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3.61 AVERAGE
3.61 AVERAGE
2/5 Stars - Overall Rating
3/5 Stars - Audiobook Performance
3.3/5 Stars - Average Story Rating
If you are looking for a good collection of Steampunk stories - this isn't it. The book claims to stretch the Steampunk vision (inspired by Gail Carriger's Steampunk Vampires and Cherie Priest's Steampunk Zombies) but for me, it totally missed the mark, which is why I've rated it so low - it seemed almost like false advertising.
There were a handful of stories that sprinkled clockwork or zepplins into the mix to give it a Steampunk flair but I felt the stories could have been stripped of these references and stood as their own - not really the mark of Steampunk, in my opinion. Not to mention, I think Steampunk is equal parts an aesthetic and a mood - many of these stories felt closer to fantasy to me. Link's "The Summer People," for instance, focuses on a modern teen girl who looks after a mystical race of fairy-like beings - who happen to make clockwork toys (which happen to play a very SMALL part in the overall story). Knox's Gethsemane (as far as I remember) might have referenced a steam-powered drill and a zeppelin. There were however some really great examples of Steampunk.
Audiobook Review (2/5*)
I listened to the audiobook version of Steampunk! and it was ok, as far as audiobooks go. There were five different narrators and I wish I knew who had narrated each piece so I could give a better review - I don't.
The stories in Steampunk! take place all over the world, so the accents were all over the place. Most I could deal with - but some were very thick and very fake.
Story Run-Down
I'm going to do a little assessment of each story with their own star rating, if you don't want to read about each story then this is the end of the review - I'll save you a scroll. :)
3/5* "Some Fortunate Future Day" by Cassandra Clare. A quirky tale about a young girl falling in love with a wounded soldier that she rescues. The main character is pretty whiny and I didn't connect with her at all, but there were some themes that I really enjoyed.
4/5* "The Last Ride of the Glory Girls" by Libba Bray. This wild west tale about a group of female outlaws was one of my favorite in the bunch. The characters were strong and driven and there was some very interesting clockwork technology underlying the whole thing.
5/5* "Clockwork Fagin" by Cory Doctrow. This was my favorite in this anthology. It follows a group of orphans who create a clockwork man so they can control their own lives. Not only did this story have clockwork technology - it had the gritty themes of anti-establishment and oppression that I love in Steampunk.
4/5* "Hand in Glove" by Ysabeau S. Wilce. This story's "steampunk" aesthetic comes from a Frankenstein style experiment and the revolutionary idea of forensics in a small town police force. Not the best steampunk example, but I loved this story anyway. You can never go wrong with a good sassy female protagonist.
3/5* "The Ghost of Cwmlech Manor" by Delia Sherman. Started off slow, decent wrap-up but pretty meh overall.
1/5* "Gethsemane" by Elizabeth Knox. I don't even remember what happened in this story - it was that memorable.
2/5* "The Summer People" by Kelly Link. I hated that this story was branded as Steampunk and there were a lot of things that just felt unnecessary in the story.
4/5* "Peace in Our Time" by Garth Nix. Another good example of the darker Steampunk themes. This story started off quite strange, but I ended up really enjoying it.
3/5* "Nowhere Fast" by Christopher Rowe. This was the most stretched steampunk story in the bunch. Nowhere Fast is pseudo-post-apocalyptic. It's set in a world where humans live a more basic life to heal the environment of the damages done in the past. The steampunk aspects include a car built from scraped pieces, some flying machines used by the government, and some supercharged mechanical horses used by the police. Interesting concept and I probably would have enjoyed it more if it wasn't trying to be Steampunk.
4/5* "Steam Girl" Another fun story with some unexpected twists. This was the most human story of the bunch - focusing on a relationship between a boy and the new girl at school who shares her stories of Steam Girl, an alternate-reality daughter of an inventor who travels through space. Some aspects of this story were rough - but it was overall a fun read.
3/5* "Everything Amiable and Obliging" by Holly Black. This was a steampunk take on the classic question of whether an artificial intelligence can learn to have feelings and to love. Outside of this main conflict though, it was a bit boring.
4/5* "The Oracle Engine" by M.T. Anderson. I love a good alternate-history, so bringing the Steampunk idea back to ancient Rome was fun for me. This is also another good example of the darker side of steampunk.
