Steampunk II: Steampunk Reloaded

Great anthology of steampunk stories! The first one was great and I loved it, this one so far ( I haven't finished it yet!) is great. I would recommend this book to anyone who was wanting to read some great steampunk literature. - DJ Electfire

This is a pretty good collection of contemporary Steampunk short stories. The broad, all-encompassing and often confusing range of the modern "steampunk" movement is captured here, both the good and the bad. Established writers like Tanith Lee exist alongside virtual unknowns like Vilhelm Bergsoe, and new authors with rapidly growing fan bases like Cherie Priest and Margo Lanagan. Two stories that stand out from the pack and are deserving of special notice are "Tanglefoot" by Cherie Priest and "The Cast-Iron Kid" by Andrew Knighton. "Tanglefoot" is a dark story set in an insane asylum of the kind no longer found in any modern nation. The story centers on a young boy who lives in the asylum's basement with a once-famous inventor who is slowly descending into madness. Using the inventor's cast offs, the boy creates a clockwork playmate. At that point the story feels upbeat and optimistic, despite the dreary setting. However, at that point the story also takes an awful turn for the worse when the clockwork playmate becomes possessed by something best described as a demon (although the author never once uses that term). Overall the tale brings to mind both Poe and Lovecraft, echoing classic horror vibes in a way that many young modern readers might find deeply disturbing. "The Cast-Iron Kid", on the other hand, is a western, sort of. A small frontier town builds an iron gunfighter to both challenge and destroy violent western villains known to be fast, accurate, and deadly. The town uses the gold, cash, and other valuables recovered from the dead villains along with any reward money to both maintain their iron gunfighter and fatten the town's coffers. In the end, one young man who grows up watching the iron gunfighter and helping do some of the maintenance work decides the town is just as evil and the men the iron gunfighter has killed; therefore, he takes it upon himself to rid the world of the iron gunfighter, using his insider knowledge of the iron gunfighter's clockwork innards to do so. Therein lies the main reason this collection gets four stars instead of five. Whether it is the dark horror of "Tanglefoot", the cynical irony of "The Cast-Iron Kid", or the violent feminism of "Machine Maid" these stories are one and all dark, depressing, luddite tales of technology gone awry in some of the worst ways imaginable. The science fiction of the 19th Century, where Steampunk is said to draw its inspiration, was first and foremost optimistic in both tone and vision. To propose placing these stories alongside such classic tales as "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" or "The Lost World" does a huge disservice to the historic quality of both science fiction as a genre and technology as the pinnacle of human success. It saddens me to think that such depressing tales were no doubt created using modern computers and cutting edge software. What sort of dissonance do these authors possess that they can use the latest technology available to them to write tales decrying technology as inhuman and potentially evil? It boggles the imagination and confounds the mind.

The second collection of Steampunk short stories from the authors. The quality of the stories varies too much for my liking. Some of them feel more like science fiction than steampunk. Many typographical and editing errors caught my attention, reducing my enjoyment of the stories. However, the collection provided a wide assortment of stories connected to the genre.

This is in fact a book you can judge from the cover, not to mention the extraordinary interior design by John Coulthart. The level of attention to detail and knowledge of the genre is immediately evident, and reinforced by every story and editorial note. As with all their anthologies, the VanderMeers have done their homework with a thoroughness that reflects their passion for sharing great stories, and for digging out the thinking and interchanges within the community of writers and readers. If you don't know anything about Steampunk, you'll be well read in it by the time you finish the book; if you have steam-powered goggles and commute in a zeppelin, you'll nonetheless find authors and ideas you've not previously encountered. All in all, this anthology is a delight through and through. Keep your eyes out for the upcoming "The Steampunk Bible" from Jeff VanderMeer and S.J. Chambers, and the VanderMeer's encyclopedic "The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Fictions".

Pretty much what you expect. Not great literature, but a fun escape.

It is used a bit but still great. No ripped pages and no creases on the cover considering that its paper-backed. It came in quick and in time, glad I got it here.

This anthology contains 22 stories plus the unofficial history of Steampunk. While I recognize some of the authors – Gibson – Priest – Baxter – Kiernan, I was not familiar with them all. As you would expect there is a cross genre mix of fantasy and science fiction authors. Each story is preceded by an introduction of the Author and some of their other work. Some stories stick closely to the Steampunk genre while others stretch it into horror and other genres. It was a pleasant read, and I am always interested in how a group of authors can be brought together with a single goal, and then approach that goal from some many different directs. Lightly recommended as not the best I have read. George Mann and others do Steampunk better

I was unhappy with this collection. Most of the stories here fell flat and in my opinion failed to capture the world of the genre. A few exceptions lie in Tanglefoot and Cast Iron Kid. Great stories but the other stories pale in comparison. Buy with caution. This is not the zepplin filled, Victorian era rewrite with cogs, cranks and steam powered machines ran by automatons you are looking for.