Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories by Kelly Link

Mar 07, 2013 Ceridwen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: alternate-history, america-and-environs, capital-l-labor, capital-r-romantic, detectives, ecopunk, faeries, fantasy, ghost-stories, gothic, lgbt, reviewed, rule-britannia, sci-fi, short-shories, steampunk, the-future-is-now, the-west, zombies

Cross-posted on Readerling

A cromulent collection of short stories, though uneven like most (maybe all) multi-author collections. I do appreciate the emphasis by editor Kelly Link on steampunk stories outside of the now-iconic Victorian London steampunk setting. I like the thickly urban setting - it's what drew me to the sub-genre in the first place - but I can get fiercely irritated with the way some steampunk fetishizes the upper class twit of the year with his goggles and laboratory that I som...more

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Sep 30, 2011 Tatiana rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone interested in steampunk (not steampunk romance)

Recommended to Tatiana by: Kirkus

Shelves: short-stories, 2011, fantasy, sci-fi, graphic-novels

I haven't enjoyed a YA anthology this much since Zombies Vs. Unicorns. Picking authors who can write and have a lot of interest in the genre, as opposed to those who are popular, really paid off here. (The only exception to this assumption is the opening short story by Cassandra Clare. But I guess there was no way to avoid that as Clare is currently considered to be the shining beacon of YA steampunk and thus assigned as the main attraction in this book.)

The subtitle of the collection is An Anth...more

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Jul 07, 2012 Jennifer rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: extended-reviews

Overall, a solid compilation. A couple of stories weren’t steampunkish enough (Link’s) and/or compelling (Knox’s). Even Garth Nix’s entry was just a short shaggy dog story, as it were, though the punch line did make you think. But there were far more excellent tales than not. Clare, Bray, Doctorow, Rowe, and Black kept true to the theme and turned out enjoyable and imaginative stories. “The Oracle Engine,” with its basis in Roman history, was interesting for a while, but it soon became obvious w...more

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Dec 24, 2012 Jonathan Peto rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: short-stories

Short story anthologies are tough. This one is a strong three stars. Even though there were no lost causes, as I read I never thought I'd give it four. Some stories soared, but I guess not high enough or long enough.

Another thing, and it is a Catch-22, but I found myself impatiently flipping pages at times, wondering how many remained. I longed for novels, I think. I wanted the stories to draw me in faster and deep, some did, yet I was still impatient, wondering when it would end.

One last thing....more

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Sep 13, 2011 Eric rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Steampunk fans

Recommended to Eric by: Free download on Amazon.com

Shelves: steam-punk, short-stories

I only read the Cory Doctorow story 'Clockwork Fagin', as I picked up a free preview copy of the story on my Kindle. Doctorow proves with his story that he does steampunk just as well as he does cyberpunk. It was definitely good enough to make me consider buying the entire anthology.

