Jack waited at the conveyer belt, Waiting, Waiting, Waiting… AAAaaaAAAaaaAAAaaa WARNING! WARNING! The signal for a fire! Jack leapt to his feet and ran but found himself at a dead end. There was a single door. Jack ran to it, banged it, pulled it, kicked it, and even tried to smash it open! After deciding that trying to force it open was useless, he noticed an electronic keypad, and a sign that said: AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY. Jack saw a PLEASE ENTER CODE sign above the keypad. It was a five-digit code, but had letters as well as numbers. He looked back. The fire was already choking the corridor behind him. Suddenly, all the lights went out. An electric shortage! Which meant… He glanced at the door. They had popped open! Jack sprinted inside. Suddenly a voice appeared from nowhere, and a strange one too! It wasn’t the generic calm, female voice. It was a low, robotic voice. Jack jumped, and a robot appeared. It was exactly the robot you would expect The Voice, as Jack called it, to come from. It was pure black, with a skeletal body, four legs, and a hunched back. A single red eye glowed at the top of the back, with a yellow pupil in it roving to search the breached room. It scuttled toward Jack, and raised a clawed hand with a thin finger pointing at Jack. With a start, Jack realized that it wasn’t a robot at all, but a cyborg, or cybernetic organism. Almost a robot, but not quite, as a brain was cradled visibly at the base of its hunched back. Wires stuck into the brain, and one visibly tensed as it delivered news of Jack’s presence in the room. The Voice came again-but not from the cyborg! It seemed to come from the walls of the room, and resonated over and over in this way, the robot-that is, cyborg- introduced itself as Captain Gerard Djedler of the LabRats (NeuroTech). Jack learned that he was in the primary meeting hall of the top-secret LabRats, who created new technology for DreaMachine Inc. Jack worked for DreaMachine as well, but he got off on weekends, and, as an engineer, made sure everything worked. He had brown hair and green eyes. He was 6 foot 5 inches, and had a small house in Ouyrettebo d’tikciuq. The LabRats stayed in the lab for years on end, pumping out new technology to increase the efficiency of DreaMachine. However important the LabRats were, robots were the backbone of DreaMachine. Arms cranked, presses whirred, pumps hissed in a maelstrom of sound. Jack would wear noise-cancellation earphones to block out the whirlwind of blips, hisses and whirrs. On the table, there was a DreamSet, a device that allowed you to program your own dreams. A shelf held a box saying: WARNING DO NOT OPEN. On the wall there hung a diagram of the brain, and books like Thinking: Fast and Slow and How We Decide were held open by spider-like robots that scuttled to you and gave you a book. Suddenly, the door slid closed with a whroom. Jack looked around, and was suddenly blinded as the lights flickered back on. The electricity came on, and Jack tried to call his wife. However, a large sign appeared saying ACCESS DENIED. Jack swore, but regained his composure as a section of the wall slid open. Interested, he followed Gerard into the door. Jack screamed. Large canisters lay suspended from the ceiling, but that wasn’t remotely scary. What scared him was what was in them… Brains were hanging in them, swaying limply in the embrace of wires. Gerard (or Cap’n Djedler) gestured around. Despite Jack’s impulsive shriek of terror, The Voice proclaimed proudly that these were the brains of the finest LabRats, feeding information directly to people’s minds. It was rather like the Siri of the olden days (back in good ol’ 2015), and Jack couldn’t help but be impressed by it, even though he was repulsed. Computer banks lined the walls, so that the signals from the brains would not have to travel far. If signals traveled too far, they would get all muddled up. Then, he was ushered into a pod. The walls around him warped and blurred, and everything went black. The next morning, he woke up in a recliner, without any recount of what had happened after the fire. He heard his wife calling him for breakfast. He walked over, and dug into his plate of czinn (deglutiat piscis). Jack’s pet europa gar was swimming in his HydroSphere, which at that moment dispensed a wad of food into the sphere. A flash! A boom! And all the lights went out! Jack reminded his wife that electric storms were not altogether