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Steam-Powered 2: More Lesbian Steampunk Stories (2011)

by JoSelle Vanderhooft(Favorite Author)

4 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

1610405439 (ISBN13: 9781610405430)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Torquere Press

series

Steam-Powered

review 1: An interesting anthology, if a little uneven. Some stories are five stars worth, others one or two. Some the effects of a changing steampunk society on lesbian relationship were explored, others the lesbian relationship seemed tokenistic, a chance to get a story in a more unusual book.To be fair though, I did have a good friend "edit" the ebook so I could avoid the uncomfortable associations had with one of the writers in particular. While I would not have otherwise read the book, I can't guarantee it still didn't leave me a little cautious about this anthology.
review 2: Update 2/22/12: I finally finished all of the stories in this volume, so I'll update my review asap with my thoughts on the rest of them.I haven’t read the first volume in this series of st... moreeampunk lesbian tales, but I intend to look for it as soon as I’ve finished this one so that I can compare. I plan on updating my review as I read the stories, rather than wait until I’ve finished the whole thing. As of December 31, I’ve read five out of 15 stories.So far, the stories in this book are notable for not being the kind of steampunk I expected (i.e., taking place in Victorian London and involving plucky English ladies or mad scientists, for example). The settings and people are extremely varied -- Persian, Moroccan, Malaysian, and so on – as are the steampunk elements, but the actual lesbian relationships are underplayed compared with the backdrop of the stories: war, politics, class, etc. Maybe because it’s necessary to do a certain amount of world building in alternate histories, but with a short story, there’s less room to do it coherently without sacrificing something else. My favorite stories right now balance the world-building details with character/relationship development.I received the ebook version of this from Shveta Thakrar. "Journey's End," by Elizabeth Porter Birdsall – I liked the idea of the sentient airships, the way they communicate and bond with their crew, and the way the story explores the meaning of death/dying rituals, including what would cause a person to volunteer to “go down with the ship”, to make that sacrifice. I couldn’t really emotionally invest in the character’s journey – the narrative felt too distant and the main character too melancholy – but I found it a thoughtful, well-paced story."Amphitrite," by S.L. Knapp – From women piloting sentient airships to submarines! I’m not sure how I feel about this story. Sirens/mermaids causing the men piloting submarines to wreck themselves is a fine idea, as is some countries therefore requiring women to pilot the submarines. But I don’t see why the sirens cannot affect women the same way they lure men if the woman in question is a lesbian; it stands to reason the siren’s voice should be able to manipulate her as well. It’s all about sexual desire, right? Maybe I just missed the point. Otherwise, the details of this alternate history (time period, place, political situation) just didn’t feel clear to me."In the Heart of Yellow Mountain," by Jaymee Goh – This was a Lara Croft-style adventure story, with two women who distrust each other ending up navigating a booby-trapped maze through a mountain in order to gain political influence with their country’s new ruler. I enjoyed the women’s back-and-forth relationship and like that it didn’t go exactly where I expected, and I liked how they used their various strengths to survive. The Asian-inspired setting was particularly well-done."Playing Chess in New Persepolis," by Sean Holland – I loved the whole idea behind this mechanized chess competition, whereby the participants build their own pieces to move across the board on command and destroy their opponent’s. It’s a cool mix of chess strategy and geeky scientific/robotic engineering. The parts of the story that concentrated on the chess stuff were excellent, but the romance between opponents felt rushed, like most of it happened off the page. "A Thousand Mill Lofts Gray," by Jeannelle Ferreira – This was the first of the stories to really concentrate, and show, the romance, with a little of the sexy bits thrown in, so I really wanted to like it. Yet too much of the love story between a wealthy photojournalist and the poor seamstress happened off page. I had trouble keeping track of the order of events, because the narrative jumped time without any cues and rarely covered what happened in the interim. At least the ending was happy."Dark Horse," by A.M. Tuomala – So far, this was my favorite story, even though the ending lost me. (I have no idea what happened or what it means, and I will have to read the story again to see if it’s me being obtuse or the story being cryptic.) The romance is pretty hot and the plot, involving political intrigue from a mercenary standpoint, has a lot of action and drama. It’s a sort of Moroccan spy story and was the most fun to read. less

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