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dude_watchin_with_the_brontes's review
4.0
As a collection of short stories, some were better than others, but for the most part, I really liked them. I think my favorite might be "Working Woman" by Olivia Ho.
shaxx's review against another edition
4.0
Dvanáct krátkých povídek s orientálním nádechem jihovýchodní Asie, protknuté prvky steampunku a téměř v každé povídce se objevuje námět syntézy organických částí s mechanikou - kyborgové.
Jak už to bývá, některé kousky byly slabší, ale dost povídek mělo co do sebe a celkově to na hodnocení čtyř hvězd stačí :)
Jak už to bývá, některé kousky byly slabší, ale dost povídek mělo co do sebe a celkově to na hodnocení čtyř hvězd stačí :)
archytas's review
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5
Steampunk is all about the worldbuilding, which poses interesting challenges to the short story authors in this collection, asked to envision a alt-Steampunk, set in South-East Asia rather than London, and in which imperialism is more critiqued than celebrated. The authors have to construct a world, engage us with characters, and tell a story - often within just a few pages. Reading this was always interesting, even if not all the stories succeed, and those that do, leave you wanting more.
Possibly my top pick in the collection was Kate Osias' The Unmaking of Cuardro Amoroso, which eschews broader worldbuilding to tell a tightly focused story around a small cast of characters, beautifully connecting emotion to technology and telling a really resonant and powerful story. Another favourite was Alessa Hinlo's The Last Aswang, which chose a lot of worldbuilding and some strong character setup, with the story itself feeling like a slice of a larger work - of which I would buy the book quickly. Nghi Vo's Life Under Glass chooses a small tale focused on character moments, which again worked as the introduction to what felt like a bigger tale, or a glimpse at an alternative life. Robert Liow's Spider Here similarly takes a small slice of an everyday life to show us a different world, in one of the most affecting takes on small scale world building.
Olivia Ho tells a more complete, plotted story in Working Woman - the longest story in the book. Even with the extra length, it perhaps doesn't have some of the same space to breathe as some of the less-plot heavy stories, but it showcases some intriguing characters and has the most sense of a full adventure.
Paolo Chikiamco's Between Severed Souls and Timothy Dimicali's On the Consequences of Sound punch hard by focusing on characters and smaller moral choices in a broader world. The latter is particularly haunting.
Pear Nuallek's big, explained worldbuilding was perhaps one of the strongest, with a various range of characters with differing perspectives, giving the story depth in exploring an alt-colonial world.
All up this was a really interesting take on a difficult brief, and I have a great list of broader authors to follow up with.
Possibly my top pick in the collection was Kate Osias' The Unmaking of Cuardro Amoroso, which eschews broader worldbuilding to tell a tightly focused story around a small cast of characters, beautifully connecting emotion to technology and telling a really resonant and powerful story. Another favourite was Alessa Hinlo's The Last Aswang, which chose a lot of worldbuilding and some strong character setup, with the story itself feeling like a slice of a larger work - of which I would buy the book quickly. Nghi Vo's Life Under Glass chooses a small tale focused on character moments, which again worked as the introduction to what felt like a bigger tale, or a glimpse at an alternative life. Robert Liow's Spider Here similarly takes a small slice of an everyday life to show us a different world, in one of the most affecting takes on small scale world building.
Olivia Ho tells a more complete, plotted story in Working Woman - the longest story in the book. Even with the extra length, it perhaps doesn't have some of the same space to breathe as some of the less-plot heavy stories, but it showcases some intriguing characters and has the most sense of a full adventure.
Paolo Chikiamco's Between Severed Souls and Timothy Dimicali's On the Consequences of Sound punch hard by focusing on characters and smaller moral choices in a broader world. The latter is particularly haunting.
Pear Nuallek's big, explained worldbuilding was perhaps one of the strongest, with a various range of characters with differing perspectives, giving the story depth in exploring an alt-colonial world.
All up this was a really interesting take on a difficult brief, and I have a great list of broader authors to follow up with.
misspalah's review
4.0
“First, Espana sought to gain influence through trade and technology. Now they attempted again to insinuate their faith of a cold and distant god? fighting a battle of blood and violence against armored men was simple compared to this”.
