More Ætherweb Jewels
Posted By Traveler on 22. Juli 2010
Today I have another two gems from the ætherweb for you. I have to thank Elvira Afterthought for pointing my eye and ætherweb-searches towards those two. It is always good to take a closer look at the people who tweet about my stuff on Twitter.
So, Elvira mentioned two sites I found particularly interesting and it would be a sin not sharing them. The first is the splendid Lightspeed Magazine, an online publication focusing on Science-Fiction literature. It covers a wide spectrum, from its own blog, to podcasts to secondary literature, check it out!
Oh, I almost forgot, the latest piece they published on their site is the very Steampunk and most excellent The Zeppelin Conductors’ Society Annual Gentlemen’s Ball.
With kind permission, I give you the first few paragraphs:
The balloon of a Phoenix-class airship is better than any view from its cabin windows; half a mile of silk pulled taut across three hundred metal ribs and a hundred gleaming spines is a beautiful thing. If your mask filter is dirty you get lightheaded and your sight goes reddish, so it looks as though the balloon is falling in love with you.
When that happens, though, you tap someone to let them know and you go to the back-cabin Underneath and fix your mask, if you’ve any brains at all. If you’re helium-drunk enough to see red, soon you’ll be hallucinating and too weak to move, and even if they get you out before you die you’ll still spend the rest of your life at a hospital with all the regulars staring at you. That’s no life for an airship man.
I remember back when the masks were metal and you’d freeze in the winter, end up with layers of skin that peeled off like wet socks when you went landside and took the mask off. The polymer rubbers are much cleverer.
The author behind it is Genevieve Valentine. Now, what are you waiting for? Go and read it!
But before you do it, open another tab in your browser for this gallery.
A very nice collection of a huge range of Steampunk Gadgets. Some of them were actually unknown to me. Which is great, it means there is still so much left to discover…
I am an anthropologist and in this capacity a minor scholar of the Cthulhu Mythos and H.P. Lovecraft. I am also quite obviously heavily into Steampunk and Dieselpunk and like travelling.
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