The First Steampunk Adventures Collection: Tales One thru Five

The First Steampunk Adventures Collection

Tales One thru Five

By Ronald E. Hudkins

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Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2015 © Ronald E. Hudkins

All Rights Reserved

ISBN-13: 978-1512215601

ISBN-10: 1512215600

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Description

The First Steampunk Adventures Collection – Tales One thru Five

Complete with unusual mechanical Steampunk wonders, strange characters and bold adventurers, this riveting anthology presents a Book 1 collection of mind bending stories relative to the same literary form, of the same period, or on the same subject. These stories combine the worlds of fantasy and science fiction that become in essence a Victorian elegance spouting modern technological stem-driven, souped-up and sometimes space faring adventures. It this world of Steampunk short stories the only constant is the author Ronald E. Hudkins of all the works.

The collections are a box of chocolates really as they span from Medieval (Middle Ages), Victorian (post-1930’s industrial revolution), Western (American Old West) and Industrial Modern (early modern age). The stories glimpse at what the past would look like if it all happened using modern technology given a kind of Goth make-over. These stories cater to people making things for themselves, retro-looking technology all wrapped around the romanticism and stability of the long ago. As they should Steampunk stories make you feel like in the realm of wherever, anything and everything is possible!

Steampunk is an inspired movement of creativity and imagination. With a backdrop of either Victorian England or America’s Wild West at hand, modern technologies are re-imagined and realized as elaborate works of art, fashion, and mechanics. Thus, Steampunk is actually modern technology—iPads, computers, robotics, air travel—powered by steam and set in the 1800’s.

I guess you could say, Steampunk applies modern speculation to past-age technology and society, it mixes the digital with the handmade. Steampunk employs appropriate materials (such as polished brass, iron, wood, and leather) with design elements and craftsmanship consistent with the Victorian era. Kind of like where DIY meets WTF! It is the appearance of Victorian-made objects set in recognizable historical periods, to works set in fantasy worlds that rely heavily on steam- or spring-powered technology.

Book One is a blend of journeys through science fiction, fantasy action and adventure that embrace steampunk while pushing your imagination to the limits.

Table of Contents

Copyright Notice

Description

Story One – The Robot Upheaval

Story Two – The Acute Island

Story Three – The Automations of War

Story Four – Mechanical Doom

Story Five – Steelheart

Book Review

About the Author

Other Books

Story 1

The Robot Upheaval

Isaaclaus Bent sank down into the plush chair with a contented feeling. After the hours of careful preparation to ensure that his disguise concealed any traces of his metal parts, he was feeling relaxed. True the Royal Academy was a serious place, and he was here on a serious case; but relaxation was something you had to take when you could. Three days ago it had all been very different, when the robot had assaulted parliament.

He hadn't been near the house when the machine had stridden in of course, but he had turned up there quick enough when he had heard the news. By the time he had arrived a large crowd had already gathered, eager to see the goliath that had forced its way into the center of power. It took some time to get near the front of the throng, but when he managed he was almost in awe of the mechanical beast that squatted in the shattered entrance, its rear tentacles trailing out of the parliamentary building.

It was huge, a metal octopus with a cylindrical body that belched steam and appendages with which it hauled itself around. Whoever had made it should have chosen legs though; its progress, Isaaclaus was reliably informed later, had been ponderous to say the least. Still, all the law-makers had fled in terror and it was in an empty house that the three meter tall machine stood, strangely impassive as it sat there.

‘What is that?’ a man in top hat and the most absurdly heavy black greatcoat had asked him.

‘I have as much idea as you have,’ Isaaclaus replied as he made his way further forwards; the only difference being that he already knew he would make it his business to know all about it very soon.

Another man, silver cane in hand and clearly of some importance, although Bent did not know him, leaned over.

‘It tried to make demands before, but no-one could understand it; the voice was too metallic. It’s wonderful in its way, isn’t it?’

‘Demands? How do you know if it can’t be understood?’

The man with the cane laughed.

‘Such a machine is made to make demands; and besides, breaking into the house is not likely to be for any peaceful purpose.’

Isaaclaus cursed himself silently.

‘True,’ he replied, and then had devoted himself to studying the machine.

The technology was similar to that with which he was all too familiar, steam-driven and spring-regulated metal joints which no doubt pre-set behaviors had set into them by means of complicated pins and gears. The metal itself was curiously discolored; it was probably brass but in places seemed dirty and in others worn; a strange appearance for what must be a new creation. And from one or two cracks it seemed to give of fumes of heated oil and steam; probably a cooling system of some sor-

And then it exploded, sending metal shards and huge plates flying through the air, cutting down some of the crowd. Most of the damage happened to the house though; the already wrecked entrance being completely destroyed and a huge swathe of the interior shredded. The panic was worse; many in the crowd were injured, especially the women who were impeded by their long skirts and the bustles that were back in fashion again. Not for long of course; getting your wearer trampled to death was not a popular achievement for fashion, unlike making them wholly incapable of walking at any speed above snail-pace. Isaaclaus, once at a safe distance and ensconced in a suitably comfortable public-house, had quickly come to a conclusion at odds to the generally accepted one. The explosion was not, in his opinion, what the makers of this strange machine wanted. For a start it served no purpose; if an assassination had been the intention surely it would have self-destructed when it first made its way into the chamber, before the power-brokers had fled?

Still, he’d kept his thoughts to himself. They’d call him soon enough to put him on the case. After all, Isaaclaus Bent was the foremost investigator in the land, and his team the best money- or knowledge- could buy. And sure enough they had come; a discreet under-secretary on behalf of the Home secretary himself; all neat waistcoat and demure attitude with a heavy signet ring the sole sign of any importance.

‘You see,’ he had said to Isaaclaus; ‘you are not only the most accomplished in your field, but you also have the suitable expertise for such a case.’ That had caused Bent to wince, but it was true. His very existence made him most suitable to take on this job.

Returning to the present, he glanced around at the scientists who were attending the lecture. He recognized a few who were household names as well as some that he had needed to consult in his work as an investigator. But many were new to him; men whose genius helped power the country and opened up the frontier to the future, but who went unheralded. Could one of these, frustrated by a lack of recognition, be the one who decided to turn himself into a king? Or was it a plot of many, driven by power-lust, or mad ideals?

There was also the possibility that the regulations that had so cramped the development of steam-technology had driven one to try to change things more to his liking. Although the very existence of the machine showed that the government’s fears of where it could lead were well founded. A last idea, occurring all at once, made Isaaclaus wonder if one of these men so enamored of their ancient name may be a royalist, and oppose the new republican empire. But he discounted that almost at once- it had been the King himself, faced with the impossible progress and his own fascination with mechanics who had triggered it off when he had abdicated with no clear air. Oh, there had been a brief regency before the parliament, in its most heated session in recorded history, had abolished the monarchy. People were scandalized, but with the