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The Coolest Airships in Sci-Fi and Fantasy
It’s typical of human priorities that we invented firearms and Greek fire centuries before we figured out how to fly. Luckily, we can rely on the imaginations of science fiction and fantasy writers, who routinely take something already quite awesome (the power of flight) and make it even more awesome by eschewing the sleek lines of a jet airliner or immediate thrill of jetpack-based travel in favor of impractical designs and a stately sense of adventure. The end result: the airship, perhaps the coolest mode of transportation ever devised.
No sooner do you learn of these magnificent floating homes and fortresses, you immediately feel an itch to quit your job and get to work building one. In order to inspire your garage construction efforts (better install a retractable roof to avoid heartbreak), here are our favorite airships from across SF/F media.
In Novels
Ships in 1-2 days.
Airships, being wonderful creations of Pure Imagination, are fairly common in science fiction and fantasy novels, especially those with a steampunk vibe. In The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara trilogy, the titular airship isn’t just physically awesome, it’s also taken on a mission to cross the Blue Divide and reclaim lost books of magic and ancient science, offering glimpses into Terry Brooks’ increasingly fascinating future earth scenario in a story that’s modeled on C.S. Lewis’ seafaring classic The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
Ships in 1-2 days.
Cherie Priest’s Clockwork Century series is pretty much your go-to for all things steampunk, and airships are no exception: in Clementine, the titular airship is just one of many criss-crossing the nation’s skies while the Civil War continues to rage below. Clementine is, in fact, ham-packed with airship battles, acts of air piracy, and the tense pursuit of the Clementine itself, carrying one of those Doomsday devices steampunk airships always seem to be carrying. The Clementine gets extra points for being both a cool airship and the plot’s inspiring event.
On the low end of the Airship Luxury Scale we find the Predator in The Aeronaut’s Windlass, by Jim Butcher. Butcher’s latest is a surprising steampunk-y adventure starring the pirate captain Francis Grimm, who leads merchant airship the Predator in shipping raids against other “spires”—the huge towers that comprise society in an alternate world where the ground has become uninhabitable. Considering the amount of adventure Grimm has with his airship in this book, we’re not only looking forward to future books in Butcher’s new Cinder Spires series, we’d like to join the crew.
Michael J. Martinez mixes together fantasy and sci-fi in his time-hopping, technologically mind-boggling Daedalus trilogy (The Daedalus Incident, The Enceladus Crisis, The Venusian Gambit), in which real history is twisted by meddling with the past and 18th-century wooden frigates sail the high seas and the back pools of space between planets. How is this possible? Well, it involves alchemy and magical stones, and that’s all you really need to know, because can you think of a cooler science fantasy image than a wooden ship soaring silently between the stars? No, you cannot.
In Comics
Airships aren’t found only in novels, of course; in Alan Moore’s classic graphic novel Watchmen, Night Owl’s Archie is an airship with a distinct steampunk vibe. Despite being in the rather unfortunate shape of an owl, which does lose it some Cool Points, Archie is armed with flamethrowers and other advanced weaponry and is an incredibly advanced piece of equipment that we could see using to take over the world. Or, sure, to fight crime or whatever.
In Movies
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is a movie absolutely bursting with airships, as well as airplanes, rockets, and every other conceivable flying machine. It also has Manta Station, a dieselpunk version of the Helicarriers found in the Avengers movies, but is set in an alternative 1939 in which giant indestructible robots and Jude Law with a full head of hair are both very real. While the Helicarriers are monumental and brutal, Manta Station has something they lack, something that makes us want to plan a holiday on it: style. And an eye-patched Angelina Jolie for a captain.
In Video Games
Video games, like every other media, can’t resist airships, and if you’re going to talk about cool airships in video games, you’ve got to talk about the airships in the Final Fantasy series. Airships have always been part of the FF universe, starting with the blocky 8-bit icons in the early games and culminating in some of the coolest flying vessels ever rendered by your graphics card. Choosing the coolest is a difficult task. The Ragnarok, which looks like some sort of dragon or insect? The Invincible, which basically lived up to its name, destroying everything in sight? It’s entirely possible the success of the Final Fantasy series is entirely attributable to the fact that its designers understand the fundamental rule of the universe: airships are cool. Also guys named Cid.
On TV
On the small screen, airships are a bit less common, possibly due to budget constraints. But we do have the Valiant, from Doctor Who’s third season (though reference has been made to a similar ship in more recent seasons). Essentially a Whovian Helicarrier, it was designed in part by The Master (and thus offered many visual clues as to its Time Lord origins) and was operated by UNIT as a sort of neutral airbase, then used by The Master as a headquarters during his rule over Earth. It was finally destroyed by the Daleks, who obviously don’t appreciate anything cool.
There are a few rules of life that never change, and one of those rules is: airships will always be awesome. Whether they’re floating carriers, luxury liners, or filled with dirty, bloodthirsty air pirates, you can never go wrong in a story by introducing one of them.