Steampunk III: Steampunk Revolution – Edited by Ann VanderMeer

Paperback, 432 pages
Published October 5th 2012 by Tachyon Publications
Source: E-galley provided by the publisher

Synopsis:
Playfully mashing up the romantic elegance of the Victorian era with whimsically modernized technology, this entertaining and edgy new anthology is the third installment in a bestselling steampunk series. Featuring a renegade collective of writers and artists—from beloved legends to rising talents—the steam-driven past is rebooted and powered by originality, wit, and adventure. Lev Grossman offers a different take on the Six Million Dollar Man who possesses appendages and workings from recycled metal parts, yet remains fully human, resilient, and determined. Catherynne M. Valente explores a new form of parenting within the merging of man and machine while Cherie Priest presents a new, unsettling mode of transportation. Bruce Sterling introduces steampunk’s younger cousin, salvage-punk, while speculating on how cities will be built in the future using preexisting materials and Jeff VanderMeer takes an antisteampunk perspective as a creator must turn his back on an utterly destructive creation. Going beyond the simple realms of corsets and goggles, this engaging collection takes readers on a wild ride through Victoriana and beyond.

Review

Steampuk III: Steampunk Revolution is an anthology brimming with glimpses of lives and worlds as diverse as reality. While all the stories have substance to them, I will review the ones that spoke to me in some way or other.

“Mother is a Machine” by Catherynne M. Valente

As is Valente’s style, this short story is vivid, provocative and disturbing. It takes a moment for the reader to situate herself in the narrative, find her ground, figure out who is what and what’s happening but once that is done, there is a definite thrill – this short story for all its briefness, speaks volumes about being human. About being inhuman. I finished reading and sat for a while just mulling over what I had read and now, days later I can still pull up the details in my mind as fresh as though I had read them yesterday.

“Possession” by Ben Peek

This was heartbreaking in a lot of different ways. The main character finds a woman, a “Returned,” as she is called due to her body being integrated with mechanical parts. This woman, Rachel, has lived for a long time and seen many things, too many things. The short story etches the last few moments of her life when she and Eliana, the main character, find each other, form a friendship of sorts and a connection. Beautiful and tragic.

“An Exhortation to Young Writers (Advice Tendered by Poor Mojo’s Giant Squid)” – David Erik  Nelson, Morgan Johnson and Fritz Swanson

This short story was more light hearted and featured a series of “texts” from a anthropomorphized giant squid who tenders advice to his readers in the midst of his own adventure. There is danger galore and threats of being turned into squid soup. The story is amusing and fast paced. I liked it.

“A Handful of Rice” – Vandana Singh

We move on to India where there is much discussion of prana, brotherhood and kings. At once foreign and familiar, this tale gives a glimpse of a world populated by colour, passion and peace. Contradictory and thought provoking.

“The Effluent Engine” – N. K. Jemisin

This story presents fascinating narratives about colour, race and colonization. Haiti with its freed slaves have constructed for themselves a country and they are determined to keep their freedom. This story gives us a brief glimpse of the desperate measures people will take where liberty is concerned. This was a bit spoiled for me however by the excessive attention to romance. I’m strange that way.

“To Follow the Waves” by Amal El-Mohtar

This one details the lengths one woman goes to find (and perhaps experience) another woman she saw for just a short second. Her love, if it can be called that, manifests itself in beautiful ways. She constructs dreams from precious stones and I found this new mythology definitely intriguing.

“Peace in Our Time” – Garth Nix

This was quite easily my favourite story of the bunch. I love Garth Nix’s writing and this short story with its lingering imagery and characters will stay with me for a very long time.

“White Fungus “ by Bruce Sterling

A story set in a post-apocalyptic world that details how a man tries to reclaim the land and along the way, love a woman who is not very keen on being loved. It was interesting though not my favourite.

There are also nonfiction articles on steampunk and I found those to be quite illuminating. On the whole, this anthology delivers and should keep an avid lover of all things steampunk entertained for a long time. I recommend reading one story at a time and not several in one go as these stories, though short, carry a lot of depth that need to be savored and absorbed slowly. I recommend this to those who like short stories and love steampunk. You won’t regret giving this one a try.

