Jorgenson launches the Ingenious Mechanical Devices series with this slightly discontinuous romantic steampunk adventure. Eilian Sorrell, eldest son of the Earl of Dorset, refuses to give up his archeological travels even after he loses an arm in a dirigible accident. Hadley Fenice is a prosthesis maker seeking a willing surgical recipient for a battery-operated limb designed by her late brother. After the new arm is grafted onto Eilian’s stump, he and Hadley join Eilian’s friends on a dig in the Negev Desert, with Hadley disguised as the dandy Henry Fox to get around sexist strictures. But the story falters when they discover people living in an underground cave who enjoy classless gender equality and same-sex relationships, work according to individual passions, and learn language instantly via crystals. These utopians are embraced by Elian and Hadley but exploited by their unenlightened British colleagues. After this clunky venture into modern cultural polemic, the couple’s return to London restores the atmosphere of romance and delight. If Jorgenson can avoid the urge to moralize, future installments should be entirely entertaining. (BookLife)