Zara and the Iron Leviathan. From the Chronicles of the City of E (en Inglés) - Jackie L Clark;Robert Stephen Clark

What if the thing that promised freedom was the very thing you were running from?

When Zara-an archivist sworn to preserve truth-discovers a weathered captain's journal hidden near the docks, she expects a forgotten record. Instead, she finds a voice that refuses to settle.

The journal belonged to Erik Thomas Edleson, a gifted seafarer who fled his calling and vanished aboard a massive ironclad ship known as the Iron Leviathan. What began as escape hardened into containment. What claimed to offer freedom demanded loyalty. And what appeared strong enough to carry him anywhere proved incapable of letting him go.

As Zara reads, the account presses closer than it should.

The sea hums.

A lantern burns in the distance.

And the space between witness and obedience grows uncomfortably thin.

Told through recovered journals and Zara's restrained, reflective voice, Zara and the Iron Leviathan is a richly symbolic, steampunk-inflected allegory exploring obedience versus autonomy, memory versus erasure, and the cost of running from what you were made to carry. Drawing inspiration from the biblical story of Jonah, the novel examines how the pursuit of self-rule reshapes the soul-and what it costs to turn back once you've gone too far.

This prequel expands the world of The Chronicles of the City of E and leads directly into The Heart of the Tree, while standing fully on its own for new readers.

You will enjoy this book if you love:

Christian allegorical fantasy

Literary, symbol-driven storytelling

Steampunk worlds with theological depth

Stories of calling, resistance, and surrender

Not every ship is salvation.

Not every escape is freedom.

And not every calling can be outrun.