Etiquette and Espionage – Gail Carriger

Hardcover, 320 pages
Expected publication: February 5th 2013 by Little Brown and Company
Source: Publisher

Synopsis:

It’s one thing to learn to curtsy properly. It’s quite another to learn to curtsy and throw a knife at the same time. Welcome to finishing school.

Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is the bane of her mother’s existence. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper etiquette at tea–and god forbid anyone see her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminnick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. She enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality.

But little do Sophronia or her mother know that this is a school where ingenious young girls learn to finish, all right–but it’s a different kind of finishing. Mademoiselle Geraldine’s certainly trains young ladies in the finer arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but also in the other kinds of finishing: the fine arts of death, diversion, deceit, espionage, and the modern weaponries. Sophronia and her friends are going to have a rousing first year at school.

Review:

If you are familiar with Carriger’s adult steampunk fantasy series The Parasol Protectorate you will be aware of her writing style and tendency to create characters who are larger than life and would most probably be considered batty in some circles. Sophronia being utterly unladylike and having hobbies and pursuits that do not suit genteel ladies is much more than her mother can handle. So she is rather abruptly sent off to a boarding school with the strange headmistress that she only just made the acquaintance of.

Thus begins Sophoronia’s adventures. It is a pleasure to finally meet a heroine who has mad escapades and is utterly capable of handling herself and others beside. Sophronia is one of my favourite protagonists because Carriger gives her just the perfect amount of courage and confidence that is tempered by vulnerability and the ability to ask for help. She is not perfect and that is what, ironically, makes her a perfect protagonist. As I have come to expect from Carriger, the side characters are also well developed and characterized with vibrant and wonky personalities of their own.

My favourite part of the novel might be the portrayal of the gradual cohesion of a sisterhood between very unlikely girls. They do not just immediately become friends. There is a journey to it and a fight, or two before the circle is completed. The steampunk portion is very much present and not just present in shades. In fact, I think the reader will be delighted by the location of the school itself. I know I was. The romance is also intriguing. It doesn’t figure too much at the moment considering it is a girl’s school and Sophronia and her cohorts are still only fourteen but the potential love interest is an interesting one and a bold move on Carriger’s part. It introduces diversity to a genre that is starving for it.

As a premise to a series, Etiquette and Espionage delivers on all accounts. As I mentioned previously, mad escapades, a mechanimal that poops ash (no seriously, how are you resist that?) and a heroine who manages to bring down balloons with the help of her trusty sidekicks. I also really liked how the ending of the novel is a reflection of the beginning. I recommend this very strongly. March to your nearest bookstore and grab a copy as soon as you can.

The Dark Unwinding – Sharon Cameron (review)

Hardcover, 318 pages
Published September 1st 2012 by Scholastic Press
Source: Publisher

Synopsis:

A spine-tingling tale of steampunk and spies, intrigue and heart-racing romance!

When Katharine Tulman’s inheritance is called into question by the rumor that her eccentric uncle is squandering away the family fortune, she is sent to his estate to have him committed to an asylum. But instead of a lunatic, Katharine discovers a genius inventor with his own set of rules, who employs a village of nine hundred people rescued from the workhouses of London.

Katharine is now torn between protecting her own inheritance and preserving the peculiar community she grows to care for deeply. And her choices are made even more complicated by a handsome apprentice, a secretive student, and fears for her own sanity.

As the mysteries of the estate begin to unravel, it is clear that not only is her uncle’s world at stake, but also the state of England as Katharine knows it. With twists and turns at every corner, this heart-racing adventure will captivate readers with its intrigue, thrills, and romance.

