Steam-punk Stories

There is no night in the Everburning City. There can never be. ***** For four hundred years the Everburning City has withstood the advance of the life-strangling fog known as the Gloam. Its walls have held back five invasions, but on the eve of the sixth, the city's inhabitants know things have changed. Golems are coming out of the mist, and the bodies of the dead are rising at the Gloam's bidding. The city's last and most desperate line of defence comes in the form of the Crafters, individuals who can channel the power of fire, though they risk their sanity each time they do. The brightest of these valiant heroes are Tabitha a'Loria and her apprentice Gerald Reath. Risking their lives, they mount their airships, determined to save the last bastion of humanity - the Everburning City. [[word count: 100,000-150,000 words]]

Knowledge is currency. Alchemy is knowledge. Most people don't know it exists. Those who do call it heresy. Those who practice it call it ascension. Man wakes in the lightless depths of Tauran City Prison with no records, no past-only a vocabulary that doesn't belong to him. In a facility built to process human bodies, ignorance is a death sentence. To survive, he bonds with a parasitic alchemical metal: a weapon that grows stronger with blood, memory, and use. But power always comes at a price he doesn't yet understand. Guided by a man who knows too much and a girl who should not have survived this long, he descends through a system where alchemy is graded, identities fracture, and nothing is free. You are not a prisoner. You are a specimen. And ascension has already begun.

Jareth Coppersmith and Pol Flynt have one thing in common. They kill for a living. One works for GAME, the powerful Guild of Airship Mechanics and Engineers and the other, for the Royal Spymaster. But what happens when they are unknowingly sent on the same secret mission? At best they are rivals, at worst, mortal enemies. SciFi / Thriller/ Steampunk/ LGBT

A ruler and fleet commander-in-chief. A reincarnated boy builds battleships and challenges the world. "A Battleship-Loving Boy Is Reborn as a Young Lord and Starts Mass-Producing Battleships and Warships" A boy who adored battleships suddenly finds himself reincarnated in a steampunk world-and as the ruler of a maritime nation, no less, with considerable freedom to act. So, using his meta-knowledge, he begins creating his favorite battleships and warships to his heart's content. RELEASE: 2025 (TL INCOMPLETE)

Editorial in the "Backlund Messenger" Special Edition - An unpublished manuscript. "Welcome to Backlund, where the air tastes of coal and secrets taste of blood. Here, we do not fear dragons or Dementors. We fear Printer's Ink. If Hogwarts is an ivory tower, then Backlund is a machine designed to grind down humanity. The Press-the Fourth Estate-has ascended the throne. Typewriters clatter to the rhythm of war. Front-page headlines carry more lethality than a Killing Curse. 'The Lucky One' Tristan enters this labyrinth not as a wizard, but as a target. Beneath the suffocating smog of this industrial city, gentlemen in tailored suits are shaking hands with devils. Truth is distorted, honor is auctioned off, and justice is nothing more than a luxury commodity. Tristan must learn to fight not with spells, but with information. To use lies as a shield against lies. To sow seeds of terror through whispers and rumors. The enemy remains faceless. He lurks behind the morning papers, watching with a cold smile as society collapses according to his script. In the mists of Backlund, he who holds the pen, holds Destiny. And be warned: by tomorrow morning, the name appearing in the Obituaries... might just be your own."

When a cursed bangle binds Sea Drifter Ninnette to a dangerous demon, she only has three days to break the curse before it claims her life. °:•.🪸.•:° Ninnette is a Sea Drifter with the power to command water, dredging shipwrecks, and salvaging lost treasure. When she braves a sunken ship no one else dares to dive, she finds a strange clockwork bangle that binds her to an ancient curse and to the infuriating Kazi, a demon who leaves destruction wherever he goes. The moment the bangle is activated, they are hunted by a secret order led by a relentless Priestess who believes the armlet is a key to something far greater than treasure. But the true danger isn't the order. It isn't the demon Kazi. It's the curse. When Ninnette puts on the bangle, a countdown begins. If she doesn't break the curse in three days, she will die like every wearer before her. °:•.🪸.•:° She commands the sea. He is a demon who has lived for centuries. They are both bound by a curse. Only three days to survive. °:•.🪸.•:° Set in a Maritime Steampunk world, and inspired by Filipino cultures, from Spanish influence to the seafaring Sama-Bajau. This story weaves dangerous magic, high stakes, and heart-aching romance. °:•.🪸.•:° ONC 2025 Honorable Mention °:•.🪸.•:° Romantasy High Fantasy Fantasy Adventure SciFi Steampunk Fantasci Young Adult

Something powerful is drawing Ward back to Devil's Island. Something he thought he had forgotten. He must evade vicious lighthouse keeper George Jaggles in order to get it, but Jaggles will soon be the least of his worries. Because an assassin is on his tail. With Nick gone on a journey to the other side of the world, the clans have been thrown into chaos. The Scowerers have botched a robbery and Lightfinger has been imprisoned. When Ward's dore turns up at Carmen's house, Carmen suspects Ward may be in trouble too. The Devil's Bones is the sequel to The Sleepers.

