Slouching Towards Bedlam by Star Foster and Daniel Ravipinto

In the beginning was the Word, and it was hungry.

Enter a steampunk adventure set in a London that might have been. The year is 1885. Bedlam Hospital still stands in Moorsfield, a decaying shell used to house the poor and the hopeless. Steam-driven mechanical wonders roam the streets. Gear-wheeled analytical engines spin out reams of thought onto punched paper tapes.

And in the darkness - in the alleys and the side shops - hide secrets.