Review:

Once upon a not very long time ago, there was a girl. She was, as are all good heroines, an orphan. There was also present in the excellent cast an evil aunt who had no redeeming qualities whatsoever and many evil qualities such as superficiality, horrible-mom-ality, greediness and horribleness to the niece she took on as a ward not out of the goodness of her heart because the jury’s still out on whether she has a heart but for some reason. Or other. Which is hinted at later in the novel. This girl was a shrewd sort who knew that to survive in the big bad world, one needs to be less sentimental and more badass. So when her aunt sent her off to the eccentric uncle’s estate to have him declared insane, she decided to go and do so. Not because declaring people insane gave her any sort of pleasure but because not doing so would mean a rather poor future or rather poorer than it was at the moment.

That is the premise of the novel and while I make light of it, I loved every single sentence in the novel. The writing has such grace and such strength that it is a pleasure to read. The characters are vibrant and well delineated, individualized and have dynamic relationships of their own. The novel is moody, atmospheric and poignant. It is more gothic than steampunk in my opinion because though machines are present, it doesn’t have that essence of steampunkery…like the dresses, the tone and the feel. There is a house that is as much a character in the novel as anyone else. There are servants who do not know their places and a love interest who is just complicated in all the right ways.

I enjoyed the complexity brought about by the positioning of the protagonist as an usurper. While having her uncle declared insane is not her idea, she is complicit with it from the very beginning and there are moments when the reader is unsure whether she will do as she should or will she choose for safety. The uncle is a unique character – autistic, I believe though no official term is given to whatever his condition is but I found his portrayal and the depiction of all his foibles to be extraordinary. There are no judgments though there are some frustrations and I liked that there were. It made things a lot  more realistic than Katherine’s immediate acceptance.

I was a big fan of Davy and his rabbit and I found their particular arc, that particular culmination to be all sorts of heartbreaking. The pacing is splendid and though it was very obvious who the villain of the piece was, I felt that the way the villain’s story was situated and inserted into the narrative was masterful. What I did have a quibble with was the ending. If this is a standalone and not the first of a series, I will be unhappy because we leave the story with too many questions unanswered – at least in one aspect of Katherine’s life. I’m not saying I like neat endings necessarily but that the story feels like it hasn’t been fully told yet.

Other than that, I totally recommend this novel to you. The writing, characterizing, plotting and pacing are all superb. I had fun reading this and will be sure to check out the author’s other books whenever I have a chance to do so.

Something Strange and Deadly – Susan Dennard (Review)

Hardcover, 400 pages
Expected publication: July 24th 2012 by HarperTeen
Source: Edelweiss

Synopsis:

The year is 1876, and there’s something strange and deadly loose in Philadelphia…

Eleanor Fitt has a lot to worry about. Her brother has gone missing, her family has fallen on hard times, and her mother is determined to marry her off to any rich young man who walks by. But this is nothing compared to what she’s just read in the newspaper—

The Dead are rising in Philadelphia.

And then, in a frightening attack, a zombie delivers a letter to Eleanor…from her brother.

Whoever is controlling the Dead army has taken her brother as well. If Eleanor is going to find him, she’ll have to venture into the lab of the notorious Spirit-Hunters, who protect the city from supernatural forces. But as Eleanor spends more time with the Spirit-Hunters, including their maddeningly stubborn yet handsome inventor, Daniel, the situation becomes dire. And now, not only is her reputation on the line, but her very life may hang in the balance.

Review:

Dennard’s debut novel is the first one where I was forced to reevaluate my initial thoughts about the book. The beginning is a bit shaky or, more likely, a bit more melodramatic than what I am used to and it led me to feel that the novel just may be too pathos-filled for me to like. Maybe it is the writing style or the young age of the protagonist, I don’t know. However, as I read further into the novel, it became more compelling and raised some questions that made me think quite a lot – something that is a bit unusual where young adult novels are concerned.