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Dec 20, 2012 The-vault rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Edited by Kevin Link and Gavin Grant. Grade: A
When I started to read the book, I had no clue what the term steampunk meant. It wasn’t until I had already read two or three stories that I wondered about it, since none of the stories I had read till then had anything I could understand as being even remotely related to this term, not that I knew what it meant anyways.
So I looked the book up, which is something I normally do only after I’ve finished it. When I typed Steampunk into google, what came...more Edited by Kevin Link and Gavin Grant. Grade: A
When I started to read the book, I had no clue what the term steampunk meant. It wasn’t until I had already read two or three stories that I wondered about it, since none of the stories I had read till then had anything I could understand as being even remotely related to this term, not that I knew what it meant anyways.
So I looked the book up, which is something I normally do only after I’ve finished it. When I typed Steampunk into google, what came up was the genre, making me realize that that’s what the connection was between all the stories. This is what my friend Wikipedia had to say:
“Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction characterized by a setting in which steam power predominates as the energy source for high, industrial technologies, especially inspired by industrialized Western civilization during the 19th century. Typically, therefore, works of steampunk are set in an alternate history of the 19th century’s British Victorian era or American “Wild West”; in a post-apocalyptic future during which steam power has regained mainstream usage; or in a fantasy world that similarly employs steam power.”
I’m someone who has pretty much eclectic reading tastes, so I was game to try a new genre, but even reading the explanation on Wikipedia was little confusing, so I researched a bit more.
What I finally understood was that this is a genre which includes stories that use technological and social aspects of the nineteenth century. Or at least that is the basic idea.
Reissue of the first major YA steampunk anthology; fourteen top storytellers push the genre’s mix of sci-fi, fantasy, history, and adventure in fascinating new directions.
Imagine an alternate universe where romance and technology reign. Where tinkerers and dreamers craft and re-craft a world of automatons, clockworks, calculating machines, and other marvels that never were. Here, fourteen masters of speculative fiction, including two graphic storytellers, embrace the steampunk genre’s established themes and refashion them in surprising ways and settings as diverse as Appalachia, Ancient Rome, future Australia, and alternate California. The result is an anthology that defies its genre even as it defines it.
Steampunk is essentially an anthology, with various short stories written by different authors. I’ve always found it difficult to review anthologies, because my opinion about different stories is usually varied. So what do I judge the book on?
But Steampunk didn’t pose that much of a problem, because of one simple reason. I loved almost all of the stories, so with little variation of opinion, the book overall wasn’t hard to review at all!
I don’t really like the cover, and even the font isn’t that great. Both of these are a little too over the top and loud for my tastes. The blurb is good, although it doesn’t give that great an idea of what you should be expecting.
All the stories are wonderfully written, and though the authors are different, I liked the way that all of them wrote in keeping with the premises of the genre. The language, the way the characters spoke: it was all very nineteenth century.
My favourite story is the first one: Some Fortunate Future Day, by Cassandra Clare. It is enthrallingly different, and quite enchanting. Don’t be mistaken, it is very different from what you usually read [Well, the entire book is different from what I usually read], but it has a certain quality to it that I liked. I can’t put it into words, but the story was sort of eerie, and yet, I liked it. The ending was great. It could have been abrupt, but the way the author wrote it, it made the hair on back of my neck stand. I kid you not, but I had chills.
The Last Ride of The Glory Girls (Libba Bray), Hand in Glove (Ysabeau S.Wilce), The Oracle Engine (Holly Black) were a few that would make it to my top three list.
One thing that I loved about all the stories was the machines. Amazing, amazing, amazing. It was magical and realistic at the same time. Especially the time related machines; Those were even more awesome.
If I had to pinpoint at one mistake, I’d say that the only problem I had was that often, the stories weren’t that engaging right at the beginning. They’re hard to understand at some places too. But that much I can overlook for an otherwise great book!
Overall, Steampunk is a good book, and something I’d recommend to anybody who’s looking for an anthology. Worth the time and money.

Originally reviewed at : http://vaultofbooks.com/(less)

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Dec 01, 2012 LH Johnson rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Whilst Steampunk as a whole remains a genre I struggle with, I was attracted to this anthology primarily because of it being an anthology. The thing with a collection of stories is that you're pretty much guaranteed to get at least one story that you did like.

And so it was with this. Described as an anthology of 'fantastically strange stories from fourteen masters of speculative fiction', Steampunk! sets itself up as an introduction to the genre. I'm nowhere near qualified to comment on whether...more