This is one heck of a Victorian-style fantasy novel. Add a spoonful of steam engines to make that darned technology tree come alive! Add a spoonful of love and hatred, so everyone has good reasons to brawl! Add a spoonful of madness to lighten up this gloomy world, and finally, add a spoonful of natural disasters to play the main boss... and so on! Phew, that's a lot! ... Year 931 in the Engerwick Calendar. The city I reside in has been hailed as the most advanced in the West. The main reasons? The world-shaking steam technology, emerging technologies, and the wellspring of chaos. Can't deny it, but the fact remains that people keep flocking here to live. This city always gives you a glimmer of hope, whether it's lies or illusions, but it's so close, within arm's reach, making you risk life and limb. A city of hallucinations. I am one of those dream-chasers.

Immortality is only a glass away, but living forever comes with a cost. The blood of Amanita Langton's ancestral line is the only known source of magical healing in the world, and that alone is enough to put her life in danger. After her mother's grisly murder, Ami is forced to flee her home in steam-powered London along with her father and a young man named Lysander, who insists he's been sent by the gods themselves to protect her. Ami simply thinks he's a nuisance. Despite intentions to hide somewhere and live a quiet life, the journey quickly becomes a race to find the missing ingredients to the elixir of life, the provider of immortality, the drink of the gods, her ancestor's namesake: ambrosia. Unfortunately, immortality in a glass is a dangerous temptation, and some will stop at nothing to take it for themselves. The longer Ami runs, the less she understands. Torn between love, her family, her future, and a magical legacy she never knew, Ami is forced to make impossible decisions not only for herself, but that could shape the fate of the world. The fate of the gods themselves is at stake in this magical Steampunk adventure piloted by a cast of enchanting characters and a heroine struggling with a question close to all our hearts: Who do you want to be?

In the city of Chronosburg, time does not simply pass. it is hoarded, controlled, and weaponized by those who have too much of it. Seven tiers rise from a dead volcano's heart, a vertical kingdom where steam powers machinery and immortality powers tyranny. The higher you climb, the thinner the air, and the thicker the secrets. At the very top, above the clouds, the Eternal Council has ruled for three hundred years, their ages frozen, their grasp absolute. At the bottom, in the furnace-hot depths, the forgotten work themselves to death maintaining the machines that keep their masters comfortable. This is not a story about heroes. It is a story about Silas Vane, a clockmaker who can rewind time by a handful of seconds, enough to fix a broken gear or save a falling child, but never enough to undo the things that truly matter. He carries the weight of failures he's erased, remembers deaths that never happened, and feels the phantom pain of wounds he technically never received. His power is a gift. It is also a slowly accumulating curse. When his carefully quiet life collides with a rebellion he never sought and a conspiracy he cannot ignore, Silas must decide what he's willing to sacrifice, and what he refuses to become. The rebels need a weapon. The Council sees a threat. And somewhere between these impossible choices, Silas must figure out who he is when time itself seems determined to break him. The Clockmaker's War is a story about power and its prices. About the weight of seconds and the ghosts of choices unmade. About learning that some things cannot be fixed, only carried. And that sometimes, the most human thing you can do is stop trying to go back.

Twelve-year-old Carmen has a secret: she can talk to her cat Grim. But the powerful Brotherhood has banned pets, and the penalty is death. Her only chance to save Grim is to seek out the strange old man who lives in the haunted Old City. Ward is the most wanted boy in the world. The only thing standing between him and the hangman's noose is master criminal Saint Nick. In exchange for Nick's protection, Ward must find the long-lost horn said to have the power to wake legendary beings known as the Sleepers, whom Nick believes can aid him in his guerilla war against the Brotherhood. This leads Ward to Carmen, whose family has a long and mysterious association with the fabled horn. Ward and Carmen are soon hot on the trail of the horn. But the Brotherhood are closing in on Carmen's family. Ward and Carmen soon realise that waking the Sleepers may be the only thing that can save Carmen's parents from certain death. If only they knew how. FOR READERS WHO LIKED Scarlett & Browne - Jonathan Stroud Fly By Night - Frances Hardinge His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

The sky has stopped bleeding, but the Regime is always hungry. Across the nation of Geordyne, the "Fourteeners" are being harvested. They are the brightest young minds of a crumbling world - the inventors, the rebels and the forgotten - and they are Marshal Cadoc's most-feared threat. From the soot-choked alleys of Castlefye to the glistening dunes of Onaaba, all the way to the frozen forest of Indigo Steep, an unspoken pact is in motion. For Owen and Bryn, it begins with a mysterious carriage manned by a lanky giant. For others, the path to sanctuary is paved with lights and shadows. Plucked from their lives by fate or by force, this disparate group is thrust into a world of trials and a secret academy hidden beyond the maps. But the Yorne Academy of Life is more than a refuge. It is a forge for a revolution. These are the chronicles of the pupils who were never supposed to disembark. A small army of progress in a world that wants them silent. The gears are turning. The tide is rising. And the Gooubs are in formation. Are you brave enough to be lost? Follow me on IG for news, insights and more: @KassandraNiklaus

Lynn transmigrated into a steampunk world. During a mine incident, he touched a witch named Grace-and awakened a system. Now he can transform into witches and wield their mystic arts. He finds himself in Oakus, the birthplace of steam and mysticism. But this city is sick. A disease called "delirium" is spreading. Eerie beings roam the streets. They worm their way into people's minds. Nothing is normal anymore. Lynn's goal? First, escape the asylum that's holding him captive. Then, flee this infected city before it's too late. Along the way, he'll encounter multiple witches: - Grace, the girl with a collar and no answers - Miss Carly, the detective - Miss Angelina, the tavern owner With their powers, Lynn must survive in a world where steam hisses, madness spreads, and nothing is what it seems.