You will know from the synopsis that this novel is set in Philadelphia in the late 19th century. It has zombies, a missing brother and a heroine who has to save the world. Or have hysterics at the very least. What the synopsis doesn’t tell you that the novel raises questions of social status and identity, has themes of human greed as it relates to the acquiring of power and, perhaps most intriguingly and pertinently, the status of women. I found Dennard’s portrayal of the status of women, the limits, boundaries and choices available to women in the time the story is set to have the most authentic feel. Dennard made me think (feel, even) what it is to be a woman shoved into a space, to have no voice or agency to be more than what society deems you acceptable for. It is not like other books have not done the same thing but the difference in this is that women’s status etc is not a wholly explicit dialogue but a gradual realization on the part of the protagonist. Eleanor’s relationship with her mother is also very intriguing and adds to the conflict of being what society expects you to be whether you have the means or not.

I also really liked how the romance in this novel was approached. There was no love at first sight and there was no stupidity once love had set in. In fact, I dare say this novel leaves one of the most intriguing open ended romances I have seen in a YA novel maybe ever. The novel leaves several questions unanswered without leaving a cliffhanger. I quite liked that. I also liked that the romance didn’t consume the main character’s thoughts to the point that she couldn’t think about anything else. Eleanor definitely grows into a heroine I could back and hell, I applaud Dennard for where she took Eleanor in the end. The next book will become a whole lot more fascinating when you think about how Eleanor has evolved by the end of Something Strange and Deadly.

The pace of the novel has the right speed and I found the writing, while at times rather melodramatic, to effectively express what it sought to. The book is somewhat mean girl free which is to say there are mean girls but of a different breed and not nearly as annoying.

This is not to imply the novel is perfect. The beginning is a bit shaky and I would have liked more information about the machines the Spirit Hunters were using but other than that, I think this is quite a strong debut that packs a surprise punch. I didn’t think I would like the novel as much as I do and that is always a plus. Strongly recommended.

All Men of Genius – Lev A C Rosen (A Review)

Hardcover, 462 pages
Published September 27th 2011 by Doherty, Tom Associates, LLC
Source: Personal copy

Synopsis:

Violet Adams wants to attend Illyria College, a widely renowned school for the most brilliant up-and-coming scientific minds, founded by the late Duke Illyria, the greatest scientist of the Victorian Age. The school is run by his son, Ernest, who has held to his father’s policy that the small, exclusive college remain male-only. Violet sees her opportunity when her father departs for America. She disguises herself as her twin brother, Ashton, and gains entry.

But keeping the secret of her sex won’t be easy, not with her friend Jack’s constant habit of pulling pranks, and especially not when the duke’s young ward, Cecily, starts to develop feelings for Violet’s alter ego, “Ashton.” Not to mention blackmail, mysterious killer automata, and the way Violet’s pulse quickens whenever the young duke, Ernest (who has a secret past of his own), speaks to her. She soon realizes that it’s not just keeping her secret until the end of the year faire she has to worry about: it’s surviving that long.

Review:

I am not in the habit of mincing my words so I’m going to come right out and say it. Reading this was a painful experience. Not an impossible feat (like Shatter Me but that’s another story) but very, very painful. But I persevered and completed it just so I can review it with a clean conscience.

I was sold on the book the moment I read the synopsis. I found the title to be particularly witty (All Men of Genius, only it’s a woman’s genius we are going to be seeing, get it?) and I thought that the title reflected the content of the novel. So after lusting after the book for a week, I decided that eating was overrated and bought it. I needed to have it, okay? None of my libraries have it and none of them are considering getting it so…I had no choice. I’m telling you this so my review is framed in a way that will let you understand why I was so colossally disappointed.

I didn’t read this book expecting the worst. In fact, I began this book with a fervent hope that it would be insanely awesome.

Unfortunately, no one was listening to my prayers. The biggest obstacle I faced in my enjoyment to this novel was the writing. None of the characters are ever allowed to develop. The author either thinks readers are too dimwitted or he doesn’t trust our ability to decipher the subtext, what’s happening between the lines. One of the greatest reasons I love reading is because while a good author builds the foundation for his/her story, the details are left for the reader to decode, interpret. You are allowed to draw what conclusions you will because that is what reading is. A personal affair. We are not given the chance to do so in All Men of Genius. The author insists on spelling out how each character feels, what his thoughts (and hence feelings may mean), every single thing. It’s like whatever free voice there may have been in the characters is choked off by the narrator’s (interfering and jarring) voice taking over. There is no subtlety, there is no flow to the narrative. And it pissed me off.

