Steampunk: Extraordinary Engines

[meganbmoore]

(I’m risking losing motivation to write up this book when I finish it, here, but…)

When I order paperbacks from Amazon, I tend to try to get books the same price in the 4-for-3 sale because I save a teeny bit more in the long run, even though it also means I sometimes end up holding off on books I want more. A couple weeks ago I was ordering 2 $8.99 books and one $7.99 book, so I was poking around the “save for later” section of my Amazon cart (it’s easier to watch for prices to be lowered that way) and noticed a steampunk anthology called Extraordinary Engines. I think I hadn’t bought it yet because I hadn’t really heard anything about it, but I decided to go ahead and try it out blind.

When it got here, I noticed that 10 of the 12 authors were male. Ok, it’s a new-ish genre (though the introduction attributes the creation of the genre to two trilogies by Michael Moorcock in the 70s) so I can buy that there may be more men interested in writing it than women, even though part of the appeal of the genre is supposedly that it has elements that appeal strongly to both men and women. But I was also looking at the descriptions and catch phrases, and most sounded like they’d be male dominated, and the only thing that hinted at female presence was “automated harlots,” but some of the story titles indicate that there be girls.

So far I’ve read 3 stories, which puts me at page 132 of 441. I’ve noticed several things. One, the stories are a little longer (without checking the table of contents, they seem to range from about 30-50 pages each) which is a good length for me with short stories. Much shorter, and they usually aren’t long enough to really register with me, which is why I tend to stick to anthologies with limited themes, or where all stories are by the same author. The second is that it seems to be exploring steampunk as an idea more widely applied to the world than just airships and city advanced technology. The genre is also described as applying to both the Victorian and Edwardian eras, which tickles my fancy a bit. The three stories have had wildly different voices, settings and themes, and well developed worlds.

The other thing I’ve noticed, though, is that of the three stories I’ve read, only one had anything resembling a female. In fact, of the other two, the only thing female or that could be interpreted as female was one word of slang used to indicate sexual preference. And I’m not even positive about that. The one story that had female characters, naturally, was by one of the two female authors. (Haven’t gotten to the other one yet.) Now mind you, it was a steampunk murder mystery in a world where too much electricity in the air causes some people to have psychic powers, so I would have liked it under any circumstances, but you can guess which my favorite was.

Now, I know what the excuses are. Females in Victoriana are dresses and romance and social movements. Men in Victoriana are adventure and exploring. Except, remember above where I mentioned that part of the appeal was that the genre combined the supposed appeals for men and women? That’s kind of what I was talking about. In addition, there’s the fact that the genre itself is based on an anachronism. The idea is that you have an alternate history Earth, or a world based on the period, where science and technology have advanced far past where they had at the time, resulting in an altered world and society. So, you can justifiably ignore gender roles of the period, or you can do with society and gender roles what you do with science and technology and alter them accordingly.

Mind you, I have nine stories to go, so they could be the only stories where women apparently don’t exist in those worlds. I like to be an optimist.


[Poll #1323220]

(This ended up longer than intended...)

PS-"Ticky box" is only there so I don't have to click over to the poll to see results and can just see them in the post itself. (And yes, I know they aren't ticky boxes. I just wasn't feeling creative. That, or I accidentally clicked the wrong option and was too lazy to change it when I noticed. I'll let you decide which.)

Comments

[seriousfic.livejournal.com]

Convince me that I really need to write an Edwardian steampunk about a blind swordswoman assassin who writes penny dreadfuls.

I think that might be old hat by now in the steampunk race. I've written bisexual vampire vigilante with sidekicks who write penny dreadfuls for her and that was just a fanfic. To get published, she'd have to go to the moon to fight the Moonians with gas-powered cutlasses.

So, uh, ticky?

[southerndave.livejournal.com]

/me votes for Megan to write something

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

For future reference, you can hit submit without putting in a vote and from then on it will show the results as if you had voted.

[logically.livejournal.com]

Oh I may pick that up. I was curious about steampunk and wanted a good anthology.