- The Last Aswang by Alessa Hinlo
.
.
There are 12 stories in this book. Many of these stories are written by Filipino but we also have Thai, Vietnamese, and Malaysian listed as the authors. In the introduction of the book, the editors mentioned that they are recognizing Southeast Asia as former colonies but to push back against this idea that we must acknowledge the superiority of the Colonizer Empire, hence steampunk genre is the way to do it. So that we can provide alternate history of world from Southeast Asian Perspective. Colonisation is evil and the book highlighted that there is a lot of changes and damage caused by these invaders (be it Spanish, French, Dutch and British). These colonizers glorifying it as a means for the expansion of empire. Hence, their POV were often stated that all this modernization happened because of us, the conquerers. This book is an attempt to brought us readers to look to the impact of those who were being conquered. These 12 stories flipped it around and claim back their narrative in resisting oppression and colonization. The book is where the marginalized voices get to assert their narrative. This is why you can see that there are a lot of women as main characters in the story - those who wanted to write their own destiny, those who wanted to protect their family, those who eager to learn and those who wanted their voice to be heard. There are 5 stories that i love and wondering if these author ever had an intention to write it as novel. The first one is Alessa Hinlo's "The Last Aswang”. Taken from Filipino Folklore, Aswang is a shape-shifting evil creatures like vampires. The intention of the story is to show the creeping predations of colonialism. The second one is is Olivia Ho's "Working Woman," a story of main character’s journey in finding her own freedom and identity. The emphasis of how colonial outlook sees brown women's bodies as objects won me over. The third one is The Chamber of Souls" by ZM Quynh, a story based on refugees fleeing home from persecution. They were rescued and rehomed by some sort of mythological beings. It is almost like a gigantic ‘bunian’ who managed to hide you from the naked eye. Nghi Vo's "Life Under Glass" is another favourite of mine. It told the story a researcher who encountered Dragon while collecting a live animal specimen. The story is a simple one but the possibility of the world which dragons exist carried out so many possibilities in her POV. Last but not least, "Spider Here" by Robert Liow brought us into the story of a young disabled girl, Dai Ji. She builds casings—animal parts combined with steampunk technology. It has almost the same feels like how Victor Frankenstein builds the creature in his laboratory.Overall, The SEA is ours is an engaging anthology. I may not love every single stories in it but i think the fault is all mine. I dont usually read science fiction/fantasy and i know that steampunk sub genre is considered to be between of these 2 genres. However, i will still highly recommend this book. It is non euro centric steampunk and unapologetically Southeast Asian but still let readers to evaluate the real cost of the imperialism itself.
- The Last Aswang by Alessa Hinlo
.
.
There are 12 stories in this book. Many of these stories are written by Filipino but we also have Thai, Vietnamese, and Malaysian listed as the authors. In the introduction of the book, the editors mentioned that they are recognizing Southeast Asia as former colonies but to push back against this idea that we must acknowledge the superiority of the Colonizer Empire, hence steampunk genre is the way to do it. So that we can provide alternate history of world from Southeast Asian Perspective. Colonisation is evil and the book highlighted that there is a lot of changes and damage caused by these invaders (be it Spanish, French, Dutch and British). These colonizers glorifying it as a means for the expansion of empire. Hence, their POV were often stated that all this modernization happened because of us, the conquerers. This book is an attempt to brought us readers to look to the impact of those who were being conquered. These 12 stories flipped it around and claim back their narrative in resisting oppression and colonization. The book is where the marginalized voices get to assert their narrative. This is why you can see that there are a lot of women as main characters in the story - those who wanted to write their own destiny, those who wanted to protect their family, those who eager to learn and those who wanted their voice to be heard. There are 5 stories that i love and wondering if these author ever had an intention to write it as novel. The first one is Alessa Hinlo's "The Last Aswang”. Taken from Filipino Folklore, Aswang is a shape-shifting evil creatures like vampires. The intention of the story is to show the creeping predations of colonialism. The second one is is Olivia Ho's "Working Woman," a story of main character’s journey in finding her own freedom and identity. The emphasis of how colonial outlook sees brown women's bodies as objects won me over. The third one is The Chamber of Souls" by ZM Quynh, a story based on refugees fleeing home from persecution. They were rescued and rehomed by some sort of mythological beings. It is almost like a gigantic ‘bunian’ who managed to hide you from the naked eye. Nghi Vo's "Life Under Glass" is another favourite of mine. It told the story a researcher who encountered Dragon while collecting a live animal specimen. The story is a simple one but the possibility of the world which dragons exist carried out so many possibilities in her POV. Last but not least, "Spider Here" by Robert Liow brought us into the story of a young disabled girl, Dai Ji. She builds casings—animal parts combined with steampunk technology. It has almost the same feels like how Victor Frankenstein builds the creature in his laboratory.Overall, The SEA is ours is an engaging anthology. I may not love every single stories in it but i think the fault is all mine. I dont usually read science fiction/fantasy and i know that steampunk sub genre is considered to be between of these 2 genres. However, i will still highly recommend this book. It is non euro centric steampunk and unapologetically Southeast Asian but still let readers to evaluate the real cost of the imperialism itself.
