Stone Mad

Karen Memory #2

by Elizabeth Bear

Readers met the irrepressible Karen Memory in Elizabeth Bear’s 2015 novel Karen Memory, and fell in love with her steampunk Victorian Pacific Northwest city, and her down-to-earth story-telling voice.

Now Karen is back with Stone Mad, a new story about spiritualists, magicians, con-men, and an angry lost tommy-knocker—a magical creature who generally lives in the deep gold mines of Alaska, but has been kidnapped and brought to Rapid City.

Karen and Priya are out for a night on the town, celebrating the purchase of their own little ranch and Karen’s retirement from the Hotel Ma Cherie, when they meet the Arcadia Sisters, spiritualists who unexpectedly stir up the tommy-knocker in the basement. The ensuing show could bring down the house, if Karen didn’t rush in to rescue everyone she can.

Genres: Steampunk, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Historical Fiction, Novella, Historical, LGBT

192 pages, Paperback

First published March 20, 2018

About the author

What Goodreads really needs is a "currently WRITING" option for its default bookshelves...

Reviews

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Checking in on Karen and Priya shortly after the events of Karen Memory for a very short novel (only slightly over novella length) follow-up.

Karen and Priya are out for a night on the town, a sort of honeymoon, when they encounter spiritualists and an illusionist as well as a haunted hotel, all of which put pressure on their early relationship.

I actually think this length works well for steampunk novels. It's just long enough to appreciate the aesthetic and the action without dwelling on how silly the whole setting is. There's also some interesting points to be made between the two young women that define relationship expectations in a way you just don't often see in romantic plots. However, I felt that the plot as a whole was a bit thrown together and rushed, without any of the well-laid out proceedings of the previous novel.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Još jedna više nego šarmantna knjižica o steampunk divljem zapadu sa vrlo zabavnom naratorkom. Jedino mi je u početku trebalo vremena da se naviknem na njen govor, sleng, posle toga pravo uživanje za čitanje.

Priča koju pratimo je u suštini vrlo jednostavna i generalno više predstavlja samo da začini sve i da spisateljici mesta da se razmaše sa opisima ali napretku neke glavne priče u odnosu na prethodnu nema puno i svodi se na posvađali su se pa se pomirili. Nije da je knjiga sa neambicioznom radnjom loša ali nekako sam imao osećaj da čitam deo iz neke veće knjige kao neki pod događaj.

Sem toga nemam neke zamerke, lako se čita, zabavno je od početka do kraja i imam želju da nastavim sa serijalom tako da ako vam se svidela prva slobodno navalite i na ovu.

[The Captain · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ahoy there me mateys! I read the first book, karen memery, back before I had this log. It was fantastic. This be book two. They both take place in a “steampunk Victorian Pacific Northwest city” with a western feel. While I try to post no spoilers, if ye haven’t read the first book then ye might want to skip this post. If ye keep reading this log then ye have been forewarned and continue at yer own peril . . .

I think Karen Memery be one the more fun characters to read about and is written with a truly distinct voice. The first book was full of action, great world building, and excellent, diverse characters. So I was excited to see where this story picked up.

I can’t really tell ye where it started due to spoilers but I have to admit that I was surprised by the turn of events for the characters. What I can tell ye is that the characters be in the midst of a dinner at a fancy hotel restaurant when a haunting begins. Ye see a grisly series of murders took place there back in the day. Luckily the hotel is currently hosting a female magician and two female spiritualist sisters. Only the sisters and the magician don’t get along and have some bad history. Can Karen get the three women to cooperate to solve the the haunting? Or is it all one big con?

I loved getting to visit Karen again. She be awesome. But this was an odd story. The action portion of the story involving the haunting only takes up a little over half of the 192 page novella. The other focus of the novella is on Karen’s romantic situation and involves a lover’s quarrel and the angst about the escalation of the adult responsibilities of the relationship. Both sides be stubborn. And while I understood both points, both of the lovers were kinda ridiculous and I just wanted them to resolve it and get back to the action. Only the action was over.

So while I rather loved the first part of the novella, the second part was just okay. The problems in the relationship really were the point of the novella. I wasn’t expecting that. I am glad I read it and I do want more adventures of Karen in the future.

