The Empire of Corpses

By the 19th century, reanimation has become a practical technology: corpses are brought back to motion and put to work across society, carrying out tasks as tireless laborers. Yet they remain fundamentally hollow—unable to think or feel, their actions guided only by human programming.

One obstacle still defies science: death’s loss of the soul. Doctor Victor Frankenstein, who disappeared after pioneering the field, is rumored to have achieved the impossible by restoring a corpse that truly possessed one. Drawn by that possibility, London medical student John Watson sets out to find Frankenstein’s notes, hoping to honor a promise made to his late partner, Friday. Recruited by a government agency for the search, Watson is forced to confront the unsettling truths behind the rising corpse industry—and what it may cost to push his research further.