Steampunk Specs

De: Christopher Barzak, Jeffrey Ford, Margo Lanagan, Sean McMullen, Cherie Priest, Cat Rambo, Michael Swanwick

Narrado por: Tom Dheere, Vanessa Hart, Nancy Linari

This collection of unabridged, spectacular steampunk speculations includes several classics of the genre. These tales will sweep you away with their amazing automata, daring dirigibles, grinding gears, and scintillating steam as days gone by are infused with tech. In "Smoke City," by Christopher Barzak, a woman comes to terms with the loss of her family to the child labor mills of the city. A doctor tries to cope with a strange plague terrorizing the citizens of London in Jeffrey Ford's "Dr. Lash Remembers." In "Machine Maid," by Margo Lanagan, a sexually repressed wife gets revenge on her husband through a robot maid. Friedrich Engels strives to spread class revolution as a labor organizer for factory cyborg matchstick girls in "Arbeitskraft," by Nick Mamatas. In "Ninety Thousand Horses," by Sean McMullen, an acclaimed mathematician, with a murky past, is forced to spy for an industrialist prior to becoming Britain's foremost rocket expert during World War II. An orphan boy builds an automaton, in an aging scientist's laboratory, that becomes more than an idle companion in Cherie Priest's "Tanglefoot (A Clockwork Century Story)." In "Clockwork Fairies," by Cat Rambo, an English aristocrat courts a woman who would rather spend time in a laboratory than at high society balls. At Chicago's Columbian Exposition, in 1893, an Algerian bodyguard crosses paths with a disoriented naked man in Chris Roberson's "Edison's Frankenstein." In "A Serpent in the Gears," by Margaret Ronald, a dirigble journeys to an isolated land and discovers people and animals merged with machine parts. Radio Jones finds a way to listen in on the Naked Brains, who rule the world, while Rudy the Red fights against the oppressors in "Zeppelin City" by Michael Swanwick and Eileen Gunn.

©2013 AudioText (P)2013 AudioText

Short Trips into Fun

The nice thing about anthologies is that they're a great way to explore an unfamiliar genre, learn about authors you might be unfamiliar with, and to get some fun stories that don't require a full-length investment. If it turns out you don't like a story, move on to the next one without feeling like you've wasted your time.

This particular anthology didn't have any disappointing stories for me, and there were a couple that really stood out for me, so on the whole I'd say this venture was well worth my credit. The stories were well-crafted and well-told, and the performances served largely to improve them. The couple that stood out... they REALLY stood out for me and pushed this from a 3-star to a 4-star rating. There's a lot of fun here, but there are also some decidedly darker twists that I didn't expect, the kind of thing that haunts the reader that lingers on it a bit too long. Sometimes it's surprising how much punch a short story can have.

A few great stories

Not all of these stories were my steamed cup of tea. Maybe I am not privy to stories laden with emotion and woke tales, as many who fancy these tropes. The performances were stellar nonetheless. Dabbling from dripping tales of heavy clockwork miracles and tales of the times to fairies and magical sorcery, these stories do somehow string together for this volume.

Uneven anthology with no underlying theme

Since there's nothing that binds these stories together, I will write a short review of each story:

Tanglefoot - Cherie Priest
This story fits into the alternative Civil War history first explored in Boneshaker and has elements of Frankentein, a belief in changelings, and posession. It's easy to immerse yourself in the setting, especially since the author provides a quick summary of the salient points up front.

Ninety Thousand Horses- Sean McMullen
Told in flashback, this is a fascinating story with an alternative view of the original development of rocket technology as a way to increase the speed of a railway.

Arbitescalf - Nick Mamatas
This is an alternative history of the worst abuses of the industrial age in terms of child labor taught from the viewpoint of Frederick Engles and the completion of thenext volume of Das Capital.

Machine Maid - Margo Lanagan
It's a long, pointless riff on a woman's sexual hangups. There isn't a single character in this story worth the time it takes to read about it. Unless you are a woman who hates both men and heteralsexual sex, this story is a total waste.