Side note: This was another novella by Tor.com. I love them and want them all!!

Check out me other reviews at https://thecaptainsquartersblog.wordp...

[Corrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stone Mad is the second Karen Memory book by Elizabeth Bear and I listened to the audio version available on Scribd.

I think there is a bit of an adjustment to be made as Karen Memory tells her story. She is a woman of her time, uneducated, born in the middle of Hicksville, ex ‘seamstress’ who loves to go off on a tangent. The whole novella is basically Karen and Priya celebrating their wedding night with dinner and a show, getting into a tiff, then all hell breaks loose and the day after. The main story gets halted constantly because we have of Karen’s inner thoughts interrupting the flow. That would have annoyed me greatly if I had read the book, the narration by Jennifer Grace, however, made it more palatable.

I thought Grace did a good job with the various voices and the oldey timey frontier speak. When she did Karen it reminded me of Trixie from the tv series Deadwood. I also liked the spiritualist/magician angle. There is no romance to be had because the ladies get into a tiff and it takes the rest of the book to make up. I thought the balance between action and marriage counseling was a bit off. I do admire Bear’s writing even if it hovers right on the edge of uncomfortable. The fact it was a novella was it's saving grace. Not for the impatient reader.

f/f no sex

Themes: The Victorian Old West, Rapid City, spiritualists, a lady magician, a pissed-off tommy knocker, the Arcadia Sisters, a big quarrel spoils their evening, the Singer springs to action again, a lot of mud.

3.7 Stars

[Robyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. An evening in the momentous life of Karen Memery! I enjoyed this novella/novel, but found the plotting a bit chaotic. However, always good to spend some time with Karen!

[lov2laf · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Stone Mad" is a novella sized follow up to the book "Karen Memory". I would recommend NOT reading this as a standalone.

I appreciated that this story focuses on the relationship between Karen and Priya as well as throws in some steampunk and paranormal mystery. It's been awhile since I read the first book but, from what I recall, Karen and Priya's interactions were minimal which, for me, was not very satisfying.

In this read, we see Priya and Karen on their "wedding night" having a grand meal at a nice hotel when three strangers and a poltergeist trigger upheaval not only for the hotel but for Priya and Karen's relationship.

Like the first book, I ended up thinking the read was just okay. The mystery isn't predictable, steampunk actually makes it into the story early on instead of at the very end like the first book in the series, and Priya and Karen have some deep discussions. In fact, Priya and Karen have good communication in this which is nice to see. However, if you're waiting around for some steamy scenes you won't get it.

A few characters, Karen and Priya included, do a lot of life philosophy and relationship spouting to the point that it almost seems like a self-help book. That wasn't necessarily bad, just unexpected.

However, for a steampunk book set in the old West, something still feels thin. For me, there's a lack of doom and danger despite Karen having some close brushes with death and the darker, sinister element I've seen in other historical steampunk reads is missing here.

One thing I don't really care for is that there are a *lot* of internal thoughts in Karen's mind which take up a large part of the narrative. I'd rather see characters interact with each other instead of getting a short interaction, a long mental tangent, a short interaction, another long mental tangent.

I listened to the audiobook version and I thought the narrator was also okay. Not bad but not great. She did a good voice for Priya and an older woman but Karen's voice didn't fit so much.

So, all in all, a decent read. 3.4 stars.

If you want really great historical steampunk books with strong heroines that are also in f/f relationships I recommend "The Dark Victorian" and "Elle Black" series by Elizabeth Watasin or "Skin Deep" by Violet Penrose.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, that weren't half bad...

Don't start here, though. Stone Mad is a slender sequel to Elizabeth Bear's steampunk fantasy Karen Memory, which I read and liked back in 2015. And while Bear does do a good job of refreshing the reader's own memory, I really think you'll want to have Karen and Priya's full backstory in mind before cracking this one open to discover the reasons for its title.

