Chitin Canticle For A Clockwork God

by Lara Casey

Elias Thorne, once Altvass’s premier Master Horologist, is now a man haunted by grief and public disgrace. In the smog-choked industrial city, where every ticking clock echoes the silence of his grandest failure, Elias discovers the blueprints for the Brass Anatomy—a massive, humanoid automaton designed to absorb the city’s crushing, collective sorrow. It is a clockwork god, and Elias is determined to be its architect.

But the machine’s power comes at a devastating price. Through an insidious process of Sympathetic Transference, Elias realizes he is not merely building a vessel; he is becoming its host. Piece by agonizing piece, he replaces his own fragile flesh, bone, and organs with cold, unyielding brass and intricate gears, trading his memories and warmth for mechanical precision.

As his mind fractures under the weight of the city’s pain and the ruthless logic of the machine, Elias’s former apprentice, Alistair Finch, and Inspector Valerius, a relentless investigator, close in on the man-turned-monster. The final component, the Veridian Escapement, sits ready to complete the conversion, promising Elias eternal life as a clockwork tyrant, but erasing the last vestiges of his humanity.

In a final, profound act of rebellion, Elias must face the ultimate surrender to the terrible, logical perfection of the machine he built, or choose the messy, painful, glorious imperfection of humanity, even if that choice means a violent, final self-destruction.

348 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 1, 2025

About the author

Hi! I’m Lara. A mom to three–one through the gift of adoption—a grateful wife, and a believer in the impossible! She is the Founder and CEO of Cultivate What Matters and created the PowerSheets® Goal Planner–an intentional goal-setting planner to help women break down their goals into manageable action steps and start living on purpose. She founded Southern Weddings magazine a decade ago and is the CEO of Cultivate What Matters. Lara is also the founder of the Making Things Happen movement, a nationally-acclaimed workshop that has been sold out for the last eight years and has toured over 40 cities. Lara frequently speaks on goal-setting, faith, mission-centered business. Lara authored three books through Thomas Nelson Publishers: Make it Happen: Surrender Your Fear, Take the Leap, Live on Purpose, Cultivate: A Grace-Filled Guide to Growing an Intentional Life, and her most recent children's book Gracie's Garden available now! Lara lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with her husband, Ari, and their children, Grace, Joshua, and Sarah, and spends her free time in the garden...