In a universe scarred by two galactic wars, tensions rise as powerful civilizations edge closer to a third, catastrophic conflict. To prevent it, some seek to eliminate the one creation they regret the most-humanity. Forgotten by their creators and unaware of their true origin, humans stand on the brink of annihilation as ancient powers return to erase them. But in the shadows of extinction, a new chapter of resistance begins.

"The honour of work is a truth no one can deprive you of!" Grown up in a world ruled by overlords, dearth and recession, Ciarán Kane knew exactly what kind of advice he wanted to give his sons. One last gift to take along, as he consigned them to a better fate. Years went on alongside his vagrant life as a pedlary blacksmith, driven by the desire to change his family's life for the better. But reassuring security for his children and their future warrants change, a change that will ultimately affect everything he ever cared about ...

Humanity moves in a cycle of four stages: discovery, development, extermination... and rebirth. Sixteen thousand years after the fall of the first world, humanity has changed. Some are born faster than beasts. Stronger than men. Shaped by blood, defined by genetics. But while the body evolved, civilization did not. The knowledge of the old world was lost in the ashes of the Third World War - the catastrophe that ended one cycle and began another. Now, in the Fourth Cycle, kingdoms rise from ruin, and power belongs to those born superior. This is the story of vengeance of the last Agapracto... ...the deadliest warrior of Agaphenas. (Translated by AI)

From the minute he was abandoned as a child by his parents, the path Edwin trod was a dark one. Yet, such a life was Edwin's greatest regret, and he finally wanted to leave it behind. Deciding to save lives rather than take them, Edwin is hired by the royal palace. What starts as guard duty spirals out of control, and somehow Edwin suddenly gets landed the job of being the princess's personal bodyguard. A job already difficult enough with a terror group targeting her life. And couple that with a headstrong princess who shares Edwin's knack for getting into trouble, you get a dangerous mix. Edwin is dragged along for a journey with danger at every corner. A plot to incite war, a vie for power and remnants of Edwin's past are uncovered. Allies turn enemies, enemies turn allies, and the fate of millions hangs in the balance. Being the princess' bodyguard is a lot more than Edwin bargained for, will the former assassin be able to handle such a task? 'To think that not only would the princess be attacked on my first day, but I would be arrested for saving her: what!!!!!?'

One childhood crush. One unbreakable rule. One mansion where every hallway feels like a trap. For fifteen years, Leighton Hayes has loved Noah Knight from afar, the untouchable older brother of her best friend Chloe. Now twenty-three, broke, and freshly homeless, Leighton has nowhere to go but the sprawling estate of the man who once barely noticed her. Noah remembers her all too well. The billionaire who built an empire from nothing has spent the last six months trying to become a better man, and the shy girl in oversized hoodies who just moved into his guest wing is the most dangerous temptation he's ever faced. Chloe's single rule was always clear: her friends are off-limits. Especially to Noah, the reformed Playboy who used to burn through supermodels and headlines. But late nights, shared secrets, and one stolen shirt ignite a fire neither of them can extinguish. What begins as whispered confessions and almost-kisses explodes into a secret affair neither wants to end, even as the lies stack higher. When Chloe discovers the truth, the betrayal threatens to destroy the only family each of them has ever known. Leighton must decide if love is worth losing her best friend. Noah must prove he's finally ready to risk everything for the one woman he swore he'd never touch. Some rules are made to be broken. Some hearts refuse to stay forbidden.

A story about two siblings trying to survive in a train station.

Aurélis brille au-dessus des nuages toxiques. Nocteryn suffoque dans son ombre. Seris et Lya ont grandi ensemble dans la Basse-Cité, unies contre la misère et les fumées empoisonnées. Mais lorsque Seris est choisie pour intégrer l'élite magique d'Aurélis, elle voit une chance de changer le système de l'intérieur. Lya, elle, y voit une trahison. Quand une explosion sanglante embrase Nocteryn, la guerre éclate entre les deux cités. Seris devient enquêtrice pour le pouvoir. Lya rejoint la résistance. Chacune est persuadée de se battre pour la justice. Mais entre manipulations politiques, secrets d'État et amours interdits, leurs convictions vacillent et leur lien se fissure. Peut-on encore être sœurs quand on choisit des camps opposés ? Et jusqu'où est-on prêt à aller pour sauver celle qu'on aime... même d'elle-même ?