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Nov 19, 2012 VaultOfBooks rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Edited by Kevin Link and Gavin Grant. Grade: A
When I started to read the book, I had no clue what the term steampunk meant. It wasn’t until I had already read two or three stories that I wondered about it, since none of the stories I had read till then had anything I could understand as being even remotely related to this term, not that I knew what it meant anyways.
So I looked the book up, which is something I normally do only after I’ve finished it. When I typed Steampunk into google, what came...more Edited by Kevin Link and Gavin Grant. Grade: A
When I started to read the book, I had no clue what the term steampunk meant. It wasn’t until I had already read two or three stories that I wondered about it, since none of the stories I had read till then had anything I could understand as being even remotely related to this term, not that I knew what it meant anyways.
So I looked the book up, which is something I normally do only after I’ve finished it. When I typed Steampunk into google, what came up was the genre, making me realize that that’s what the connection was between all the stories. This is what my friend Wikipedia had to say:
“Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction characterized by a setting in which steam power predominates as the energy source for high, industrial technologies, especially inspired by industrialized Western civilization during the 19th century. Typically, therefore, works of steampunk are set in an alternate history of the 19th century’s British Victorian era or American “Wild West”; in a post-apocalyptic future during which steam power has regained mainstream usage; or in a fantasy world that similarly employs steam power.”
I’m someone who has pretty much eclectic reading tastes, so I was game to try a new genre, but even reading the explanation on Wikipedia was little confusing, so I researched a bit more.
What I finally understood was that this is a genre which includes stories that use technological and social aspects of the nineteenth century. Or at least that is the basic idea.
Reissue of the first major YA steampunk anthology; fourteen top storytellers push the genre’s mix of sci-fi, fantasy, history, and adventure in fascinating new directions.
Imagine an alternate universe where romance and technology reign. Where tinkerers and dreamers craft and re-craft a world of automatons, clockworks, calculating machines, and other marvels that never were. Here, fourteen masters of speculative fiction, including two graphic storytellers, embrace the steampunk genre’s established themes and refashion them in surprising ways and settings as diverse as Appalachia, Ancient Rome, future Australia, and alternate California. The result is an anthology that defies its genre even as it defines it.
Steampunk is essentially an anthology, with various short stories written by different authors. I’ve always found it difficult to review anthologies, because my opinion about different stories is usually varied. So what do I judge the book on?
But Steampunk didn’t pose that much of a problem, because of one simple reason. I loved almost all of the stories, so with little variation of opinion, the book overall wasn’t hard to review at all!
I don’t really like the cover, and even the font isn’t that great. Both of these are a little too over the top and loud for my tastes. The blurb is good, although it doesn’t give that great an idea of what you should be expecting.
All the stories are wonderfully written, and though the authors are different, I liked the way that all of them wrote in keeping with the premises of the genre. The language, the way the characters spoke: it was all very nineteenth century.
My favourite story is the first one: Some Fortunate Future Day, by Cassandra Clare. It is enthrallingly different, and quite enchanting. Don’t be mistaken, it is very different from what you usually read [Well, the entire book is different from what I usually read], but it has a certain quality to it that I liked. I can’t put it into words, but the story was sort of eerie, and yet, I liked it. The ending was great. It could have been abrupt, but the way the author wrote it, it made the hair on back of my neck stand. I kid you not, but I had chills.
The Last Ride of The Glory Girls (Libba Bray), Hand in Glove (Ysabeau S.Wilce), The Oracle Engine (Holly Black) were a few that would make it to my top three list.
One thing that I loved about all the stories was the machines. Amazing, amazing, amazing. It was magical and realistic at the same time. Especially the time related machines; Those were even more awesome.
If I had to pinpoint at one mistake, I’d say that the only problem I had was that often, the stories weren’t that engaging right at the beginning. They’re hard to understand at some places too. But that much I can overlook for an otherwise great book!
Overall, Steampunk is a good book, and something I’d recommend to anybody who’s looking for an anthology. Worth the time and money.

Originally reviewed at: http://vaultofbooks.com/(less)

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Sep 18, 2012 Michael rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Technology defines cultures and decisions made by people of those cultures. This is the message that Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories is trying to get across. Throughout the book its fourteen stories, each by a different author, seem to want the reader to know this. Each story has its own world where technology (and therefore history) develops very differently than in did in reality. That is the definition of the book’s genre, steampunk. This is not the kind of b...more Technology defines cultures and decisions made by people of those cultures. This is the message that Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories is trying to get across. Throughout the book its fourteen stories, each by a different author, seem to want the reader to know this. Each story has its own world where technology (and therefore history) develops very differently than in did in reality. That is the definition of the book’s genre, steampunk. This is not the kind of book that is part of a series. That is good when you consider there will be less near-meaningless short stories on one end. However it could be bad when you consider that despite the former, there will be more stories like the few in the book that really stand out for being rich, enjoyable, and meaningful while masterfully using the setting to further their plot.