0ri's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
hrjones's review
4.0
Literature is a collaborative exercise between author and reader, with the story emerging from the intersection of intention and reception. That collaborative experience is very different for those who have small versus large intersections of background between the author and the potential readership. (I am very awkwardly trying to avoid using words like “minority” and “marginalized” which carry an inherent sense that U.S. publishing culture is the ruler against which all else is to be compared.) The author who writes from a cultural experience that is shared by a relatively small proportion of their potential readership (whether due to demographics or cultural hegemony) must choose between spending time bringing the bulk of their readers up to speed on unfamiliar concepts or simply lobbing those concepts straight at them with the instructions, “Catch it or duck!”
In some ways, SFF authors who are in this position have an advantage, in that the SFF readership is (in theory) accustomed to stories that plunge them into unfamiliar worlds and expect them to pick up what they need to know from context. We’ve been trained to expect unfamiliar vocabulary and concepts, to be tossed in media res, and to work things out as we go along. There are existing reading protocols to deal with the unfamiliar.
This is “in theory” because SFF readers can be startlingly fixated on specific cultural models as being somehow more real and natural than others. Cultural background is a large part of that, whether it derives from the reader’s own culture of origin, or from the established body of existing SFF literature. And, unlike purely invented cultures like Middle Earth or Star Trek’s Federation, the real-life and literary/mythological elements a non-Western author brings to their SFF are shared by some proportion of their readers, creating a dichotomous experience where some readers will see deeper resonances than others. I’ll be one of the readers who doesn’t necessarily see those deeper resonances, so I can only review the stories in terms of my own understanding.
The concept behind The Sea is Ours is exactly what it says on the label: steampunk stories set in Southeast Asia, written primarily (although not exclusively?) by authors whose own roots are in that region. The title is a delightful play on both the geographic acronym (SEA) and the significant presence that the ocean plays in this corner of the world.
(Note that I wrote up these reviews as I read each piece, so there will be references to “of what I’ve read so far” in places.)
“The Consequence of Sound” by Timothy Dimacali – A coming-of-age story involving the mastery of a music-based levitation technology, giant sky-whales, and the loss of innocence. A vividly-told story with great world-building, although I found the ending too abrupt.
“Chasing Volcanoes” by Marilag Angway – If you’re the sort who enjoys a loving focus on exploring the details and consequences of a fictional technology (in this case, “mining” volcanoes for energy-producing gas), this is for you. There are also political and personal elements to the plot, but they felt more awkward. The ending fell flat for me, not so much because it followed standard rescue-and-redemption tropes, but because it hinged on a mechanical failure of a safety suit that didn’t work for me on a purely technical level.
“Ordained” by L.L. Hill – I have the feeling this story was trying to do something I didn’t quite get. It’s a very atmospheric tale of an encounter between two brothers: one a Buddhist monk, one who has embraced colonialist culture. The steampunk element involves clockwork insects, which are also involved in some fashion in the only thing that seems to provide a moment of overt conflict. But the resolution, if present, is very subtle. The specific religious framing of the interaction made me a bit more willing to accept it as an experiential rather than plot-driven piece, but I’m still certain that I’m missing parts. The descriptive language is so lush and ambitious that it falls over the edge into purple prose, for me. Some of the descriptive passages became so convoluted in their syntax that I had difficulty determining exactly what image I was supposed to be envisioning.