uncommon, due to the high amounts of Teslic energy generators. Teslic energy generators were common because electric energy was very useful. It was used to power the HyperTrain network, NeuroPhones, Mechoids, even the expensive CloudCraft. CloudCraft were massive floating “hives”, flying around and offering their aristocratic owners a different vacation each day. They were arranged in intricate systems, but a NavCom allowed you to get to different rooms easily. The next day… lights had still not powered up. A week later… still no power. Clearly, this was no ordinary electric storm. Jack went to DreaMachine HQ to help with the problem, leaving a note saying “We’re going to see the electric generator regulations”. They held a conference to decide what to do. They decided to check on the regulations of the tesla generators. They all left except for Jack (he wasn’t important enough) and a young woman who introduced herself as Lily Djedler. Ahhh, that’s what she was doing here. Of course, the daughter of the LabRats captain would be allowed here. Suddenly she pulled out a piece of paper and scrawled: Finally gone. DreamSets are brainwashing. Get. Out. NOW! Then Lily got up, turned, and walked into a strange, almost ethereal swirling blue ellipse. When Jack
Leviathan, Reviewed by Marco, 13
Blue whales are big animals. The biggest animals. The largest ever recorded blue whale was 98.1 feet long. The Leviathan is 949.75 feet long. Now, you must be thinking: How is that possible? What is a Leviathan? Well, the Leviathan is a whale. A really big whale. And it serves as the setting for the book I read with the same name, Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld. Leviathan was published in 2009. Interestingly, the book has numerous black-and-white drawings, drawn by Keith Thompson. Leviathan won both the Aurealis Award for Best Young Adult Novel as well as the Goodreads Choice Awards Best Science Fiction. In order to make his novel more realistic, Westerfeld researched airships before writing Leviathan. There are two main characters in Leviathan and a host of supporting characters. The story starts with Alek, a young man, nearly 16 years old. His father is Franz Ferdinand, the Archduke of Austria-Hungary. Alek has had years of military training, and wishes to be able to watch military walker maneuvers. Dylan Sharp is an airman. He lived in London. Years of home education in aeronautics with his now-dead father quickly shoot him to being one of the top midshipmen. However, he has a secret. “Dylan” is actually named Deryn, and she is a girl. Dr. Nora Darwin Barlow is a brilliant scientist and also a constant annoyance for Dylan. She genetically modifies and grows animals as organic weapons against the Clankers. While she is essential to the military force, her official job is the head of the London Zoological Society. Count Volger, similar to Dr. Barlow, is a constant annoyance, but he is a cavalry officer and wildcount. He teaches Alek how to fence, and enjoys taunting Alek whenever he wins. He is grumpy most of the time and very cynical. The world of Leviathan is alternate history. The world is split into two major factions: the Clankers and Darwinists. Both sides have very different technologies and doctrines. Even though this book takes place during WWI, the Clankers use steam, diesel, electric powered ships, aeroplanes, and walking machines, among other things. Some examples are the Austrian Cyklop Stormwalker and the German S.S. Beowulf. The Darwinists are vastly different. They fabricate “beasties” to fight their wars and complete everyday tasks, and are rather behind on technology, since they use things like hippoesques, massive fabricated hippos to pull their taxis and power their technology. Their airbeasts, zeppelin-like living airships, are crafted from the “life threads”, or DNA, of vast sea creatures. The most important airbeast is the Leviathan, which serves as the setting for the book. It is so massive that at its highest point, the creature is two hundred feet from the ventral to dorsal sides. Archduke Alek of Austria is on the run. He has been dethroned by his own grandfather. He is fleeing toward Switzerland, toward safety, while the Germans are in hot pursuit. His only possessions are the clothes on his back and an old walking machine, a Cyklop Stormwalker. His only allies are the crewmen of his walker. As he nears Switzerland, the Germans grow desperate. Deryn Sharp is a girl. This