great writing. the detiails really make it seem real - although i'm a little confused by the balloon, was it a hot air balloon? how would that work? i feel like i had to suspend reality a little too much, with the plantest being able to be seen so quickly and them being in reality so far apart. but really - the details were great. they really made the story for me, and i loved how they seemed to fit the character so well, making this a great third person single narrative.

My notes:

-"He signed his name and closed the leather book and wrapped its cord around the binding, then tucked it into the pocket of his jacket which was set out for the following morning, and turned down the lamp."

Whew, this sentence seems... prolonged with too many conjunctions. Yeah. Maybe it is what you want, to give a sort of feel for the story and whatnot, and if it is, then there's no problem. Otherwise, I feel as though it is awkward, and the second part especially, may be slightly confusing. "His jacket which was..." is confusing. I would suggest "[the] jacket [that] was", as well as splitting the sentence into two separate ones. :)

-"The fire roared greedily and hot (expelled) air rushed into the aperture, filling the balloon slowly."

I feel as "expelled" may be extraneous, or if not, you should put a comma before it or something. It just doesn't feel right to me the way it is now.

*End specific notes*

Wow... I loved it! There isn't much that is wrong with this story! I can see the steampunkish-fantasy elements in it, with the late 19th century setting, the "air" in space, the "clouds" so far up in the atmosphere, but they didn't really detract from my enjoyment of the story at all! I must say that I am really in awe. :)

To even out the review a bit, I must add a bit on what you may improve, and this, I feel, is a very difficult thing to find, especially in this situation, in which anything that is normally out of place is acceptable to contribute to the "mood" of the story, with the longer, more conjunction-riddled sentences, the use of "and...and...and". The only thing I can really say, is that you should take care not to overriddle the story with such constructions (I think it only happened once, but I can't really remember where), and try to limit it to just one per sentence at most, and not have two adjacent sentences with the same conjunction construction.

One other thing I would like to mention is that the title of the story seems... very weak compared to the story itself. Although it may fit the text, I feel as though it can be far better. Maybe you should consider finding a new title? Otherwise, I am very impressed.

I must conclude by thanking you for reviewing me! Your comments are much appreciated!

You did a good job in writing this. :)