When we first met Karen Memery (and yes, that's how her surname is spelled), she was a "seamstress" (which is, yes, one of many euphemisms for a much older profession), working for Madame Damnable in the Hôtel Mon Cherie, the finest brothel in Rapid City, a booming lumber and mining town on Puget Sound in the Pacific Northwest. (Rapid City's former name was "Rain City," in fact, until the town fathers figured out that was scaring away too many tourists. But I digress.)

After all of the various entertaining steam-powered and electrically-charged shenanigans that brought Karen Memory to its conclusion, Karen had managed to get out of her previous line of work, had found love, and even had a little extra cash. As Stone Mad begins, she and Priya have bought a little spread up in the hills outside Rapid City, where Priya can work on her inventions and Karen plans to raise horses.

Big dreams like that call for a little celebrating first, though. Priya and Karen are spending a night on the town, starting with an elegant dinner at the Rain City Riverside Hotel, to be followed by a magic show. Seated next to Karen and Priya in the hotel restaurant, two young women in elegant silk dresses draw attention when their table begins thumping, knocking and levitating, apparently by itself. The young ladies are Spiritualists, you see, and the dead are trying to communicate through them—or maybe they're just trying to get a free dinner.

Priya and Karen are unimpressed. Karen's met their kind before, and Priya's an engineer—they both know how such scams usually work. But then Karen and Priya's table flips over too, and how that trick was done is a mystery to them both. Plus, Karen can't help feeling that one of those young ladies is uncommonly pretty...

And so we're off again. It was great fun to dip back into Karen Memery's world, to hear her matter-of-fact drawl in my head mulling over mechanical marvels, mysterious monsters, and her own manifold missteps. For Karen's by no means a perfect protagonist—she makes mistakes, and sometimes even has to own up to them. There are no guarantees that everything will come out right in the end.

Stone Mad as a whole shares the strengths—and weaknesses—of its predecessor. Sometimes the situations Karen gets into seem more than a little contrived, the social attitudes implausible for a rough-edged frontier town, and sometimes the asides get in the way of the action (for example, although I really did like the widow Horner's description of a "real marriage" on pp. 110-111, even Karen herself had to admit it was a "tirade"). Plus, the book's too doggone short. But when "it's too short" is the worst thing you can say about a novel, it seems to me that it's still a pretty good read...

[Arlene Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly I was so disappointed in this Karen Memory novella. It’s mostly about Karen and Prius’s first big fight with an illusionist’s wife and mediums thrown in. The book had an unfinished feel to it - what and who were the sisters, what was the mystery at the hotel, and what the heck was the deal with the mudslide?

I’d read another in the series and pray it’s better than this

[Danika at The Lesbrary · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was so excited for this! Victorian spiritualists are my jam. Plus, there are all kinds of cryptids in this world! And an exploration of Karen and Priya's relationship. I unfortunately, I found the plot structure baffling: all the excitement happens in the beginning of the book, and then it seems to come to an abrupt end. I was hoping for more.

Full review at the Lesbrary.

[Rachel (Kalanadi) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Liked the tommy knocker part of the story, but the ending wobbled a bit. Most of the action felt like setup for a heart to heart between Karen and Priya about their relationship, which I didn't quite understand was the point of the story... until it was over.

[Peter Tillman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Progress report:
I'm having trouble getting into this one. Fine writing, as I totally expect of Bear, and I LOVE the steam power-armor made from a Singer sewing-machine by her gorgeous Tamil engineer GF -- but there doesn't seem to be a lot of there there, as who's her name would say -- ah, Gertrude Stein. Padded-feeling. I'm at the Tommy-knocker who's almost knocked down the fanciest hotel in Seattle, aka Rain City, aka Rapid City, which had me totally confused at first. She's working up her courage to go down the hole, and it's pretty boring reading the waffling.

I'm sure I'll finish it -- OK, very likely-- but not the place to start your Karen Memery (aka Memory) experience. 3-stars to here.

Closing it out as DNF, 2.5 stars. I might get back to it some day, but given the length of my TBR -- hell, given the sheer number of physical books staring me in my face....

Miraculously, I spent half an hour in Bookshop Santa Cruz last night, listening to part of a poet's reading (she was pretty good) -- and didn't buy any books! ANd that's a GREAT book store!

