They discovered gates leading to other Alternative Worlds and learned that there were plenty of them. People became eternal travellers. They explored their world anew, staged dangerous expeditions to other dimensions, and searched for traces of their old civilization. A race of Navigators was born. They were sentient beings, similar to humans, but born in a biological symbiosis with the vehicles they drove. Some of the Eyes were tamed, and they started helping the Navigators to monitor their route or serve as guards for the drifting towns.

  New settlements and towns developed. Trade flourished once again. Many of the settlements were, in fact, giant vehicles, and their residents continuously travelled from one island to another. The islands differed greatly between themselves; some were made of solid rock but were rich in minerals and metal ore. They were the most common and usually came from the core of the planet. There were others, overgrown with vegetation, or full of fire, molten lava, and volcanoes. Everything was in constant motion, since all the islands were floating in the air and often collided with each other. People learned to predict their course in order to warn the endangered towns about the risk of crashing.

  The Alternative World had many legends. One of them spoke of a world where all islands were united as one Great Island called the Sphere. Others spoke of stars, but as the world was always surrounded by clouds of steam and dust, few people actually saw any stars, and even the boldest Navigators feared to enter the furthest reaches of their world, clad in eternal darkness.

  As the Alternative World philosophy flourished, many people pondered on the nature of the universe, on its sense and purpose, and in that reverie they lost their humanity, becoming one with their surroundings, or shedding their corporeal form. Philosophers became the mainstays of wisdom, the oracles which showed people the way and helped them to solve their everyday problems.

  Such was the world I saw, when the Guide showed it to me for the first time.

  About the Cover Artist

  Jarosław Jasnikowski

  Jarosław Jasnikowski is an artist who was born in the town of Legnica in 1976. He has been painting since 1991. At the beginning of his artistic path he was led by Mirosława Lickiewicz, an artist and teacher from Legnica. At that time Science Fiction was the main inspiration for the young artist. In the middle of the 1990s, he discovered the works of Salvador Dali and other surrealists. In 1998, influenced by an exhibition by Wojciech Siudmak in the Legnica Museum of Copper, and by actually meeting the artist, he decided to devote himself to the work within movements of Surrealism and Fantastic Realism. In the same year, he began his education at the Głogów Plastic Arts School, where he met Telemach Pilitsidis, a famous painter and poet from Głogów. Under his tutelage, Jasnikowski completed his graduation work in 2001. Currently Jarosław Jasnikowski is one of the leading Fantastic Realism artists in Poland and his paintings can be found in collections around the world. His paintings constitute a certain kind of artist’s travelogue from a voyage to unknown worlds. Although in many places Jarosław’s “Alternative Worlds” resemble the reality that we encounter every day, one still quickly notices that this apparent similarity is but a pillar on which the artist builds his own world. Jasnikowski’s works are also characterised by the painter’s passion for all kinds of fantastic vehicles, machines and his affinity for all things Gothic. His paintings are shrouded in a dark secret, creating a unique climate, so characteristic of the artist’s work.

  Full cover image. Wechikuł Don Kichota Jarosław Janikowski

  Story of the Month

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  favorite piece at the end of every issue. The piece with the most votes will win

  eSteampunk’s Story of the Month Award.

  Vote for your favorite piece.

  Contributors

  Neal F. Litherland holds a Bachelors of Criminal Justice from Indiana University, and he lives in Northwest Indiana. A genre-hopping writer, he’s moved throughout sci-fi, fantasy, and horror with a variety of mashups and projects in between. A journalist and columnist, he lets his curiosity lead him where it may, bringing the same mix of the unusual and the surprising to his reporting as he does to his fiction.

  Mandy Alyss Brown is a work-at-home mother in Central Texas. She earned her BA in English with a Professional Writing Emphasis at Texas State University where she spent three years as the Writing Center’s to-go gal. She plans to earn her MFA in Fiction, but that will have to wait until her kids go to school. For now she gets to read, write, and manage eSteampunk during the baby’s naps.

  Meg Kingston is an Indie author whose short stories have featured in a number of magazines, anthologies, and her own short story collections. They’ve even won a few prizes. Her latest book, the bestselling The MonSter and the Rainbow: Memoir of a Disability has been widely praised by people in the disability community and beyond. Meg is currently working on her first novel, a Steampunk tale called Chrystal Heart, (publication early 2013). She’s crowdfunding the book, so there’s a sneak preview here together with details of donor rewards, including a namecheck in every copy of the book. (Until 11/11/12) Further info: http://jaywalkerwriting.co.uk/ “The Collector” has previously appeared in Lost Souls of the Asylum.

  David Wright is a writer and teacher living on Canada’s majestic west coast. When he’s not working, he’s usually reading, running, playing hockey, and occasionally preaching at his local church. He has a lovely wife and two sparkling daughters. His short stories have appeared in over a dozen magazines including Neo-opsis, MindFlights, and Yellow Mama. Check out David’s latest eNovels at Smashwords or Amazon Kindle: Codename Vengeance and Flight of the Cosmonaut.

  Jim Herbert grew up in the Texas Hill Country — and even though he has traveled the world with the US Air Force, graduated with High Honors from the University of Texas at Austin, and has spent 12 years in the professional world as a Civil Engineer — his inner redneck still comes out, which is evident in his grasp of the old-west personalities in his stories. For more please visit his Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/preachers.projectiles

  Charl Landsberg is a South African poet, author, musician, academic, and activist with a heartfelt interest in human rights, humanism, and secularism. He often criticizes structures of abuse and oppression including but not limited to homophobia, sexism, racism, and classism. His academic work surrounding theological studies, biblical studies, atheism, and ethics and morality influences his writing and music. While his work takes on a social tone, Landsberg is no stranger to writing that explores fantasy, science fiction, and other genres. Read more of his poetry at aplaceformypoetry.blogspot.com

  O.M. Grey wrote the Steamy BDSM Steampunk novel Avalon Revisited, which became a Amazon Gothic Romance bestseller. Her short stories and poetry have been published in various magazines and anthologies, like SNM Horror Magazine and How the West Was Wicked. Ms. Grey also blogs and podcasts relationship essays and other deliciously dark and decadent matters of the heart and soul. Olivia was voted “Muse of the Fair” at the 2011 Steampunk World’s Fair and has won two Reader’s Choice Awards from The Steampunk Chronicle. Known as the Clockwork Coquette, Ms. Grey attends many a Steampunk Convention as a celebrated literary guest of honor. Read more by O. M. Grey on her blog Caught in the Cogs, http://omgrey.wordpress.com. “Dead Mule Crossing” has previously appeared in How the West Was Wicked and Caught in the Cogs.

  Jeff Young is a bookseller first and a writer second — although he wouldn’t mind a reversal of fortune. He received a Writers of the Future award for “Written in Light” which appears in the 26th L.Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future Anthology. He’s been published in: Realms, Neuronet, Trail of Indiscretion, Cemetery Moon, The Realm Beyond, and Carbon14. Jeff has contributed to the anthologies By Any Means, In an Iron Cage: The Magic of Steampunk, and the upcoming anthologies Clockwork Chaos, Clockwork Grind, and Gaslight and Grimm. He is the editor for the Drunken Comic Book Monkey line for Fortress Publishing as well as the anthology TV Gods. He has led the Watch the Skies SF&F Discussion Group of Camp Hill and Harrisburg for eleven years. “Drinking Down Death” previously appeared in In an Iron Cage: The Magic of Steampunk.

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  Anthology, eSteampunk Vol. 01 No. 01

 

 

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