Nick Gevers

I debated if I wanted to give it less than three stars, but in the end there is enough in the book to warrant at least a look. This is certainly not a "definitive" anthology, but it does have some good gems in it. The problem is it also has some pretty bad duds, and you have to sort them out. If you kept up with status updates as I read it, you will see that I found the book overall hit and miss. Some stories were really good, and others were not. When the book "worked," it was good. When it did not, I wanted to drop it. So, what worked for me:

*The first story, which kind of reminded me a bit of an early Heinlein.

*The Company story (I think that was Kage Baker's). It does capture a bit of the steampunk feel and scene, and it was good enough that I may seek out other novels in the The Company series.

*"Petrolpunk" was probably my favorite if not one of my favorites in the series.

*And "American Cheetah" gave an interesting look at one of the American presidents, with robots.

*Other stories varied. The wife revenge tale was interesting for the twist it offered, but I was not particularly thrilled with it (in other words, it was ok).

So read it, but keep your expectations in the average range. I told you the stories that worked for me. You may find others work better for you, so to speak. It is a decent anthology, and it has some good examples of steampunk. But it is not definitive.

… (plus d'informations)

As with many anthologies this is a little bit of a mixed bag, although on the whole the stories are excellent. The opener, 'Steampunch' by James Lovegrove, is for me far the weakest effort. Each of the other stories either presents an original take on the genre - 'The Lollygang Saves the World on Accident', 'Static', Petrolpunk - or, like Margo Lanahan's 'Machine Maid' use the tropes of the genre to excellent and chilling effect.

Well worth a read as an introduction to Steampunk and perhaps some unfamiliar authors.… (plus d'informations)

Steampunk is far and away one of my favorite escapist genres to explore. The playful Victorian aesthetics aside, there is something quite freeing in the retro-futuristic landscape of the worlds it encompasses. It allows for us to play in a setting where things were perhaps a bit more stifling for anyone that wasn’t a white, upper class man, and oftentimes show women who are going against the grain a bit. More recently, a subgenre of steampunk has emerged, that takes the ideas of steampunk, and focuses it less on scienes and gadgets and more on the Gothic horror literature of the Victorian era. This genre is aptly called dreadpunk.

Ghosts By Gaslight is a collection of steampunk horror fiction, falling squarely into the perimeters of dreadpunk. Naturally, I was very excited to see so many things I loved come together into one collection of short stories, as Gothic horror has such a unique charm for me. But did Ghosts By Gaslight manage to meet my hopeful expectations? Unfortunately, the answer is a very strong no.

Full review: https://thebechdelscream.wordpress.com/2015/09/22/ghosts-by-gaslight/… (plus d'informations)