[Miquel Codony · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3,5/5)

Lo que más me gusta es la voz en primera persona de Karen, pero la historia principal también vale la pena y está muy medida para una novela corta como esta. Los toques steam punk están muy bien dosificados y le dan un carácter especial, y el tratamiento de la cuestión de las desigualdades de género está bien incorporado. Por otro lado, la resolución, en una segunda fase del libro, del conflicto emocional entre Karen y Priya resulta un poco anticlimático y peca (para mi) de falta de naturalidad.

Recomendable, y si se ha leído "Karen Memory" imprescindible.

[Sana]

Karen getting to live out her dreams?! Sobs, I'm fine

[Ron · Rating 2 out of 5]

“Overkill is something of a personal defect."

The subtitle tells it all: recycled. Not a bad story, but neither the story nor the characters are half as complex and engaging as in Karen Memory. Bear tried to compensate with the interplay among Karen’s female friends, but that felt forced, too. Even the antagonist is sympathetic and not very threatening.

“Deciding you know something when you don’t is about the deadliest thing a person can do.”

Lots of preaching, which also rehashes much of the first novel. Karen’s awkward syntax lacks the originality of the first opus, too.

“The advantage of being elderly is you don’t have to make the same stupid self-defeating decision the same way a second time.”

[MargaretDH · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fun followup, but Karen Memory is so much better developed, that this was a little disappointing. I think this is technically a little longer than the official novella length, but it is very short. I don't have anything against short fiction, but in this case, I felt like it was too short for Bear to do her world, characters and plot total justice. All that said, it's still a cute outing with Karen, Priya, the Singer sewing machine and the supernatural.

[Rene Sears · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adored Karen and Priya in Karen Memory, and I was delighted to return to Rapid City in Stone Mad. Karen and Priya are out to dinner to celebrate moving into their new house when two women in the dining room start faking the presence of a spirit, but matters quickly devolve when a real presence seems to respond. Karen wants to stay and either expose the charlatans or find out what's really happen, while Priya doesn't want to get involved, and on the eve of their moving into their house, they have their first big fight.

There are spiritualists, illusionists, borghums/ tommyknockers, earthquakes, underground action scenes, the return of the Singer sewing machine mech suit, but the heart of the story is the relationship between Karen and Priya. There are a lot of stories about falling in love, but this is a story about nurturing a relationship, about knowing what the other person's buttons are and choosing not to push them, and about working through to seeing the other person's fundamental point of view when it differs from one's own. I loved it.

Karen's distinctive voice is a delight to read throughout, just as in the previous novel. My fingers are crossed for more Karen stories in the future.

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short and quickly paced. And then out of nowhere, there are some passages about long-term relationships that strike you to your core. The author knows her human nature.

[Bonnie McDaniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a novella-length continuation of Elizabeth Bear's weird steampunk Western, Karen Memory. I loved that book, with its classic pulp feel (and in one chapter, literally Jules Verne-esque vibe). This story picks up about a month later, with Karen leaving Madam Damnable's (a house of "seamstresses," or shall we say, ill repute) behind and moving to her own little ranch with her girlfriend, Priya.

There's a side plot involving spiritualists, illusionists, and "tommy-knockers" i.e. borglums (I'm not sure what kind of supernatural creature this is supposed to be; are they similar to leprechauns?), but the real focus of this tale is Karen and Priya's relationship. This is not a cutesy teen romance; they are dealing with real grown-up issues here, and they work it out like adults.

As always, the attraction of this story is Karen as a character, and her irresistable voice. If you liked the previous book you will probably like this. If you haven't read Karen Memory, check it out; it's a fun romp.

[Karen A. Wyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm rounding up about half a star.

I enjoyed Karen Memory, but didn't remember much about it by the time I read this short novel. I was relieved to find that Bear deftly provides reminders without letting them slow the pace of the story. Karen and Priya are an intriguing not-quite-odd-couple, and this story is as much about the growing pains of a relationship as about illusionists, spiritualists, and tommy-knockers.

[Geonn Cannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick (too quick!) read, but not slight. Lots happening here, and a great peek at what happens with Karen and Priya after the events of the first book. It's not always pretty. But it feels more real than everything being perfect. It was great to revisit Karen's world. Hopefully we'll get more chances for longer stays!

