In the House of the Machine God: The World Saga, #0

By O. A. Beckett

Ten years before the events of The Heresies of World, an eclectic band of scientists embark on an expedition to the western continent. But when their heliplane is mysteriously brought down on a desolate island, they encounter an ancient horror which will challenge their intellects, their survival skills, and their very ideas about reality itself.

• Language: English
• Publisher: O. A. Beckett
• Release date: May 14, 2017
• ISBN: 9781540103277

Book preview

Author’s prefatory

This story is part of a larger cycle of interconnected tales about a place called, simply, World. I have done my best to make this installment perfectly enjoyable, and comprehensible, on its own. However, just like drinking, lovemaking, and betting at cards, it is best enjoyed, not solo, but with friendly company.

So, with the intent of being your avuncular companion, I’ve laid out the following brief chronology of the stories in the series that are available so far:

Terra Cotta Army – a short story (available for free at oabeckett.com) whose present-day narrator recounts events that took place a long, long time before the events of The Heresies of World.

In the House of the Machine God – the short story you’re now reading. It takes place about ten years before the events of The Heresies of World.

The Heresies of World – a novella/novelette, the first major installment of the World saga (available wherever high-quality eBooks are sold), it starts the present day events of the narrative.

Fail Safe – a short story (available for free at oabeckett.com) that takes place during the same general time period as The Heresies of World.

All of World in Time (tentative title) – a forthcoming novella, currently in the works, that will be the second major installment of the World saga.

If you like any of these stories (or even if you don’t), please let me know. Honest reviews are always sincerely appreciated.

For a better World,

—OAB

May, 2017

www.oabeckett.com

In the House of the Machine God

There had been a war.

It had raged for so many years that, by its end, no one remembered exactly how long ago it had begun. By best estimates, at least a hundred years separated the first shot from the last.

So much was lost in that century-and-more of war, so many books burned and disks melted, that the people had forgotten most of their own history. The recent past lay half-submerged under lies, revisionism, and propaganda. The distant past had sunk completely into myth.

Cut off from its own history, the land that emerged from the