Everybody wants to talk about the technology of steampunk but never what fuel is needed to run it. It's coal btw. Might as well call that shit coal-fantasy.
many people are replying to this post and stepping into the rake. You are missing the point if you are only focusing on how the technology works. I think you should think about how the facets of coal extraction and pollution are not explored in this branch of sci-fi and ask why. It doesn't matter if the coal-analogue is something else. If it's fuel, then how is it collected and delivered? Who is involved in that process? How is it organized?
I want to write a story about corsaits and blimps and adventurers in top hats that doesn't concern itself with colonialism at all, you're fucking mental if you think I'll spare a thought for logistics
not logistics per se, more the impacts of massive coal-burning steam engine, the pollution it causes, and the history of how it killed the miners. You want to write a fun blimp adventure then hey, fly at'er. But my critique stands as how steampunk as a narrative body and aesthetic isn't engaging with all of it's source material by imagining a clean industrial revolution.