3/5 Stars - Audiobook Performance
3.3/5 Stars - Average Story Rating
If you are looking for a good collection of Steampunk stories - this isn't it. The book claims to stretch the Steampunk vision (inspired by Gail Carriger's Steampunk Vampires and Cherie Priest's Steampunk Zombies) but for me, it totally missed the mark, which is why I've rated it so low - it seemed almost like false advertising.
There were a handful of stories that sprinkled clockwork or zepplins into the mix to give it a Steampunk flair but I felt the stories could have been stripped of these references and stood as their own - not really the mark of Steampunk, in my opinion. Not to mention, I think Steampunk is equal parts an aesthetic and a mood - many of these stories felt closer to fantasy to me. Link's "The Summer People," for instance, focuses on a modern teen girl who looks after a mystical race of fairy-like beings - who happen to make clockwork toys (which happen to play a very SMALL part in the overall story). Knox's Gethsemane (as far as I remember) might have referenced a steam-powered drill and a zeppelin. There were however some really great examples of Steampunk.
Audiobook Review (2/5*)
I listened to the audiobook version of Steampunk! and it was ok, as far as audiobooks go. There were five different narrators and I wish I knew who had narrated each piece so I could give a better review - I don't.
The stories in Steampunk! take place all over the world, so the accents were all over the place. Most I could deal with - but some were very thick and very fake.
Story Run-Down
I'm going to do a little assessment of each story with their own star rating, if you don't want to read about each story then this is the end of the review - I'll save you a scroll. :)
3/5* "Some Fortunate Future Day" by Cassandra Clare. A quirky tale about a young girl falling in love with a wounded soldier that she rescues. The main character is pretty whiny and I didn't connect with her at all, but there were some themes that I really enjoyed.
4/5* "The Last Ride of the Glory Girls" by Libba Bray. This wild west tale about a group of female outlaws was one of my favorite in the bunch. The characters were strong and driven and there was some very interesting clockwork technology underlying the whole thing.
5/5* "Clockwork Fagin" by Cory Doctrow. This was my favorite in this anthology. It follows a group of orphans who create a clockwork man so they can control their own lives. Not only did this story have clockwork technology - it had the gritty themes of anti-establishment and oppression that I love in Steampunk.
4/5* "Hand in Glove" by Ysabeau S. Wilce. This story's "steampunk" aesthetic comes from a Frankenstein style experiment and the revolutionary idea of forensics in a small town police force. Not the best steampunk example, but I loved this story anyway. You can never go wrong with a good sassy female protagonist.
3/5* "The Ghost of Cwmlech Manor" by Delia Sherman. Started off slow, decent wrap-up but pretty meh overall.
1/5* "Gethsemane" by Elizabeth Knox. I don't even remember what happened in this story - it was that memorable.
2/5* "The Summer People" by Kelly Link. I hated that this story was branded as Steampunk and there were a lot of things that just felt unnecessary in the story.
4/5* "Peace in Our Time" by Garth Nix. Another good example of the darker Steampunk themes. This story started off quite strange, but I ended up really enjoying it.
3/5* "Nowhere Fast" by Christopher Rowe. This was the most stretched steampunk story in the bunch. Nowhere Fast is pseudo-post-apocalyptic. It's set in a world where humans live a more basic life to heal the environment of the damages done in the past. The steampunk aspects include a car built from scraped pieces, some flying machines used by the government, and some supercharged mechanical horses used by the police. Interesting concept and I probably would have enjoyed it more if it wasn't trying to be Steampunk.
4/5* "Steam Girl" Another fun story with some unexpected twists. This was the most human story of the bunch - focusing on a relationship between a boy and the new girl at school who shares her stories of Steam Girl, an alternate-reality daughter of an inventor who travels through space. Some aspects of this story were rough - but it was overall a fun read.
3/5* "Everything Amiable and Obliging" by Holly Black. This was a steampunk take on the classic question of whether an artificial intelligence can learn to have feelings and to love. Outside of this main conflict though, it was a bit boring.
4/5* "The Oracle Engine" by M.T. Anderson. I love a good alternate-history, so bringing the Steampunk idea back to ancient Rome was fun for me. This is also another good example of the darker side of steampunk.
I loved "Clockwork Fagin", "The Ghost of Cwmlech Manor" and "The Summer People".
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
sad
Painfully mediocre. Only a couple of worthwhile stories in the mix.
