“One of the things that's exciting for me about this novel is that, to me, Brookland and The Testament of Yves Gundron were both, in certain regards, crypto-steampunk. They're both books that are interested in an alternate technological past that in fact didn't historically come to pass. If you were to ask me what my novels were about, I would say, well, these are novels about technology and how we relate to technology and what technology means.”
![“We [me and husband ] had been learning about the Khazars, and I had read Michael Chabon's novel [Gentlemen of the Road] the year before, so all these things are kind of roiling around in my brain, and then I slipped on the ice and I broke my wrist, and it had to be surgically repaired.” quote by Emily Barton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/e93/emily-barton-18422_books_we-me-and-husband-had-been-learning-abou_182880.jpg)
![“I'm not for it [Brookland and The Testament of Yves Gundron ], I'm not against it, I'm just interested in it and how it functions, but I think that, in some senses, in those two novels, that was difficult for people to see.” quote by Emily Barton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/e7b/emily-barton-18422_books_i-m-not-for-it-brookland-and-the-testame_613821.jpg)
