of the terse action information sometimes leaves us uncertain about what is happening. There are gaps in the plotline and many unexplained events. For example, the Heartcoil appears out of nowhere on page 66, already in play, and we don’t even know what it is. Likewise the Ghostframe.
There are also a couple of strange, repeated sections, and given the experimental nature of the writing, I can’t tell if they are purposeful or in error.
The only structural complaint I have is the sameness of tone. This is a dreary, destructive universe, and we could use a few more of the relaxed, human-to-human moments that flash between the two main characters.
Highly recommended for fans of emotional and poetic writing. And, of course, Steampunk
This review was originally published on Reedsy Discovery.
October 26, 2025
*NO Spoilers*
Heartcoil started off with a kick! Depth of descriptions and cadence kept me reading. The middle got a little slow but the second half of the book picked up pace. The end of the book was AMAZING. It ended quickly but well.
"It wasn't designed for war. It just refused to stop fighting."
Heartcoil started off with a kick! Depth of descriptions and cadence kept me reading. The middle got a little slow but the second half of the book picked up pace. The end of the book was AMAZING. It ended quickly but well.
"It wasn't designed for war. It just refused to stop fighting."
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews