From the introduction: Following the Second World War, the rural nations of Eastern Europe were torn apart by the recent conflict. Years later, after harvesting the charred skeletons of the ruined machines of war and learning of new engineering techniques, the founders of the new city or Icarus rose to conquer the heavens with towering walls, buildings and machines. The industrial revolution had reached Icarus in a staggering explosion of manufacture and new progress. The city itself, an organism of iron and smoke, now rivals any technological marvel of engineering from around the globe.