[Bridget Mckinney · Rating 2 out of 5]

I rather liked Karen Memory, but Karen's folksy dialect was grating this time around instead of endearing. I'm thinking it might be a matter of the wrong book at the wrong time for me, so I may come back to it at a later date, but for now I just found it unreadable.

[Alicia Aringdale · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book wasn't really what I was hoping for in a sequel to Karen Memory. The first book was filled with humor and adventure and a sweet lesbian love story and this one was more of an in depth character study with tantalizing bits of external plot that ultimately went nowhere. First off I didn't pay attention to the fact that this is a novella and so I was expecting a lot more story, and when things unexpectedly cut off it left me feeling a bit grumpy which is my own fault. I was happy to get to see how Karen and Priya's relationship developed and how they handled the hurdles and conflict between them but there was too much that this book placed on the table only to leave unexplored and unexplained. So reader beware, if you are expecting another steampunk adventure like the first book then this book's more quiet, personal nature may leave you disappointed.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite as wonderful as the original, I think it was trying to tell two big stories in a little novella and ended up doing each only passably well. The Tommyknocker was fantastic, lots of action/adventure/etc. I also really appreciated the quieter moments at the end with Karen and Priya. I can get how the ending might be a let down after all the intensity of the Tommyknocker, but...I really liked Bear's interest in telling their story after their happily-ever-after. Here are two people who have to come together and realize that loving each other isn't enough to make a future together, they need to find a way to make their lives fit, making allowances, being considerate. That was pretty great, but like I said, it would have taken a full novel of both stories to satisfy me.

[Patrick DiJusto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part Two of the Karen Memory Steampunk series, which I love.

In this episode, we leave the steampunk behind and enter the world of fantasy. Normally, this would have caused me to close the e-reader, delete the file, and pretend that I had never heard of this book. But in the hands of Elizabeth Bear, I was able to bear the fantastical elements and enjoy the story.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is short-- more of a novella, really-- and I'm not sure what it's supposed to add to the series' universe. Granted that it has been a while (wow, quite a while) since I read the first one, but I remembered it as being more steampunk, less gaslamp, whereas this one, while it certainly had some steampunk accoutrements, relied more on a paranormal being. This made it seem like it didn't fit as well into the universe established in the first book. Still enjoyable if short.

[Neeuqdrazil · Rating 5 out of 5]

More delicious ridiculousness from Karen and Priya.

[Karl · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars for another fine adventure with Karen Memery. This strong sequel provides the reader with more backstory on the unique main character and some damn fine dialog. My only real issue here would be the relatively short length and scope of the story. The subtitle notes that this is "an adventure," and that's what it is: an episode in what we can only hope is a long-running series. This book is exciting, inventive, thoughtful, and lovely way to while pass an afternoon.

[Sonja P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series continues to be super fun and I am here for it. Also, one of the best discussions of love and marriage in any book I've read lately, for real, with people working out their problems and talking about being angry and being forgiving and how to deal with people who hurt you. Short, and fun and a delight

[Christopher Gerrib · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was a huge fan of Karen Memory, the first book in this series, and so eagerly acquired this one. I was not disappointed. Karen and her girlfriend / wife (not legally, but in all other ways) have retired from "sewing" to the honest work of running a ranch. The ladies are out on the town when the town, or at least the part they are in, is undermined by unknown forces. They have to team up with a trio of female spiritualists to figure out what's up (or rather down) and fix it before the whole city gets collapsed. Oh, and by the way, Karen and her wife are having their first marital spat. A great read - I wanted it to last longer!

[Chris Bauer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bear does it again. This novella length work, a followup to Karen Memory, picks up where the action stopped in the novel.

Bear writes such exquisite and hard-hitting prose, I enjoy just following along the story, without much else to think about. The characterization in this work is some of the best I've read in a very long time.

She introduces new elements, new backstory and new details to her unique setting and we - as readers - get to enjoy the fruits of that labor. Dialogue was especially impressive for numerous reasons.

If you've not read the first novel, start there. If you have read it, you NEED this work. Immediately.