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A review by tehani
Steampunk! an Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories by
5.0
I need to start this by saying I REALLY enjoyed it- there's great stories (not all of them in straight prose on the page) in this book, excellent writing, and I'm terribly impressed to see two Aussie authors and a New Zealand writer in here (and I've even published one of the Aussies!).
Having said that I thought the stories were excellent, I do need to say two things: 1. The definition of steampunk here is not, in many stories, anything even CLOSE to any definition of steampunk I've ever come across before, and 2. Although this has been advertised as a young adult anthology, it's not a lot like any YA I've seen either.
Don't get me wrong - some stories have a definite steampunk flavour, utilising elements we've come to know and identify with the genre. But many pay only passing lip service to the idea. And as for YA, well… Few stories contain the "coming of age" or "journey to adulthood" themes I'd expect, or even have a teen protagonist that many publishers think is the indicator of a YA story. I don't think anything in the book actually *precludes* it from being YA, but at the same time, I wouldn't identify most of the stories in this way.
Of course, such classifications are often problematic anyway, and of course publishers/editors need to push boundaries for fresh, exciting work. But for me, I wondered if the publishers were riding the steampunk wave as a marketing tool, rather than giving the book a less, hmm, felicitous title and promoting it differently.
To be honest, it doesn't matter - the book is a good one, and you should read it - just don't go into it expecting a lot of steam in your punk!
Having said that I thought the stories were excellent, I do need to say two things: 1. The definition of steampunk here is not, in many stories, anything even CLOSE to any definition of steampunk I've ever come across before, and 2. Although this has been advertised as a young adult anthology, it's not a lot like any YA I've seen either.
Don't get me wrong - some stories have a definite steampunk flavour, utilising elements we've come to know and identify with the genre. But many pay only passing lip service to the idea. And as for YA, well… Few stories contain the "coming of age" or "journey to adulthood" themes I'd expect, or even have a teen protagonist that many publishers think is the indicator of a YA story. I don't think anything in the book actually *precludes* it from being YA, but at the same time, I wouldn't identify most of the stories in this way.
Of course, such classifications are often problematic anyway, and of course publishers/editors need to push boundaries for fresh, exciting work. But for me, I wondered if the publishers were riding the steampunk wave as a marketing tool, rather than giving the book a less, hmm, felicitous title and promoting it differently.
To be honest, it doesn't matter - the book is a good one, and you should read it - just don't go into it expecting a lot of steam in your punk!