A review by pandorasxbox
Extraordinary Engines: The Definitive Steampunk Anthology by Nick Gevers

2.0

Generally, it's a bad sign when you're not even halfway through a book and are already set on giving it away. Yet, I kept going, hoping that it would get better. In any collection of short stories, you need to expect some hits and misses. Unfortunately, there seem to be more of the latter here. There were some stories that I feel that I should have theoretically enjoyed, such as "Static", although even here I found myself almost bored. I did find two stories that I did genuinely enjoy toward the end- "American Cheetah" and "Fixing Hanover". So this collection does have those to its credit.

Unfortunately, these aren't enough to make up for its problems. I'm not going to discuss bad stories here, because, as I said, those are to be expected. I had two other serious problems with this anthology. The first of these problems is something I've seen mentioned in some of the other reviews- this collection seems sorely lacking in actual steampunk, especially when you consider the fact that it advertises itself as "definitive". Yes, many of these are set in a Victorian setting and feature various gizmos, but that doesn't necessarily make them steampunk. Maybe my own personal understanding of steampunk differs from that of the editor's, but I felt something was lacking. My other complaint, one that I haven't seen here, is that some of these stories come across as preachy. The first instance of this is at the end of "Speed, Speed the Cable", when

Spoiler

it's revealed that Dickens was the wealthy benefactor of the anti-cable faction, and the story suddenly becomes all about book piracy. I actually felt as though I had been rickrolled, it was that bad. I also felt as though "Hannah" had a preachy undertone to it