Steampunk Tales: Steam on the cell

by Marie-Claude Bourque 

I’ve been pretty obsessed with my  iPhone since I got it about 2 months ago and I’ve been trying to find applications for just about everything under the sun. So of course, I had to search for the word Steampunk in the application store but found very little, except for this very neat little reader call Steampunk Tales. The first installment called Steampunk 1, at 1.99 for the download of an anthology of 10 short stories, is a very nifty little application indeed.

The reader is superb, imitating a pulp fiction magazine from the 20s, but using the latest cell phone fiction reader technology. Steampunk Tales are also available in PDF and in a Mobile ebook version, see the website at http://steampunktales.com/.

The graphics has a beautiful Steampunk retro-futuristic Victorian feel to it, opening to a beautiful illustration by  artist Melita “missmonster” Curphy and with a reading  background made to look like parchment paper.

A touch at the center of the screen brings you to the main menu. In “Settings”, you can choose your reading orientation, add a fun turning page sound, decide on the font style and size and also chose another paper-like background.  In “Index”, you can decide on the story of your choice and “About” gives you the background of the authors.

While reading, press the left or right of the screen to go the next or preceding page. Press the bottom of the page and appears a meter to tell you how far along you are in page numbers.

I didn’t have a chance to read all the stories yet but so far for 1.99$, I think I got a good deal. The writing quality kept my interest up and was quite varied in theme.  It’s the perfect format and story length to carry around with you for a quick read when you have a few minutes to spare.

The Tales should be released every month, so look for Steampunk 2 coming soon.

I will sure be downloading it.