[madame-parker.livejournal.com]

I adore Steampunk, there are no words for how much love I have for Steampunk and that's why it makes me so damn sad that most Steampunk novels don't have female characters that as a reader you can really click with, thank God for games, Final Fantasy 12 leans towards Steampunk and has 3 female characters I adore. And anime as well but books still have a long way to go.

[ryanitenebrae.livejournal.com]

I wanted to go the optimistic route, as you never know, but I sort of want to read that..

[estara.livejournal.com]

You know, I'm just finishing a fun Steam Punk murder mystery with a bit of romance from Juno Books (which mostly flies on its characters and dialogue but it does THAT very well indeed - even the named side characters really come alive). I haven't read much about it elsewhere but it's out in mmpb so it wouldn't set you back much: Dru Pagliassotti "Clockwork Heart"

http://www.amazon.com/Clockwork-Heart-Dru-Pagliassotti/dp/0809572567/

I bought it because of the cover and a bit because of the description but it has truly positivel surprised me. I wish to read the story about a side character in there next, but haven't heard anything about a next novel set in the same city.

It has an excellent action climax near a huge steam work engine filling up a mountain ^^. The heroine is a courier flying with artificial brass wings ^^^.


.. I'll just quote the whole review of J. Hulet at Amazon.com since he/she says it much better:


"4.0 out of 5 stars A blend of genres that works., March 25, 2008
By J. Hulet "Fantasyliterature.net Reviewer" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

I really don't know what sort of story this is. It's an adventure, it's a mystery, it's crime novel and a romance kind of all throw into on. Such a complex blend of genre all set in a different world where technology is far behind our modern times in many respects, but has been carefully enough thought out that it makes sense.

At the center of the story is a young woman who works as an Icarus, basically the equivalent of a bicycle messenger only state-sponsored and with wings instead of a bike. The setting is a city-state that supports a caste system of governance. Again, pretty well thought out and not so complicated that you can't follow it. Taya, that main character, is a free-spirited, intelligent, unknowingly pretty protagonist who is drawn into a convoluted series of plots because she happens to be in the right place at the right time to save a woman and child who are members of the highest caste.

Taya is pretty well written and, as is often the case with female main characters in Fantasy works, she blends an interesting combination of stubbornness, willfulness and outright luck. She makes mistakes and causes problems for herself and others as a result and this makes her believable as a character. She is surrounded by a variety of supporting characters that fill their respective places in the story fairly well. No glaringly, out of place supporting cast in this book.

The story follows a fairly quick pace and covers a variety of settings. It's not quite an action/adventure book, but there's enough action to pace the slower social scenes. On the whole, it's well blended. I honestly felt more like I was reading a Urban Fantasy novel than a real Fantasy novel, but the setting is not modern.

If you're looking for traditional Fantasy this is not it. If you are willing to try something that carried hints of Fantasy with no real magic or Knights in shining armor then this is worth the trip. It's not too long and feels in no way like it's the beginning of another series. Kudos to the author for that. "

[pikabot]

In addition, there’s the fact that the genre itself is based on an anachronism. The idea is that you have an alternate history Earth, or a world based on the period, where science and technology have advanced far past where they had at the time, resulting in an altered world and society. So, you can justifiably ignore gender roles of the period, or you can do with society and gender roles what you do with science and technology and alter them accordingly.

Yeah, exactly. I mean, I help run a steampunk-esque RP, and although we do in many ways stick with Victorian mores and customs, we tossed the sexism and homophobia in the bin because frankly, that would be much less fun.

[nebulia.livejournal.com]

Read the anthology actually called Steampunk. I believe it's edited by a husband and wife, but it's very much a huuuuge variety of steampunk and really good stuff. One of my favorite stories is about a world where women are more dominant than men, and in fact take husbands (yes, as in more than one). And there's a canon threesome.

But it's an excellent anthology, and while I haven't heard of this one, it seems to be a bit more...monotonous.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

I've read some interesting critiques about steampunk (linked by you? I can't remember) about how steampunk tends to take this lovely, deeply potential-filled world and then...turn it into The Adventures of White Men AGAIN. I'd love to see you-- or hell, anyone-- do better.