What is on my nightstand this week: Steampunk by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer
So, the library ganked all of my plans for what I was going to read next.
I had intended to work through the remaining books in a few longer series that I have started and not finished. And then Shiri had me thinking about Wild Cards and I was thinking a re-read of those might be in order, but instead I picked up two great looking anthologies from the library.
The first of which is this one simply titled Steampunk. Now, I have a love hate relationship with the idea of steampunk, but find myself enjoying stuff that falls into the more other world style steampunk as opposed to the faux/anti-historical type. Long winded way of saying, if you set it off Earth somewhere else I have less issue suspending my disbelief, than if you use real times and places. And, to be completely honest, the amusement or gravitas of throwing in a historical figure just does not impress me as much. I say all of this thinking a lot about steampunk in general since I am working on a series of short stories all set in a steampunk dystopia that is closer to other world than not, but due to some quirks could pull in various historical figures if I really wanted to.
This anthology has some great pieces in it, including some essays talking about where steampunk (the genre, not the book) came from and what it does best. And some stories from the pre- and proto- steampunk times.
TL;DR: Recommended.
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