is her biggest secret. Disguised as a boy, the fictitious “Dylan,” her greatest wish is to serve on the Air Service of Britain. After her father died, she has been unable to fly. In a stroke of luck, she is stranded on a balloon and rescued by the Leviathan, the greatest airship in service of the British Empire. Unbeknownst to both, however, is the fact that they are on converging paths. A series of coincidences will lead them ever closer. The following scene takes place in Austria, when Alek and company are being pursued by the land dreadnought S.M.S Beowulf. Soon, the encounter escalates, with the fate of Alek and his men uncertain. Alek was still waving when the first broadside erupted, bright flashes rippling along the dreadnought’s flanks, puffs of cannon smoke swelling into a hazy veil around her. The sound followed moments later-a rolling thunder that broke into sharp, tearing bursts from every direction. The treetops churned around them, concussions shaking the Stormwalker and throwing clouds of leaves into the sky. Then Volger was dragging him back down into the cabin, the engines roaring back to life. When I first read it, Leviathan immediately became my favorite book. It’s very creative, with great pacing and storytelling. The characters feel real, and the world is simply stunning. This is helped by Keith Thompson’s amazing drawings scattered throughout the book. In addition, the way Scott Westerfeld develops the plot and characters is superb. I highly recommend this book to any fan of science fiction. Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld. Simon Pulse, 2009. Buy the book here and support Stone Soup in the process! Have you read this book? Or do you plan on reading it? Let us know in the comments below!
Fantasy: High, Dark, and Everything in Between
Fantasy is like coffee. Fluid, delicious, and occasionally a work of art. And, like coffee, fantasy comes in many different varieties. You probably think of Tolkien-esque fantasy, with lots of magic and plenty of cool new fantasy creatures. But, like Sci-Fi, fantasy comes high and low. High Fantasy is what you get when you read Lord of the Rings, or play Dungeons & Dragons. High Fantasy refers to a world where magic and other such fantasy elements are commonplace or well known. Typically, the world will be filled with cool imaginary creatures, like orcs, giants, and of course dragons. Low fantasy, on the other hand, is the opposite. Magic and other traditional qualities of fantasy are rare, though they may be commonly believed in. Low fantasy worlds often resemble our own Medieval Era, with monsters a rarity, though Low Fantasy is not Medieval Fantasy. Most importantly, supernatural events are seen as abnormal, whereas High Fantasy worlds often consider these standard. Low Fantasy also tends towards darker fantasy, though not quite as dark as Dark Fantasy. An example of Low Fantasy is the book Duskfall by Christopher Husberg. Now that we’re on the topic, what is Dark Fantasy? Dark Fantasy typically depicts a grim world, where magic is either dead or dark, and creatures are twisted and unnatural. Dark Fantasy worlds will usually be crawling with horrible monsters, pitting their residents against skeletons, dire rats, and other such unpleasant aberrations. These stories typically deal with bleak or nihilistic themes, and harbor little hope. A good example of this genre appears in the game Dark Souls by FromSoftware. Another popular genre of fantasy is Urban Fantasy/Historical Fantasy. Both are pretty similar, effectively inserting fantastical elements into the present or past. The greatest challenge that comes writing this genre is worldbuilding. It’s often difficult to justify having our world turn out exactly the same with magic in the mix. I recommend looking into the movie Bright for a terrible example of this. Most worlds avoid this issue by making the magic either very rare, or, more commonly, hidden from our world. This makes it so that the author has to do very little worldbuilding, saving them a lot of work. This is also often the case in Historical Fantasy, though some authors take advantage of the widespread belief in the supernatural throughout most of history, proposing that that belief is not entirely unfounded. These four subgenres of fantasy are only a few out of many. There are myriad types of fantasy, and I have only selected the most popular. I suggest you look into other types of fantasy, and continue reading it.