Consequentially, due to there being fourteen stories, and that you would probably only want to hear about one that stands out, I will only summarize one story, The Oracle Engine, by M.T. Anderson. It has a well thought-out plot and a historical setting in the last years of the Ancient Roman Republic, which makes for an interesting 36 pages. It is a story which revolves around two main characters, (who happen to be the only main characters) and each of their greatest desires. First of the main characters is Marcus Furius, an intelligent inventor. When he was a boy his house caught fire and his family was killed because Crassus would not put out the fire. This is what created his deep hatred for Crassus, which leads the inventor to hatch a plan to ruin him. The second main character is Marcus Licinius Crassus, a real person who becomes the richest man in Rome. He is not content with money, and seeks glory from military conquest in order to outdo his allies, Julius Caesar and Pompey. Crassus is willing to do nearly anything to succeed, carelessly using Marcus Furius (who he knows more about than the inventor expects) to assure a military victory.

The greater part of the plot is the buildup to the historical battle of Carrhae, which in this book involves Crassus repeatedly postponing his invasion to wait for Marcus Furius to finish his masterpiece, a device known as the Oracle Engine, which can foresee the outcome of any battle. Crassus wants it to prevent himself from failing in his campaign against The Persians.

I would give the entire book six stars out of ten. I believe that it is below the eight and nine range because of the stories in it that don’t stand out. It stays above the four and five range because of the stories that are enjoyable, I give an 8. The best of the stories, The Oracle Engine’s strengths can be described like this: Its third person point of view holds the story together and gives it consistency, and the narrative style of writing somehow makes it seem more believable. I also believe the story also makes a good use of the alternate technology in the plot. The technology in the building of the Oracle Engine helped drive everything along. something which a few other stories in the book fail to do effectively. When reading the story I had a rather enjoyable experience, because I was not, as in other stories, repeatedly checking what the last page number was in my desire to read through as quick as possible. However, The Oracle Engine has one fault in it, I failed to sympathize very well with the main character. When I reread the story I failed to feel the unfairness of what happened to the family of Marcus Furius, which I believe is what keeps this story from going up to eight and a half stars out of ten. It may be because the author has fewer pages than normal to make you sympathize with the main character, but it is still the biggest problem with the last story. Overall, Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories is a mixed book, with both good and bad stories, and I would consider something to read if you can’t find anything else and are interested in the genre, and who knows, maybe you might like it more than I did!
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Sep 06, 2012 Helge Moulding rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is an excellent collection of fourteen short stories, most of which unquestionably belong under the heading of steampunk. There are a couple which invite delightful debate about how to define the subgenre, but the stories are all well written. Not only is this the sort of sampler you'll want to recommend to anyone who wants to know what steampunk is about, but it'll acquaint you with authors you'll want to follow, like Cassandra Clare, whose stark meditation on war and childhood, Some Fortu...more

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Jul 24, 2012 Kayla rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-by-my-favorite-authors, books-with-characters-i-want-to-mar, borrowed-at-library, covet-these-covers, fiction, read-in-2012, romance, steampunk, young-adult, anthology

I've been trying to read more steampunk! I feel like I haven't even broken past the surface of this genre and I'm already completely fascinated by it. What better way to get a little more obsessed than to read fourteen stories written by some of my favorite authors? I love anthologies in general, anyway. I feel like they always splash a few popular author's names on the cover to gain attention, but I always see them as a chance to find new favorite writer's, too. If I'm completely captivated by...more

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Jun 05, 2012 Matt rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: library, ebook, ya

My town is preparing for its very first steampunk ~~festival~~ hootenanny this weekend, the Brass Screw Confederacy, so when I saw this was available at the Great Library of teh Intarwebs, I thought it opportune to check it out and download it to my target-funded reader surveillance device.

It's uneven—what anthology isn't?—but when it's good, it's very good, and very good fun. I know almost nothing of these authors nor of the genre, so I'm going strictly by the stories in this book.

