Steampunk magazine #2

Steampunk magazine issue #2 is out now. You can download or order it here.

Before the age of homogenization and micro-machinery, before the tyrannous efficiency of internal combustion and the domestication of electricity, lived beautiful, monstrous machines that lived and breathed and exploded unexpectedly at inconvenient moments. It was a time where art and craft were united, where unique wonders were invented and forgotten, and punks roamed the streets, living in squats and fighting against despotic governance through wit, will and wile.

Even if we had to make it all up.

The Museum of RetroTechnology

Pictured above: The Pierce Centennial Rotary Boiler of July 18??, published in The Manufacturer and Builder

All you need to know about Pneumatic Networking, Heliographs, Mechanical Analogue Computers and Steam Engines. Well, maybe not all, but lots anyway. And with pictures! Link.

Telecalculograph

Steampunk-CPU at Flickr. Link.

Steampunk sculptures

Steampunk sculptures by French artist Pierre Matter.

Gun that makes you puke, and other links

The wall-penetrating vomit beam.

Lightning gun.

A new drug wipes out fearful memories. Hmm, sounds a lot like Ray Loriga's novel Tokyo Doesn't Love Us Anymore.

Life on Mars

Plant life on Mars and human life on Mars. Via Paleo-Future.

Use the steam, Luke

A steampunk lightsaber.

Speaking of clocks...

A watch made from carved bone.

Is it Punk o'clock already?

Clockpunk

Clockpunk is a genre of science fiction similar to Steampunk (some people even consider clockpunk to be a sub-genre of Steampunk). Clockpunk can be divided into historical and non-historical Clockpunk. Historical Clockpunk explores how the world would have turned out if certain technological developments that occurred later had happened in the Renaissance and or certain inventions in the time of the Renaissance were created on a mass scale in the time period. Non-historical Clockpunk is set in settings similar to the Renaissance but on alternative worlds, planets etc.

Gotta get me one of those ray guns

Inventions and ideas by science fiction writers at Technovelgy.

Science Fiction online

The Last Question, a novella by Isaac Asimov.

Contemporary Science Fiction at Futurismic.

Peter Watt's novel Blindsight is downloadable online under a Creative Commons license. Haven't had the time to read it yet, but it sure sounds interesting. A review from Publisher's Weekly says:

Canadian author Watts (Starfish) explores the nature of consciousness in this stimulating hard SF novel, which combines riveting action with a fascinating alien environment. In the late 21st century, when something alien is discovered beyond the edge of the solar system, the spaceship Theseus sets out to make contact. Led by an enigmatic AI and a genetically engineered vampire, the crew includes a biologist who's more machine than human, a linguist with surgically induced multiple personality disorder, a professional soldier who's a pacifist, and Siri Keeton, a man with only half a brain. Keeton is virtually incapable of empathy, but he has a savant's ability to model and predict the actions of others without understanding them. Once the Theseus arrives at the gigantic and hideously dangerous alien artifact (which has tellingly self-named itself Rorschach), the crew must deal with beings who speak English fluently but who may, paradoxically, not even be sentient, at least as we understand the term. Watts puts a terrifying and original spin on the familiar alien contact story.

Perdido Street Station

A truly breathtaking illustration of Perdido Street Station by Gordillo. Link

And another Miéville-inspired illustration, this one featuring Yagharek and Lin, made by Marc Simonetti as a cover for the french edition of PSS. Link

And last, but not least, fascinating sketches of Miéville's creatures by Nicholas Kole. Link

Oh, and in case you didn't know, Perdido Street Station is a book by China Miéville. One of my all-time favourites (along with his other books), and definitely worth a read if you're into gritty, intelligent steampunk fantasy. And why wouldn't you be?

O brave new world

Private police forces

They wear uniforms, carry weapons and drive lighted patrol cars on private
properties like banks and apartment complexes and in public areas like bus
stations and national monuments. Sometimes they operate as ordinary citizens and
can only make citizen's arrests, but in more and more states they're being
granted official police powers.

The Panopticon Singularity

Surveillance need not even stop at our skin; the ability to monitor our
speech and track our biological signs (for example: pulse, pupillary dilation,
or possibly hormone and neurotransmitter levels) may lead to attempts to monitor
thoughts as well as deeds.

How to draw steampunk machines. From Crabfu SteamWorks.

Should you need models, you might want to check out this Steam Engines site by Creative Edge Design.

Where the hell'd you get that idea, HAL?

AI Cited for Unlicensed Practice of Law.

Neuromancer - A Graphic Novel

A fascinating piece of artwork from William Gibson aleph, which is an "essential information collection about contemporary writer William Gibson".

The graphic novel covers only the first third of 'Neuromancer' (chapters 'Chiba City Blues' and 'The Shopping Expedition'). It is quite well done, and the cyberspace sequences look very good. Apparently it was planned to be the first in a series of which the remaining chapters have been cancelled.

Gibson, apparently an avid comic fan during his youth, said that he is satisfied with the graphic novel and that it looks pretty much like what he imagined in 1983. He also said that if any of his work was adapted for the big screen, he would be happy if it would come as close to his original intention as the graphic novel.

Link

Putting the Punk back into steampunk

Steampunk magazine.

Before the age of homogenization and micro-machinery, before the tyrannous efficiency of internal combustion and the domestication of electricity, lived beautiful, monstrous machines that lived and breathed and exploded unexpectedly at inconvenient moments. It was a time where art and craft were united, where unique wonders were invented and forgotten, and punks roamed the streets, living in squats and fighting against despotic governance through wit, will and wile. Even if we had to make it all up.

Like city lights, receding

What is cyberpunk anyway?

Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts... A graphic representation of data abstracted from banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding...
- Neuromancer (1984). William Gibson.

Höyryä, komisario Palmu

Steam wars by Larry Blamire.

Of steamworks and magick obscura

What is steampunk anyway?