“The Last Aswang” by Alessa Hinlo – A sharp and satisfying tale of international relations involving both human and supernatural players with a violent and somewhat bloodthirsty conclusion. There were a few editorial glitches that I found distracting, but I liked the gradual exposition and foreshadowing.
“Life Under Glass” by Nghi Vo – A sweet and colorful vignette of a specimen-collecting expedition that turns up something unexpected. There’s also a relationship/self-discovery thread in the story. Nicely written but I had a hard time finding a satisfying plot. Neither of the main themes really resolved in any clear way. It was also hard to tie it into the steampunk theme. There was some handwaving about stasis tanks for the specimens, but in a very incidental way.
“Between Severed Souls” by Paolo Chikiamco – This is the second story in the collection so far that sets up conflict and contrast between siblings, one who has adopted the trappings of colonialist invaders and one who has not. This was quite a complex and tightly plotted story, involving a woodcarver and a piece of lumber with magical properties, in addition to something of a love triangle (with one member being dead) and the risks and consequences of warfare. There are mechanical devices and mechanical body parts to bring the steampunk balance to the other more supernatural elements. A well-written and satisfying story overall.
“The Unmaking of the Cuadro Amoroso” by Kate Osias – A dark story about love, relationships, and revenge where the steampunk elements are front and center in the action. The underlying theme is how political powers twist and warp creative people for their own ends, destroying what they hope to use. Bonus points for non-default sexuality.
“Working Woman” by Olivia Ho – The politics and morality of cybernetic people is central to this rather violent story of what people do to survive…and what they do when they decide survival isn’t the highest priority. There are also strong themes of the interactions of distinct cultures in close proximity, the human toll of industrialization, and the bonds that women form against all other differences. Despite the story being considerably more violent than I usually care for (although the violence feels more in the comic-book vein than being viscerally horrific), this may be my favorite of the collection. Excellently written with solid and intricate world-building.
“Spider Here” by Robert Liow – This story did two things very well and the rest somewhat disappointingly. The protagonist is a physically disabled girl who creates bio-cybernetic spider housings (that is, housings inhabited and powered by spiders) for combat entertainments. A larger-scale version of the sort of work she creates appears as her mobility assistive device. Both the vivid description of the technical details of her work, and the very matter-of-fact inclusion of her disability and its compensations are high points. Unfortunately, the story as a whole is disappointing. The opening narrative is too full of unnecessary explanation, while in contrast certain prominent events and characters are introduced that are never really followed up on. And the plot just sort of stops rather than concluding.
“The Chamber of Souls” by zm quỳnh – A group of Vietnamese refugees are rescued from the open sea only to find themselves in the hands of aliens from another world (although the exact relationship of their world to ours is never clear). This initial charity turns dangerous when the refugees are thrust into the middle of an inter-alien conflict and discover certain incompatibilities between human and alien physical requirements. The protagonist goes to extremes to rescue an alien cybernetic entity that carries a valuable component. The conclusion of the story features themes of displacement, adjustment, and trying to reconstruct one’s native culture in an alien environment. In the final scene, the protagonist is offered an option for ultimate integration with his new environs—an option that I found intensely disturbing, but that could be viewed either as a cautionary metaphor for the assimilation process, or as a positive act within a cultural system with different rules and values than my own. I’d be curious to know which the author intended or whether the ambiguity itself was intentional.
“Petrified” by Ivanna Mendels – Some intricate and deep worldbuilding that for me was undermined by the story being conveyed in awkward info-dumps and as-you-know-Bobs. The premise was interesting, but the writing style didn’t work at all for me.
“The Insects and Women Sing Together” by Pear Nuallak – A story of the overlooked strength and creativity of women against a setting of political struggle and war. I particularly liked the way it depicted a variety of women’s relationships and different ways of resisting narrow expectations. Oh, and queerness. I liked that part too. This ties with the Olivia Ho story for my favorite.