Some fortunate fu...more

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May 30, 2012 Rebecca rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adventure, family-story, fantasy, graphic-novel, historical, mystery, romance, science-fiction, young-adult, short-stories

I was greatly looking forward to this collection of steampunk short stories by some of YA fiction's leading lights, since I love steampunk and many of the authors in question. However, these were not standard steampunk stories; none is set in Victorian London and few are even set in that time period. I realize this was by design, and that the purpose of the anthology was to show the flexibility of steampunk by pulling it away from its usual settings. However, most of the authors seem to have tho...more

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Mar 19, 2012 Matthew Paton rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book relates to the topic we covered in term 1. It's mostly about very smart gadgets and trinkets and relates to the topic "knowledge is power". I got this book as a present and that's why i read this book.

This is a book of short story's but they all are related in a way that they are all in the same kind of era and they all have primitive technology and have to work from scratch with the materials they could find.

I enjoyed this book because it takes alot of imagination to understand what t...more

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Mar 02, 2012 Miss rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Overall, a quality collection. There's at least five stories I really really liked and none I'd call anything worse than mediocre. My favourites are starred.

Some Fortunate Days by Cassandra Clare: In retrospect it's probably a good thing this was the first story of the collection. It's not terrible but the next couple stories hit it out of the park and there's no way this wouldn't have felt like a disappointment if I'd read it after Libba Bray or Cory Doctorow's story. I also think she took the...more

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Dec 14, 2011 Cornmaven rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adult, high-school, hs-adult, middle-school, ms-hs

Some of the best authors of YA and adult literature have offered their steampunk imaginings in this collection, and it would be a good introduction to the genre. I could hardly put this book down, reading late into the night and getting up early in the morning to soak up all the imagery. There’s romance, history, and cautionary tales. M.T. Anderson delivers an alternate version of Rome’s conquests, complete with flying machines and a computer nerd guild which tends a handmade machine designed to...more

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Dec 11, 2011 Wilson marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Penniless, I window-shopped at a bookstore. I hate doing this because I know I will just tempt myself as I salivate and wet my lips over the aroma of new books. Just as I thought, a book will catch my attention. My first reaction was: "Steam punk? Sounds interesting!" So I checked the back of the book for a preview. The words were so sweet I almost succumbed to my urge of buying: "Imagine an alternate universe where romance and technology reign... tinkerers and dreamers craft and re-craft a worl...more

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Dec 06, 2011 Maxine rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: rwr

I enjoyed this book. It was interesting fun, and the star of the shows is the fantastically strange and slightly horrible theme, Steampunk. Steampunk is a genre that deals with old science, renaissance culture, and 1800s england. Science such as blimps and clockwork powered automatons are big themes in the steampunk genre. This book feature wonderful stories that make you're skin crawl. The idea of a bunch of orphaned children killing, and then turning their old caretaker into a automaton is one...more

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Nov 17, 2011 Joel Walsh rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A disappointment.

Some of the best short stories writers today turn in some of their more boring work here. All the stories are OK, but just that. Little that makes them stand out, whether in originality, humor, suspense, setting. I don't read steampunk regularly, but despite that I still felt like I'd seen all this before.

The most original was probably MT Anderson's Romanpunk story, but there was not a single character I could care about after the opening scene, which pulled me in only to drop m...more

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Oct 21, 2011 Sharon Tyler rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Steampunk!: An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories is a collection of tales from the two editors as well as Garth Nix , Christopher Rowe, Kathleen Jennings, Dylan Horrocks, Holly Black, Cassandra Clare, Libba Bray, Cory Doctorow, Shawn Cheng, Ysabeau S. Wilce, Delia Sherman, Elizabeth Knox. With a line up of authors like this, there really is something for all interested readers: tweens, teens and adults alike. The stories range widely, including to in graphic format, and anyone...more

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Jun 23, 2011 Karen morsecode rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Firmly rooted in Victorian London, steampunk has often been a bit too Anglo- and Eurocentric[footnote]. One of the things that's so refreshing about Steampunk! is that its diversity of setting, story, character, format. Something that was achieved by asking the anthology's contributors, whose ranks include both big names and virtual unknowns, for "stories that explored and expanded their own ideas of what steampunk could be" (8).

