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BORGO PRESS BOOKS BY BRIAN STABLEFORD
Alien Abduction: The Wiltshire Revelations
Asgard’s Conquerors (Asgard #2)
Asgard’s Heart (Asgard #3)
Asgard’s Secret (Asgard #1)
Balance of Power (Daedalus Mission #5)
The Best of Both Worlds and Other Ambiguous Tales
Beyond the Colors of Darkness and Other Exotica
Changelings and Other Metaphoric Tales
The City of the Sun (Daedalus Mission #4)
Complications and Other Science Fiction Stories
The Cosmic Perspective and Other Black Comedies Critical Threshold (Daedalus Mission #2)
The Cthulhu Encryption: A Romance of Piracy
The Cure for Love and Other Tales of the Biotech Revolution
Designer Genes: Tales of the Biotech Revolution
The Dragon Man
The Eleventh Hour
The Face of Heaven (Realms of Tartarus #1)
The Fenris Device (Hooded Swan #5)
Firefly: A Novel of the Far Future
Les Fleurs du Mal: A Tale of the Biotech Revolution
The Florians (Daedalus Mission #1)
The Gardens of Tantalus and Other Delusions
The Gates of Eden
A Glimpse of Infinity (Realms of Tartarus #3)
The Golden Fleece and Other Tales of the Biotech Revolution
The Great Chain of Being and Other Tales of the Biotech Revolution
Halycon Drift (Hooded Swan #1)
The Haunted Bookshop and Other Apparitions
In the Flesh and Other Tales of the Biotech Revolution
The Innsmouth Heritage and Other Sequels
Journey to the Core of Creation: A Romance of Evolution
Kiss the Goat: A Twenty-First-Century Ghost Story
The Legacy of Erich Zann and Other Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos
Luscinia: A Romance of Nightingales and Roses
The Mad Trist: A Romance of Bibliomania
The Mind-Riders
The Moment of Truth
Nature’s Shift: A Tale of the Biotech Revolution
An Oasis of Horror: Decadent Tales and Contes Cruels
The Paradise Game (Hooded Swan #4)
The Paradox of the Sets (Daedalus Mission #6)
The Plurality of Worlds: A Sixteenth-Century Space Opera
Prelude to Eternity: A Romance of the First Time Machine
Promised Land (Hooded Swan #3)
The Quintessence of August: A Romance of Possession
The Return of the Djinn and Other Black Melodramas
Rhapsody in Black (Hooded Swan #2)
Salome and Other Decadent Fantasies
Sexual Chemistry
Streaking: A Novel of Probability
Swan Song (Hooded Swan #6)
The Tree of Life and Other Tales of the Biotech Revolution
The Undead: A Tale of the Biotech Revolution
Valdemar’s Daughter: A Romance of Mesmerism
A Vision of Hell (Realms of Tartarus #2)
War Games
The Walking Shadow
Wildeblood’s Empire (Daedalus Mission #3)
The World Beyond: A Sequel to S. Fowler Wright’s The World Below
Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction
Xeno’s Paradox: A Tale of the Biotech Revolution
Year Zero
Yesterday Never Dies: A Romance of Metempsychosis
Zombies Don’t Cry: A Tale of the Biotech Revolution
COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
Copyright © 2009, 2013 by Brian Stableford
Published by Wildside Press LLC
www.wildsidebooks.com
DEDICATION
For Jane, the Mistress of My Maze
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This story could not have been composed without the assistance of inspiration and crucial exemplars provided by numerous individuals, most importantly Dedalus, Plato, Pietro Locatelli, Heinrich von Biber, John Dee, Voltaire, Anton Mesmer, Richard Trevithick, Félix Bodin, Thomas Love Peacock, H. G. Wells, and A. E. van Vogt.
CHAPTER ONE
THE LEVIATHAN OF STEEL AND STEAM
It took Michael Laurel a full five minutes to make his way along the platform at King’s Cross Station in order to join the admirers ogling the steam-belching steel Leviathan that was England’s most recent candidate to be the Seventh Wonder of the Modern World. It was reputed to be a prodigy, and a monster: a dragon such as the world had never seen, even in the Age of Myth and Magic.
When he finally arrived within sight of the locomotive, though, he was a trifle disappointed. It was certainly large and loud. It had the promised doorway to its infernal heart, into which the stoker would soon be shoveling coal at a furious rate. It had the promised sweat of steam oozing and belching from various narrow orifices. It had the promised smokestack generously distributing a fine fog of sooty particles. It was freshly painted in the claret-and-gold livery of the Academy. To Michael’s eyes, however, trained to the study and reproduction of fruit and flowers, cloudy skies and expressive human faces, it lacked something.
He