Overall, a somewhat uneven collection. The cultural aspect of the theme was strong and consistent, even if the steampunk aspect occasionally faltered. The characters are delightfully diverse within the specified setting, particularly in terms of gender, sexuality, and disability. There were places where a stronger editorial hand would have been useful, but several of the stories shone out brightly. I particularly liked “Between Severed Souls” by Paolo Chikiamco, “Working Woman” by Olivia Ho, and “The Insects and Women Sing Together” by Pear Nuallak.
In some ways, SFF authors who are in this position have an advantage, in that the SFF readership is (in theory) accustomed to stories that plunge them into unfamiliar worlds and expect them to pick up what they need to know from context. We’ve been trained to expect unfamiliar vocabulary and concepts, to be tossed in media res, and to work things out as we go along. There are existing reading protocols to deal with the unfamiliar.
This is “in theory” because SFF readers can be startlingly fixated on specific cultural models as being somehow more real and natural than others. Cultural background is a large part of that, whether it derives from the reader’s own culture of origin, or from the established body of existing SFF literature. And, unlike purely invented cultures like Middle Earth or Star Trek’s Federation, the real-life and literary/mythological elements a non-Western author brings to their SFF are shared by some proportion of their readers, creating a dichotomous experience where some readers will see deeper resonances than others. I’ll be one of the readers who doesn’t necessarily see those deeper resonances, so I can only review the stories in terms of my own understanding.
The concept behind The Sea is Ours is exactly what it says on the label: steampunk stories set in Southeast Asia, written primarily (although not exclusively?) by authors whose own roots are in that region. The title is a delightful play on both the geographic acronym (SEA) and the significant presence that the ocean plays in this corner of the world.
(Note that I wrote up these reviews as I read each piece, so there will be references to “of what I’ve read so far” in places.)
“The Consequence of Sound” by Timothy Dimacali – A coming-of-age story involving the mastery of a music-based levitation technology, giant sky-whales, and the loss of innocence. A vividly-told story with great world-building, although I found the ending too abrupt.
“Chasing Volcanoes” by Marilag Angway – If you’re the sort who enjoys a loving focus on exploring the details and consequences of a fictional technology (in this case, “mining” volcanoes for energy-producing gas), this is for you. There are also political and personal elements to the plot, but they felt more awkward. The ending fell flat for me, not so much because it followed standard rescue-and-redemption tropes, but because it hinged on a mechanical failure of a safety suit that didn’t work for me on a purely technical level.
“Ordained” by L.L. Hill – I have the feeling this story was trying to do something I didn’t quite get. It’s a very atmospheric tale of an encounter between two brothers: one a Buddhist monk, one who has embraced colonialist culture. The steampunk element involves clockwork insects, which are also involved in some fashion in the only thing that seems to provide a moment of overt conflict. But the resolution, if present, is very subtle. The specific religious framing of the interaction made me a bit more willing to accept it as an experiential rather than plot-driven piece, but I’m still certain that I’m missing parts. The descriptive language is so lush and ambitious that it falls over the edge into purple prose, for me. Some of the descriptive passages became so convoluted in their syntax that I had difficulty determining exactly what image I was supposed to be envisioning.
“The Last Aswang” by Alessa Hinlo – A sharp and satisfying tale of international relations involving both human and supernatural players with a violent and somewhat bloodthirsty conclusion. There were a few editorial glitches that I found distracting, but I liked the gradual exposition and foreshadowing.
“Life Under Glass” by Nghi Vo – A sweet and colorful vignette of a specimen-collecting expedition that turns up something unexpected. There’s also a relationship/self-discovery thread in the story. Nicely written but I had a hard time finding a satisfying plot. Neither of the main themes really resolved in any clear way. It was also hard to tie it into the steampunk theme. There was some handwaving about stasis tanks for the specimens, but in a very incidental way.
“Between Severed Souls” by Paolo Chikiamco – This is the second story in the collection so far that sets up conflict and contrast between siblings, one who has adopted the trappings of colonialist invaders and one who has not. This was quite a complex and tightly plotted story, involving a woodcarver and a piece of lumber with magical properties, in addition to something of a love triangle (with one member being dead) and the risks and consequences of warfare. There are mechanical devices and mechanical body parts to bring the steampunk balance to the other more supernatural elements. A well-written and satisfying story overall.
