Steampunk (Steampunk Anthologies)

I was excited to receive my first anthology of steampunk after discovering this exciting subgenre of speculative fiction. There were some terrific stories, including the excerpt from Moorcock's novel and the truly odd Victoria by Di Filippo. Sadly, though there were a few clunkers. For example, A Sun in the Attic by Mary Gentle was so horribly written I had to flip to the next story without finishing it. She must have been absent the day her third grade teacher told the kids to avoid too many useless adverbs. Best of all were the two essays at the end by Bill Baker and Rick Klaw that gave a wonderful overview of past and current steampunk writing. Do buy the book if this is your first intro, but don't be disappointed if you end up yawning and skipping a few of the less than wonderful stories.

What a wonderful book. Having never read steam punk befor it is great fun, new and very exciting.Sadly books and movies are all just repeats (I hate repeats)of others. But with Steampunk you get a bold new look at lovely things in polite society with grand adventure.What a new joy this has brought. I have started family and friends on this and they agree that this is just what literature needed a swift kick in its brass arse. CHEERS

I initially bought this book to see some steampunk in action, yet as I read it, I got very little out of the genre in general. It seems the editors decided to pick the most vast variety of types of stories without putting them together with any sense of uniformity or flow. And some of the stories were remarkably disgusting, a theme I had not expected to see. However, most of the stories were all right, and made you think.

get literature for steam-puck....reader... The VanderMeer are experts on lit of the genre...these are short stories and delightful I recommend in you are in to steam-puck lit you read the best you can find, cause there's a lot of junk out there!

the little premade descriptions above don't really work as this was a compilation book of many stories but good example of steampunk

This is not only a fantastic introduction to the Steampunk genre, but it's a great smattering of reads for those who are already fans. But I highly recommend this especially to people who haven't read Steampunk before. The selections are fantastic and will only whet your appetite for more. Great work.

This is my first major book filled with "steampunk" stories. This is an excellent book for someone new to the genre and I highly recommend it.

We had some problems with book not having appropriate invoice but seller quickly fixed the problem. I would buy again from this seller without a doubt.

I was looking for a good compilation of Steampunk having read  The Difference Engine (Gollancz S.F.)  and the superb  The Steampunk Trilogy .As a fan of Jeff Vandermeer this one appealed (read  The Situation  it's an excellent fun wee book).Anyway: this is an excellent anthology.The stories are as follows:Introduction: The 19th Century Roots of Steampunk (Jess Nevins) - obviously an introduction to the sub-genre.Benediction: Excerpt from The Warlord of the Air (Michael Moorcock) - an excerpt from the novel: I enjoyed it and have read much of Moorcock's works, shame that his steampunk stuff seems to be out of print.Lord Kelvin's Machine (James P. Blaylock) - same as above Blaylock has a load of steampunk novels that seem to be hard to get.The Giving Mouth (Ian R. MacLeod) - an odd story - not *entirely* sure what was going on. But I like that.A Sun in the Attic (Mary Gentle) - Nice feminist subcurrents to a story about the potential for technology to disrupt society.The God-Clown is Near (Jay Lake) - Pretty funny, gory and a good job at playing with mad-scientist tropes (well, that's how I read it, anyway!)The Steam Man of the Prairie and the Dark Rider Get Down: A Dime Novel (Joe R. Lansdale) - Full of crude language and works hard to deconstruct heros and so on (more about this in the opening essays). It's not bad - I kinda liked it, though you *could* describe it as puerile. I think deliberately so. It didn't in any way offend me, but I think it tries a little too hard to do this.The Selene Gardening Society (Molly Brown) - Apparently this follows on from a Jules Verne story - sadly one I'm not familiar with! ( From the Earth to the Moon , I think). OK, interesting, but the writing was nothing special.Seventy-Two Letters (Ted Chiang) - Ted Chiang doesn't publish much. But when he does, it's great. Magic + steampunk. Absolutely fantastic.The Martian Agent, A Planetary Romance (Michael Chabon) - Excellent Alternate History which posits an America which rejoins with Great Britain.Victoria (Paul Di Filippo) - excellent story (and part of  The Steampunk Trilogy ). Does what I think Steampunk *should* do. It's more than just an adventure story with some cool stuff bolted on.Reflected Light (Rachel E. Pollack) - Takes in socialist revolutionary themes...but is not turgid for all that. An interesting work...well worth reading and deserving of its place in this.Minutes of the Last Meeting (Stepan Chapman) - Pacy and interesting. It's set in Russia too, this is unusual: most steampunk I've read has tended towards being set in the British Empire.Excerpt from the Third and Last Volume of Tribes of the Pacific Coast (Neal Stephenson) - slightly cyberpunky (naturally given Stephenson's background?) but has some good social commentary about colonialism - still relevant, I feel.These last two are more *about* Steampunk than actually being short stories. I think they're worthwhile, but then I'm one of those people that reads the notes after I've read a novel, if they're there. Always nice to get another perspective, I feel.The Steam-Driven Time Machine: A Pop Culture Survey (Rick Klaw)The Essential Sequential Steampunk: A Modest Survey of the Genre within the Comic Book Medium (Bill Baker)It's a mostly excellent book, not all the stories are brilliant, but it's unusual to find any anthology that is entirely. Well worth it if you enjoy steampunk. The Difference Engine (Gollancz S.F.)The Steampunk TrilogyThe SituationFrom the Earth to the MoonThe Steampunk Trilogy

This collection of Steampunk stories is exceedingly entertaining - it covers a range of humorous, dark and sometimes frightening themes, with every piece bringing something new to the reader. If you like mad scientists, cunning villains, rampaging monsters, and unlikely-sounding robots, you'll love this.

I'd read a couple of the stories in here elsewhere, and liked them. But the overall collection is patchy, and a bit of a disappointment to me - perhaps I was expecting too much?Recommended to those who are willing to take a chance on it.

Was great when looking for steampunk books and this was spot on great for what I was looking for in a present.

good book