A serpent in the Gears - Margaret Ronald
An exploration of Cyborgs and society. I found this to be a carefully constructed, thoughtful story exploring clockwork cyborgs and their places in multiple societies viewed through the lens of an airship-based expedition from one society to another and told through the viewpoint of an enigmatic character whose full identity isn't disclosed until late in the story.

Dr. Lash Remembers - Jeffry Ford
If you're into hoplessness, this is for you.

Zeppelin City - Michael Swanwick and Eileen Gunn
This was the most polished, well-plotted story in the collection. A tightly woven story which excels in demonstrating the "Show, don't tell" rule of great writing and seamlessly transitions among three viewpoints to tell a single story.

Edison's Frankenstein - Chris Roberson
In Roberson's story the discovery of a new element called "Promethium" is the key to his setting. Promethium tanks ended the civil war at the Battle of Bull Run and William Cody is running a wild west show at the Columbian exposition. Since Promethium provided cheap, unlimited energy, the development of electricity was short circuited" and Thomas Edison was a minor engineer struggling to make electricity profitable, while Tesla was a minor science fiction writer. The title gives away the punch line, which is telegraphed throughout. The elements of the setting overwhelms the story. This author engages in long stretches of pointless exposition and is, quite frankly, boring. All through the story I was imagining how I would do it better, which is not a good reaction for an author too impose on a reader. While the Swanwick/Gunn story was a triumph of "Show, don't tell," this was a case study in failure to heed that dictum.

Smoke City - Christopher Barzak
This is more of a Lovecraftian set piece than a Steampunk story. It's hard to care at all for the first person point of view character, or anyone else, for that matter.

Overwhelmingly depressing or dull

As much as I love steampunk, this collection of ten stories was disappointing. True, these stories are heavy on steampunk and industrial period science, but they are also heavy on depressing themes of oppression, pollution and corruption. Women in particular repeatedly get hit with the hard end of the authors’s sticks. Did any of these have a happy ending? Could even one offer action, humor, or heart? Sadly, no.

There were only three stories that engaged me, and only mildly so. I was also annoyed at the lack of a Table of Contents, especially given there are twenty six chapters for ten stories.

1) Ch1 Tanglefoot by Cherie Priest - boy builds a playmate
2) Ch3 90,000 Horses by Sean McCullen - FMC in smoker’s voice is a paranoid scientist
3) Ch6 Arbitescalf by Nick Mamatas - clockwork girls as slave labor
4) Ch11 Machine Maid by Margo Lanagem - man-hating wife discovers clockwork sex doll- graphic
5) C14 A Serpent in the Gears by Margaret Ronald - steampunk espionage and even a little action ⭐️
6) Ch16 Dr. Lash Remembers by Jeffrey Ford - steampunk horror ⭐️
7) Ch17 Zepplin City by Michael Swanwick, Eileen Gunn - endless blah blah mechanical talk
8) Ch21 Edison’s Frankenstein by Chris Robinson - nothing new
9) Ch23 Smoke City by Christopher Barzak - more steampunk horror
10) Ch25 Clockwork Faeries by Cat Rambo - sly, satirical and yes, steampunk ⭐️

A really fun steampunk anthology.

Excellent variety of well-thought-out well assembled steampunk stories for any enthusiast. Maybe the only complaint I have is that the stories are so good I’d love to see them turned into novels. Excellent book, highly recommend

No decent stories

What disappointed you about Steampunk Specs?

Most of the stories are just porn. I don't understand how you can sell sex stories as actual short stories.

What do you think your next listen will be?

Mansfield Park

What aspect of the narrators’s performance would you have changed?

There were too many narrators. A few of the narrators used horrible accents but then dropped the accent randomly.

What character would you cut from Steampunk Specs?

Most of the characters were flat and predictable.

Any additional comments?

Don't bother with this book!