So, the writing was bad enough but couple that with flat, one dimensional characters (who aren’t able to be more because, well, the writing refuses to let them). They are not fleshed out, they are not interested and they read more like representations of stock characters than original characters. Is this because this is a conflation of two different classic novels? I have no idea. I just know that any time an author uses “everyone laughs” or any other generalizing sentence, he/she kills whatever individuality that may have been present in the novel. If you want your characters to sound and act like real people, do not seriously, just don’t, lump them all together when narrating their reactions. Not all people will laugh and even if they do, you don’t need to say it because you risk your narrative sounding campy when you do.

Moving on from the characters, let’s talk about the plot. Which is predictable and lacking twists. So this is a steampunk novel and I realize that you can’t be minutely versed in all aspects of mechanical engineering but if you are going to write about a genius, you should at least pretend in a sincere enough manner that your genius evinces her intelligence persuasively. The fact that she can make such complicated machines in so little time is not just improbable but also ridiculous and takes away from believability of the novel on the whole. And the housekeeper becoming proficient at all things mechanical? Is it really that easy? It felt that the author did not do as much research on his topic as he needed to and usually, I don’t notice such things but when your subject requires a lot of jargon, or at least description of mechanical parts etc, you can’t help but notice the lack of it.

The romance. Oh. My God. I think I mentioned that this book has the year’s worst love interest ever. Violet, is, I believe around fifteen years old. The love interest is no other than the “headmaster” of the school she is attending in disguise. He is also around thirty years old though he behaves like he is a hundred. A bare handful of meetings and Violet is falling in love. And oh dude, it is SO interesting that the narrative voice chimes in that “Violet doesn’t want to be in the company of other students because she doesn’t to feel attraction to them” or something to that effect. Or, on another occasion, how she can control whom she is attracted to because of course, with a college full of handsome men more her age, she is going to fall for the headmaster who is about as appealing as a turnip.

I was also, deeply, uncomfortable with the ease with which the casual killing of animals was related. They feel sorry about it but it’s for science so it’s okay. Um, no, it’s not. It felt vicious, callous and whatever little regard I had for the story, died along with it.

In conclusion, in case you haven’t figured it out by now and I need to spell it out (like the book does), I wouldn’t recommend this novel to you. I really wouldn’t. If you want to read steampunk, read The Spiritwalker Trilogy by Kate Elliott. Vastly superior in all ways that matter.

Goliath (Leviathan #3) – by Scott Westerfeld, Keith Thompson (Illustrator)

Hardcover, 560 pages
Expected publication: September 20th 2011 by Simon Pulse
Source: Publisher

Synopsis:

Alek and Deryn are on the last leg of their round-the-world quest to end World War I, reclaim Alek’s throne as prince of Austria, and finally fall in love. The first two objectives are complicated by the fact that their ship, the Leviathan, continues to detour farther away from the heart of the war (and crown). And the love thing would be a lot easier if Alek knew Deryn was a girl. (She has to pose as a boy in order to serve in the British Air Service.) And if they weren’t technically enemies.

The tension thickens as the Leviathan steams toward New York City with a homicidal lunatic on board: secrets suddenly unravel, characters reappear, and nothing is at it seems in this thunderous conclusion to Scott Westerfeld’s brilliant trilogy.

 

Review:

Goliath delivers a brilliant conclusion to an amazing trilogy.

I am not as familiar with Westerfeld’s work as I’d like to be but if the Leviathan trilogy is any indication of his writing prowess, I think he’ll be climbing up in rank in the list of my favourite writers. Anyway, on to the review.

Each novel in the trilogy has successfully deepened the complexity in the plot and the relationships between the characters. Goliath magnifies the primary hostility and tackles some very pertinent questions that obstruct their happily ever after, whatever version they seek. Alek and Deryn become more delineated and their feelings for each other are portrayed by the things they do for each other. The sacrifices each makes for the other, especially in Alek’s case, is very revealing of a love that is not discussed explicitly and resonates even more strongly because of that fact.