“The Unmaking of the Cuadro Amoroso” by Kate Osias – A dark story about love, relationships, and revenge where the steampunk elements are front and center in the action. The underlying theme is how political powers twist and warp creative people for their own ends, destroying what they hope to use. Bonus points for non-default sexuality.
“Working Woman” by Olivia Ho – The politics and morality of cybernetic people is central to this rather violent story of what people do to survive…and what they do when they decide survival isn’t the highest priority. There are also strong themes of the interactions of distinct cultures in close proximity, the human toll of industrialization, and the bonds that women form against all other differences. Despite the story being considerably more violent than I usually care for (although the violence feels more in the comic-book vein than being viscerally horrific), this may be my favorite of the collection. Excellently written with solid and intricate world-building.
“Spider Here” by Robert Liow – This story did two things very well and the rest somewhat disappointingly. The protagonist is a physically disabled girl who creates bio-cybernetic spider housings (that is, housings inhabited and powered by spiders) for combat entertainments. A larger-scale version of the sort of work she creates appears as her mobility assistive device. Both the vivid description of the technical details of her work, and the very matter-of-fact inclusion of her disability and its compensations are high points. Unfortunately, the story as a whole is disappointing. The opening narrative is too full of unnecessary explanation, while in contrast certain prominent events and characters are introduced that are never really followed up on. And the plot just sort of stops rather than concluding.
“The Chamber of Souls” by zm quỳnh – A group of Vietnamese refugees are rescued from the open sea only to find themselves in the hands of aliens from another world (although the exact relationship of their world to ours is never clear). This initial charity turns dangerous when the refugees are thrust into the middle of an inter-alien conflict and discover certain incompatibilities between human and alien physical requirements. The protagonist goes to extremes to rescue an alien cybernetic entity that carries a valuable component. The conclusion of the story features themes of displacement, adjustment, and trying to reconstruct one’s native culture in an alien environment. In the final scene, the protagonist is offered an option for ultimate integration with his new environs—an option that I found intensely disturbing, but that could be viewed either as a cautionary metaphor for the assimilation process, or as a positive act within a cultural system with different rules and values than my own. I’d be curious to know which the author intended or whether the ambiguity itself was intentional.
“Petrified” by Ivanna Mendels – Some intricate and deep worldbuilding that for me was undermined by the story being conveyed in awkward info-dumps and as-you-know-Bobs. The premise was interesting, but the writing style didn’t work at all for me.
“The Insects and Women Sing Together” by Pear Nuallak – A story of the overlooked strength and creativity of women against a setting of political struggle and war. I particularly liked the way it depicted a variety of women’s relationships and different ways of resisting narrow expectations. Oh, and queerness. I liked that part too. This ties with the Olivia Ho story for my favorite.
Overall, a somewhat uneven collection. The cultural aspect of the theme was strong and consistent, even if the steampunk aspect occasionally faltered. The characters are delightfully diverse within the specified setting, particularly in terms of gender, sexuality, and disability. There were places where a stronger editorial hand would have been useful, but several of the stories shone out brightly. I particularly liked “Between Severed Souls” by Paolo Chikiamco, “Working Woman” by Olivia Ho, and “The Insects and Women Sing Together” by Pear Nuallak.
pohutukaryl's review
adventurous
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
jennms_qkw's review
5.0
I apparently have fallen in love with fiction anthologies. I do like a good non-fiction anthology of course. This book is so amazing and adventurous! I love steampunk and this is set in Southeast Asia. So much fun and mysterious for me. So creative. With dragons and airships and spiders and mechanical people and so much more. Plus there were little autobiographies for all of the authors. I loved this so much.
araleith's review
3.0
I was so very obviously not the intended audience for this collection but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
typewriter's review against another edition
adventurous
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
My favourite stories were The Last Aswang, Life Under Glass, Working Woman, and The Women and Insects Sing Together. Overall a decent collection, although in some stories the steampunk element was quite minor and I couldn't finish the second last one because of the poor writing.