I read Steampunk! over the course of a month or six weeks. While I...more

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Sep 25, 2011 Maria D'Isidoro rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: anthology, own, steampunk, supernatural, paranormal, romance, sci-fi, fantasy, history, crime, victorian, ya

One of the best anthologies I've read in a long time. While there were a few stories that made me wonder why they were being considered steampunk, I enjoyed all of them. Okay, so Seven Day Beset by Demons was a let down, but that was the only one.

These authors are not steampunk authors, or even genre writers. Where so many steampunk writers seem to think of the world before the story, these are simply authors who have taken on the concept of steampunk and used it to accent a story, and for that,...more

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Jun 05, 2011 Alexandra rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: lss, read-in-2011

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 doe...more
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. (less)

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Apr 27, 2013 Syahira Sharif rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Steampunk! is an anthology of the magic thirteen stories from various authors attempting to write something original and exciting as the genre by mixing all kinds of genre fiction against the backdrop of steampunk world although some might feel out of context.

This is probably the first time I had some difficulties in judging an anthology that I use what is left of my algebra to determine the rating and this is what I came out with. The book is a worthy investment and there are great stories in...more

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Dec 04, 2011 Samantha Boyette rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

So, as a rule, I don't really like short stories. I'm not the person who picks up a book of them and gets excited. However, I figured this book would be a good intro to the steampunk genre. I have to say, I like it better than any other book of short stories I've read. While I didn't fall in love with all the stories, I didn't want to skip any of them either. Below you will find a short review of each story.

Some Fortunate Future Day:
I really don't like Cassandra Clare. I sludged through her book...more

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Oct 11, 2011 Christina (A Reader of Fictions) rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: netgalley

Steampunk is a fun genre, one I have begun to explore with excitement. While I have not loved all of the steampunk novels I have read to this point, I have uniformly enjoyed the idea behind them, the out-of-place mechanization accepted as normal in an otherwise old-fashioned society. What attracts me most to this, I expect, is the similarity between steampunk and magical realism, the only difference being that the magic lies in the technology.

With such thoughts in mind, I was eager to read this...more Steampunk is a fun genre, one I have begun to explore with excitement. While I have not loved all of the steampunk novels I have read to this point, I have uniformly enjoyed the idea behind them, the out-of-place mechanization accepted as normal in an otherwise old-fashioned society. What attracts me most to this, I expect, is the similarity between steampunk and magical realism, the only difference being that the magic lies in the technology.

With such thoughts in mind, I was eager to read this anthology, particularly considering that some authors I already enjoy contributed stories, such as M. T. Anderson, Cassandra Clare, Libba Bray and Cory Doctorow. In fact, these authors cap the anthology. It begins with the stories by the three I listed last and ends with M. T. Anderson's tale.

Despite what should have been a strong beginning, I found the start of the anthology utterly tedious. I did actually Clare's, Bray's and Doctorow's stories, but none of them blew me away. Then, the next four stories I found to be completely awful, the anthology not picking up in quality again until Kelly Link's story, which, while interesting, really did not seem like steampunk so much as science fiction or fantasy, depending upon where the summer people came from.

The latter half of the anthology, though, was totally satisfactory. I enjoyed all of the stories but the graphic novel Finishing School. Speaking of the comics included (Finishing School and Seven Days Beset by Demons), why were they so awful? I love that comics were included and applaud the blending of formats, but really think they could have found something better. Seven Days Beset by Demons was by far the worst story in the anthology, for it lacked plot, carried a heavy-handed religious bent and did not particularly smack of steampunk. Epic fail.

The best stories, in my opinion, were "Steam Girl" by Dylan Horrocks, "Everything Amiable and Obliging" by Holly Black, and "The Oracle Engine" by M. T. Anderson, the final three stories in the anthology. I must admit I am a bit biased against most of the others, because I quickly tired of reading the poor grammar of western characters, who say things like "I done seen them people." No thanks.