I felt that Goliath was the strongest book in the trilogy, if only for the fact that it ties up all the narrative threads satisfactorily. I don’t know what else to say, guys. If you haven’t read this trilogy yet, you are missing out. There is warmth, humour, ambition and a lot of life in these three books. I recommend it to anyone who likes a good story. (And it’s a very good introduction to steampunk if you’re just getting into the genre.)

Iron Duke (Iron Seas #1) – Meljean Brooke

378 pages
Published October 5th, 2010 by Berkley Trade
Borrowed from Library

Synopsis:

After the Iron Duke freed England from Horde control, he instantly became a national hero. Now Rhys Trahaearn has built a merchant empire on the power-and fear-of his name. And when a dead body is dropped from an airship onto his doorstep, bringing Detective Inspector Mina Wentworth into his dangerous world, he intends to make her his next possession.

But when Mina uncovers the victim’s identity, she stumbles upon a conspiracy that threatens the lives of everyone in England. To save them, Mina and Rhys must race across zombie-infested wastelands and treacherous oceans-and Mina discovers the danger is not only to her countrymen, as she finds herself tempted to give up everything to the Iron Duke

Review

Steampunk is my latest love in book genres. The costumes, the imagined smell of the grease and the engines – the oil dripping to the ground and then all the supernatural elements coming together to compose a story that is altogether awesome in its scope – I am, of course, talking about Cold Magic. The Iron Duke fell short of my expectations for the main reason that I was expecting a story – a complex, glorious story that dealt with complex, glorious characters and it gave me a romance novel disguised as a steampunk fantasy. It is my own fault. I mean, look at the cover. Half-naked man, Nafiza. What else do you expect?

A girl can hope, okay? I have nothing against romance. Actually, no, I hate romance  novels. Not because they are bad or anything like that. No, not at all. It’s just because I have read way too many of them. Like a thousand or more. I am not joking. In Fiji, romance novels are what it’s all about. Okay, so let’s attempt a discourse on The Iron Duke as a romance novel.

The protagonist, Iron Duke as he is called, is a hero. He has saved England from what suspiciously sounds like Asian conquerors who were nefarious and did horrible things like inject people with nanoagents and then controlled them through the frequencies that these nanoagents functioned on. They essentially controlled the actions of the English people, not being believers of personal freedom. Let’s move back to the villains of this book for a second. I think it is a really bad idea to focus on one nativity or race as villains in a novel because it raises questions about the author’s intentions. I am sure this sounds pretty serious and I am most probably wrong but I felt uncomfortable reading this because though the race of the villains was not explicitly stated, there were other obvious hints that made me pause and shift uncomfortably.

The main leads. I liked the heroine – to a certain extent – better than I liked the male protagonist. She was a strong woman, living her life as she wanted to despite the amount of rancor and discrimination she faced because of the way she looked. The male protagonist was a sap. It simply did not fit that the a character who is written as strongly as his was is reduced to a mushy, blubbering, sappy fool as he is. Do I sound irate? Too much so? His frequent asides and the times the readers got to see the world from his perspective is just so…bloody womanly. I am sorry, okay? There’s no reason why a man can’t think about forever and hearts etc, but when a man who is portrayed to be as masculine as the Iron Duke is shown capitulating so easily – it’s just not logical.

The analytical reader in me noticed how the female heroine was a virgin and the end was a marriage. All neat and tied up. Why did she have to be a virgin? Why did they have to marry? Because it’s a romance novel and all women’s lives culminate with marriage. Right? Ergh.

What makes me sad is that this book had so much potential. The mythos was well created, the side characters were well developed, there was so much happening, so much material to work with to create something truly memorable. The scenes dealing with the main conflict were almost extraneous and these conflicts were resolved with an almost ridiculous ease – as though their raison d’être was to showcase the virility and skill of The Iron Duke.

Would I recommend this novel to you? Honestly, no. There are many other better novels (whether in the romance genre or steampunk) that you could read.