J. A. Campbell (3)

Like its predecessor, it has an article, “Tumbleweeds: Western Icon or Martian Invaders” from editor Campbell. It looks at the hardy tumbleweed aka Russian thistle, an invasive species into the American West.

Beth Daniels, an author I've never read, offers an interview on writing steampunk, advice that can also be found in her Geared Up: Writing Steampunk.

This being a Science Fiction Trails publication, there's a dog story. Here that's Campbell's “RCAF (Royal Canine Air Force)", inspired by the cover illustration. It's a slight story with dogs and cats dogfighting in the air, and the dogs blasting a factory. Airships, machine guns, and plasma cannon included.

More steampunkery is supplied by the heist/rescue story "Shell Games: A Hummingbird and Inazuma Con" from Peter J. Wacks. It, as the title implies, involves a couple of conmen and seems to be part of an intended series. Inazuma is a “brilliant swordsman” (though he’s not called a samurai).

Hummingbird is a gunfighter. The story takes place in Canton, China, but, of course, a steampunk alternative. Here the technological divergence is the invention of the “airjunk” in 1890. There are the usual iconic sorts of things like “clockwork carriages”. Hummingbird herself is a cyborg with a “clockwork right arm”, specifically a smaller variant of the one used in the West. It uses acupuncture needles connected by steel threads to serve as musculature. Hummingbird is accomplished at tai chi. Our two con artists are sent on a mission to retrieve the kidnapped daughter of the police commissioner. There are some historical figures here. The villain is Grigori Rasputin. Winston Churchill shows up too as a lieutenant in the police force since this section of China is occupied by Britain. Hummingbird and Inazuma's con is complicated and precisely timed. The bits with Churchill were nice. Rasputin is set up to be a running series villain, but I wished he was on stage more.

Another story that reads like part of a series is Jessica Brawner's “Bad Altitude”. The story has a great opening with our naked heroine falling from an airship over Paris. The ending doesn't entirely explain the villain's motives for wanting her airship. Still, the stuff in between is entertaining enough. This is set in a 21st century world where Douglas Adams is a "great philosopher of the last century".

And, speaking of clockwork, there's O. M. Grey's “The Clockwork Heart”, a nicely done story which metaphorically puts that imagery to use in something of a feminist tale. It's told by one woman and relating the story of another “woman”, Eleanor. Eleanor is a clockwork woman, but she used to be a regular woman as evidenced by the scars around her wrists (a suicide attempt) and neck and chest. The latter seem to be surgical scars from her one-time lover, Dr. Clague. Another woman, Penelope, is Clague and Eleanor's daughter though the two were never married. Eleanor has been revived after her suicide attempt to hang about the house as a governess for Penelope. Emotionless during her second round at life, she wants to feel again, and Clague helps her have emotion again. Just in time to experience them when another man enters her life.

Lyn McConchie does no harm to her reputation as a reliable contributor to Science Fiction Trails publications. Here it's with “The Steam Powered Camera”. The fantastic element here is slight. Was it really necessary to have a steam powered (in effect, a movie camera) with a wide-angle lens instead of just standard Victorian-era photographic equipment? Probably not, but it’s a fairly clever horror story in which a photographer doing psychic investigations comes across an impetuous youth, also with a camera, who mocks his equipment.

Lesbian lovers seem to be (or, at least, were back in the heyday of steampunk and judging by Amazon browsing) something of a steampunk cliché. Jeffrey Cook's and Katherine Perkins' “Opening Night” features two. Cliché is doubled by making one a warrior babe. The story intercuts between Emily's stage performance as a clockwork doll (her own body has damaged limbs encased in mechanisms and she's missing an eye) and Luca foiling an assassination attempt in the opera house.

The rest of the stories are kind of amalgams of steampunk and weird western.

Henry Ram, seemingly a name change by Henrik Ramsager who used to be credited for this series, gives us another installment in the life of Potbury the Necromancer in “The Courtship of Miss Henrietta”. The rich and dying Mr. Seven has his airship Azincourt parked above Name Pending, Wyoming. He's hallucinating from products of "advanced science" put in his body and brain, and he needs Potbury to do his resurrection thing on him. Potbury says that's not possible. Seven's already been resurrected once. Another time is going to be technically difficult. Seven, not taking no for an answer, starts to threaten Miss Henrietta, the former local prostitute Potbury is in love with. Another engaging entry in the series with appearances by regular characters like the rapacious and two-faced madam Mrs. Broadhurst and worthless town marshal Wainscot.

I liked Liam Hogan's “Horse”, a first person tale about a 15-year old boy and his mechanical, steam-powered, intelligent horse inherited from a beloved professor killed in a faro game. What the boy finds in a town -- a gunsmith interested in the horse, local bullies, and a prostitute -- makes an interesting story, but it's not a coming of age tale.

“The (Almost) Entirely Untrue Legend of John Henry”, from David Boop, starts in 1855 with John Henry being sold for a 20 year period to the Chesapeake and Ohio (C & O) Railroad. The story then shifts to the end of the ballad – John Henry pounding away at the end of a mountain tunnel. However, the mountain collapses on him since they tunneled through to an unmapped mine. John Henry and several men are trapped. We then get a different version of the famous John Henry vs. the steam drill story with a lot of exotic machinery. A nice bit of steampunkery and secret history.

Eric Aren's “A Cure for Boundary Pirates” is set in a vaguely defined Old West of airships (with helium no less) and electric rifles where trade seems to be prohibited between the natives of the west coast and the people of the plains. A portion of the Great Plains has been turned into “the Colony” for those suffering from tuberculosis. The Colony forbids alcohol and tobacco. Simon, a pharmacist, smuggles “airflower” (seemingly marijuana given its analgesic properties) to the Colony. He’s been blackmailed by a couple of airship pirates who live in the Boundary (aka Rocky) Mountains into helping their smuggling. But the relationship is getting troublesome, so Simon takes steps.

Of course, this being a Science Fiction Trails book, David B. Riley channels karl, the dinosaur sheriff to introduce a collection of flash fiction about fog making machines. Karl, in "Some Protection", talks about meeting one H. G. back in the Cretaceous. H. G. thought his time machine's fog generator would protect from the vicious local fauna.

Eric Aren's entry "Victory!" is a rather confused entry about a war between Russia and Germany.

P. R. Morris' “English Waters” is a grisly alternate version of the Boer War with the Boers trying to prevent Gordon from reaching Khartoum.
“Pressure” from Guy Anthony De Marco is just jokey and underdeveloped.

Sam Knight is a weird western writer I usually like, but his “A Pirate Fog” shows, at least here, flash fiction is not his thing with a slight piece of naval combat in the Gulf of Mexico.… (plus d'informations)

It is hard to balance being an airship captain with being a vampire, but Captain Adair pulls it off masterfully in this tale of sky pirates, abusive leadership, and deception. The characters jump off the page and into your imagination leaving you're breathless in anticipation. The overall descriptions of the environments are so vivid you almost believe you are a part of the book.
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes vampires or action adventure books. It is well worth the read and a great book for your collection.… (plus d'informations)