If you hate that all steampunk takes place in Victorian England and want to see where else it can be set, then you'll enjoy this wide range of interpretations (although personally, I found the ones in a modern setting a bit odd). Be prepared to slog through a couple of long stories that you might not be especially interested in. Or just skip those and move on.(less)

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Sep 28, 2011 Ramie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ya

I don't buy / read anthologies. Nothing against authors that take part in them. It's just that in the past, say, five years or so, I've purchased exactly one of them - I was so excited as there was an author or two I wanted to read it in it. By the end of it I'd felt I spent full price for on a book of abut 15 stories for about 3 short stories I REALLY liked and the rest I'd not care if I never read again.

Still when this popped up in Vine, well... Thing is I like Steampunk art and jewelry. I've...more I don't buy / read anthologies. Nothing against authors that take part in them. It's just that in the past, say, five years or so, I've purchased exactly one of them - I was so excited as there was an author or two I wanted to read it in it. By the end of it I'd felt I spent full price for on a book of abut 15 stories for about 3 short stories I REALLY liked and the rest I'd not care if I never read again.

Still when this popped up in Vine, well... Thing is I like Steampunk art and jewelry. I've never read a book that would be classified as Steampunk though I think somewhere on my Kindle I may have one or two waiting. In this case an anthology should be perfect. I don't know anything about any of the authors. It's a YA collection (a genre I love). if one story isn't great, who cares, maybe I'll like the next one better and if by the end of this book I didn't like any of them? Welp then Steampunk, in its written format, not for me. I saw it as a test sampler in this case.

The YA category is definitely appropriate but I can also see people who do not like YA enjoying most, if not all, of these stories. I'm struggling to think of a story that would be inappropriate for an even slightly younger audience. Some might be a little above a younger audiences heads but I think most, if not all of them, are fine. There is a story where a boy mentioned playing with Barbies (something some parents get iffy about but I'd be fine with - the whole gender "appropriate" thing being touched upon) and there is bullying in the same story, including a boy who bullies girl (Steam Girl). There's violence in some stories, mentions of wars, kids who are treated poorly, etc. BUT none of it is any more graphic than books, cartoons, movies, etc. the 9-12 age group usually include.

There are plenty of mechanical people, toys and gadgets made of cogs and gears and the like. Stories where fingerprinting is new fangled technology. Aeroplanes are but dreams of mad people.

14 stories in all. 12 are plain text, 2 are comic format. Yes, some you will surely like better than others, I know I did. None were what I would call bad. Some were so good that I ran off to look up the authors individually.(less)

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Feb 17, 2013 Traci Cohen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I cannot say that I hated this book, but I also cannot say that I loved it. There were a few stories I enjoyed, but there were several that made me feel a bit bored. I skipped over a couple and admittedly did not really enjoy the comics. I think that the short story format did not really do some of the stories justice. Also, I've never read anything steampunk before, so I might not be used to this new genre.

All this being said, some of the stories were really good and I did enjoy some of the au...more

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Jul 07, 2012 Rebecca rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read "Clockwork Fagin" as a free sampler from Amazon and I was hooked. It was a bit gruesome, yes, but absolutely amazing. And so, I got the "real" book from the library. I'll write reviews of each short story as I go.

Cassandra Clare's: I really liked the dolls in this story, as well as the ending. But I think this could have been so much better if it was longer and gave us better detail. Just a few more pages and it could have been a 4.5. But as it is, I'd give this story a 3.

Libba Bray's: In...more

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Oct 02, 2011 Wandering Librarians rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: boy-appeal, fantasy, fiction, science-fiction, steampunk, ya

I feel like the title pretty much sums it up.

I had a major problem with this anthology: most of the stories weren't Steampunk. This, of course, requires that I define Steampunk as a genre, which is harder then it should be. When I think of Steampunk, the sense of place is very strong. What makes a book Steampunk, rather then science fiction, is that it takes place in a place where there shouldn't be advanced technology. I often link Steampunk with alternate history (although alternate history is...more

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Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories

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