Thursday 10 May 2012

GoodRead - Corsets and Clockwork

I had this on my kindle since sometime last year when Amazon did a Kindle Sale. I wanted another collection of short stories [Corsets and Clockwork's almost prequel] Kiss Me Deadly, but I saw this and went "Bargain and it'll give me a taster for the world of steampunk" (I also got Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder who, actually, wrote a story for this collection). I had this for ages and then when I did decide to read it (taking my time as I was still reading books), it took me over a month to finish it.

Now, I didn't know much on steampunk before I was told. But, to my understanding, it's an alternative history that uses steampower. Most stories are set in the Victorian England, but there can be set in the Wild West, in the Second World War among others. You could include Mortal Engines and His Dark Materials as steampunk novels (that's according to that trusted site, Wikipedia). And steampunk novels can have touchs of fantasy, sci-fi and other genres, but as long as there's steam technology in the background.

I could be completely wrong about the above paragraph but that's how I read Wikipedia.

So, 13 short stories set in the worlds of steampunk from well-known YA authors. Did this collection make me fall in love with steampunk?

Er… yes and no. And the reason for both these answers is that it depends on the author and the story they wrote. I mean, this is a collection of short stories so, of course, you will find stories that were great and longed for more. And then there were others that were just ok. Nothing great, but alright. And then you have one or two where you finished the story more confused and preplexed than when you started the story! It's a mix bag and you are not going to like them all.

There's not much else to say expect this is a nice way to introducing yourself to steampunk (and die-hard steampunk fans will love it). And, after reading Maria V. Snyder's Under Amber Skies, am very excited to read Poison Study for the coming-soon Kindle Month!

3 comments:

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  2. I think all anthologies have the thing where some are good and some aren't. I really like steampunk though-I'll have to pick this one up soon. Oh, and Poison Study is amazing! And thanks for the hug yesterday!

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  3. I have this one on my kindle and started it but couldnt get into the first story so I put it back down… I must get round to reading some of the other stories soon though!

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