Aetheric Mechanics
| Aetheric Mechanics | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Date | October 2008 |
| Publisher | Avatar Press |
| Creative team | |
| Writers | Warren Ellis |
| Pencillers | Gianluca Pagliarini |
| Original publication | |
| Language | English |
| ISBN | |
Aetheric Mechanics is a graphic novella created by Eagle Award-winning writer Warren Ellis. It is 48 pages long, illustrated in black and white by Gianluca Pagliarini, and was published by Avatar Press in October 2008.
Aetheric Mechanics is set in an alternate history March 1907, where steampunk technology is advanced far beyond the technology of the modern real world, including two-way television communications, air- and spacecraft powered by reactionless drives, and large combat mecha. The British Empire (which in this setting, includes realms on other planets) is engaged in a war against Ruritania. The war is not going favourably for Britain; however, the British government is covering up just how badly the war is going, including the fact that Ruritania is preparing an invasion of Britain.
Dr. Robert Watcham, a captain and doctor in the British army on the French front, returns to London at the start of the story after his tour of duty is over. His friend, roommate, and colleague, Sax Raker, is the greatest detective in London, and one of the finest minds in Britain, with Watcham having written a number of exploits about him for the popular press. At the time of Watcham's return, Raker has been commissioned by Inspector Jarratt of Scotland Yard to investigate another case. A number of observers witnessed a spectral figure, flickering in and out of existence, murdering an engineer specialising in aetheric mechanics outside of the Royal Society, with several others having gone missing.
Investigating outside the Society, Raker notices traces of mud beneath the victim, then is drawn to a figure standing in the crowd. Raker reveals it to be none other than his persistent rival, Inanna Meyer, whom Watcham (in a period of narration) notes that Raker is obsessed with but is unable to face that fact. Originally surmising that Inanna was hired by the Ruritanian government to destabilise Britain's vital science and engineering community, she reveals that she is now working for the British government: Raker's brother, Dunmow, recruited her into the British Secret Service, and she was also investigating the murder.
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