I love the idea of steampunk. I love the fashion it has inspired, and the subculture around it, and I want to love the fiction. I haven't read a whole lot of it yet, for various reasons, and what I have read hasn't always worked for me. This anthology, though - put together by Kelly Link and Gavin Grant, coming out from Candlewick Press - makes me very happy indeed. It might be the fact that it is aimed at the YA market that helps it hit the mark so well. It takes the notion of steampunk and does some seriously mad things with it. There are outrageous characters, unexpected settings, and some wonderful wonderful narratives. With very little fog and few bowler hats. There are a number of outstanding stories.
I read Libba Bray's Going Bovine a while back and fell in love with it, so seeing her name in this ToC was like following the scent of chocolate. "The Last Ride of the Glory Girls" is, indeed, simply glorious. Girl outlaws, clockwork, friendship, religion, love, and a tantalising world - it's all here. Adelaide is adept at working with various clockwork contraptions and ends up working for the local law enforcement. As such she goes undercover, and... things proceed. The characters are charming (mostly); the plot unfolds at a brisk and enjoyable pace; and the few hints that Bray drops about the world make me want to email her right now and DEMAND a novel set in this place. The narrator's voice added to my delight with the story, too; Bray takes a chance on using a slang ('were' instead of 'was', etc) that could have seemed forced or unnatural, and manages to make it both consistent and lilting rather than jarring. This is a seriously good story.
Kelly Link contributes "The Summer People," and while I absolutely adore it I admit that I don't really understand its place in a steampunk anthology. There are some minor aspects that I can see tying into the theme, but they don't really seem important enough to make this story really fit the genre. Anyway - I'm not actually much of a one for hard 'n' fast genre delineation, so whatever. It's a brilliant story. Fran is left to look after herself, the house, and the family business while sick, when her dad decides to go and get right with God. She enlists the help of a former friend, Ophelia, and the two end up spending more time together than Fran had expected. Link gets a lot of interesting issues into this story. The relationship between the two girls is a complex one, based on family status and origin and expectations; Fran's relationship with her father is certainly a complex one; and there are suggestions that things in the wider world are going pear-shaped. Both Fran and Ophelia are very readable. This is another world about which I would devour a novel-version in a heartbeat.
Another story framed around the relationship of two unlikely friends is "Steam Girl." Using the story-within-a-story trope, Horrocks has the freaky new girl telling stories to the loner nerd at her new school. It's a wonderful, stunning mash of the indignities of being new and weird at school - oh, adolescent nightmare - together with a rollicking adventure worthy of Verne (there are dirigibles, and interplanetary jaunts). New girl and nerd work brilliantly, while the jock and the popular girl made me have flashbacks. Unlike the previous two stories, this one really works perfectly at this length, I think because the world itself was familiar.
"Nowhere Fast" was written by Christopher Rowe, and in reading it I had to double-check that I wasn't back reading Welcome to the Greenhouse, because its steampunk-ish-ness comes as a result of climate change and the end of oil. A stranger, a car, and a young woman questioning her upbringing all illuminate a world where treading lightly on the earth is the paramount virtue. There are interesting familial relationship at play here, as well as friendships, and a sly comment on local vs national power structures, too.
Finally, the anthology finishes with "Oracle Engine," by MT Anderson. Over the last few years I've had discussions with a fellow Roman-history-fan about the lack of 'Romanpunk' in our lives. Of course, she has since written a collection of short stories with that very title... and Anderson's story fits into that as-yet-uncluttered subgenre. It's based on true Roman events - those surrounding Crassus, richest man in Rome, and his rivalry with Pompey and Caesar; Anderson makes it fit the theme by making this a Rome like the alternate histories of Cherie Priest, Richard Harland or Scott Westerfeld's efforts in steampunkland. Also, he adds an oracle engine (duh, hence the title), and that's just cool. Plus Minervan Virgins, sly Roman jokes, and a style reminiscent of Roman historians. A worthy end to the anthology indeed.
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I feel slightly mean giving this book 3 stars when a number of individual stories would definitely rate 4, but others are distinctly meh, so there it is.
Short story anthologies are always interesting: there are always a few that are completely amazing, and I'm always introduced to some authors and stories that I would have never picked up on my own.
In my experience, the short stories in anthologies like this also always seem a bit...weirder? More "out there" than the novels that I read. Like these are experiments to see how far they can push up against the boundaries.
