I just got done reading a very good Steampunk book set at the begining of World War One. While I fell in love with the story and the characters the author constantly bringing up the smell of hydrogen in the airship kept taking me out of the story.
And why did it do that you may ask? Because hydrogen has absolutely no smell! It is a tasteless, odorless gas that burns so hot and clean you usually can’t see the flame without special detection gear. This is something anyone who took an earth science class should know. He kept saying that it smells like rotten food/eggs. That is hydrogen sulfide which is heavier than air so it wouldn’t be used in an airship.
And that leads into the author’s admittedly cool premise that his specially bred living airships make their own hydrogen through digestion. Unfortunately its our friend hydrogen sulfide, not plain ol’ hydrogen, that is made through that proccess. Sorry, no lifting going on there.
The point of this rant, if there is one, is where do you draw the line at real science and science fiction as a writer and reader? Do you overlook glaring mistakes like that as a reader? Or should you expect more from an author who creates characters who have backgrounds in the sciences? And as a writer how much realism and fact truly is needed? Is there a happy medium?
I think there is and as writers we should always try to find it, wherever it might be.
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