Overall, I enjoyed this, but I think I prefer novels, simply because you can get to know the characters and the world more thoroughly -- in short stories, you have finally figured things out and then it's over...
In my experience, the short stories in anthologies like this also always seem a bit...weirder? More "out there" than the novels that I read. Like these are experiments to see how far they can push up against the boundaries.
Overall, I enjoyed this, but I think I prefer novels, simply because you can get to know the characters and the world more thoroughly -- in short stories, you have finally figured things out and then it's over...
Brand new library book with the smell intact (don't judge!), the anthology was my first formal introduction with the steampunk genre. And while these stories sought to be different from the cliches of the genre (which I have yet to encounter due to my beginner level with it), I have learned some things about it.
My thoughts about the genre as presented by the anthology: what sets steampunk apart from science fiction or fantasy, magical realism or alternate historical fiction? I suppose steam punk is a melding of all these genres into a broader, or perhaps more narrow category, but it doesn't pass the test for me. I feel like the genre, and by that I mean the authors, are trying to hard to fit their stories into a particular label that at this moment is a very popular one and therefore sensational. I will continue to read the occasional steampunk novel, but I fear I cannot wholeheartedly support this movement, this literary niche without either further research or a change of heart.
That said, the anthology was a pleasant read. Each story was in fact different, and yet flowed into each other, with themes from the previous story leading into the next. Some standouts: The Last Ride of the Glory Girls - a wild west female coming-of-age story; Everything Amiable and Obliging - Holly Black is a best-selling author for a reason as this story about love and robots was riveting; Seven Days Beset by Demons - one of the two graphic stories in the anthology, I loved the art and the simplicity of the story; Hand in Glove - almost a crime noire set in California with an odd culprit; and The Summer People - which while I will argue that this was definitely more fantasy/magical realism than steampunk, was an interesting story set in Appalachia with entities that might be known as fairies.
There were other good stories in the anthology, but some felt more forced than others. Overall, I looked forward to seeing what the next story had in store and I would recommend it to anyone, whether they are mechanized veterans of the genre or interlopers into the strange world of steampunk.
My thoughts about the genre as presented by the anthology: what sets steampunk apart from science fiction or fantasy, magical realism or alternate historical fiction? I suppose steam punk is a melding of all these genres into a broader, or perhaps more narrow category, but it doesn't pass the test for me. I feel like the genre, and by that I mean the authors, are trying to hard to fit their stories into a particular label that at this moment is a very popular one and therefore sensational. I will continue to read the occasional steampunk novel, but I fear I cannot wholeheartedly support this movement, this literary niche without either further research or a change of heart.
That said, the anthology was a pleasant read. Each story was in fact different, and yet flowed into each other, with themes from the previous story leading into the next. Some standouts: The Last Ride of the Glory Girls - a wild west female coming-of-age story; Everything Amiable and Obliging - Holly Black is a best-selling author for a reason as this story about love and robots was riveting; Seven Days Beset by Demons - one of the two graphic stories in the anthology, I loved the art and the simplicity of the story; Hand in Glove - almost a crime noire set in California with an odd culprit; and The Summer People - which while I will argue that this was definitely more fantasy/magical realism than steampunk, was an interesting story set in Appalachia with entities that might be known as fairies.
There were other good stories in the anthology, but some felt more forced than others. Overall, I looked forward to seeing what the next story had in store and I would recommend it to anyone, whether they are mechanized veterans of the genre or interlopers into the strange world of steampunk.
A collection of Steampunk stories edited by Kelly Link (an author I really like).
Steampunk is a tricky genre, authors can over do it with the "Story = victorian morals + coal engine + airship, done; raygun and damsel in distress are optional but help"; which doesn't substitute for a good or original plot. This collection has about 1/3 of stories that fall in there, which makes them repetitive or predictable.
That said, the rest of the collection is good and entertaining. If you want a light introduction to the genre, and considering it is a book you can get from the library, it is a good one to try.
Steampunk is a tricky genre, authors can over do it with the "Story = victorian morals + coal engine + airship, done; raygun and damsel in distress are optional but help"; which doesn't substitute for a good or original plot. This collection has about 1/3 of stories that fall in there, which makes them repetitive or predictable.
That said, the rest of the collection is good and entertaining. If you want a light introduction to the genre, and considering it is a book you can get from the library, it is a good one to try.