Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories

Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories edited by Kelly Link and Gavin Grant (Candlewick, 2011)


Summary from publisher:
Imagine and alternate universe where romance and technology reign.  Where tinkers and dreamers craft and recraft a world of automatons, ornate clockworks, calculating machines, and other marvels that never were.  Where scientists and schoolgirls, fair folk and Romans, intergalactic bandits, Utopian revolutionaries, and intrepid orphans -- decked out in corsets, clockwork suits, and tall black boots -- solve dastardly crimes, escape from monstrous predicaments, consult oracles, and hover over volcanoes in steam-powered airships.
Here, in the first major steampunk anthology for young adults, fourteen masters of speculative fiction, including two graphic storytellers, embrace the genre's established blend of sci-fi and fantasy, action and adventure, history and romance, and refashion it in surprising ways and in setting as diverse as Canada, New Zealand, Appalachia, Wales, ancient Rome, future Australia, and alternate California. 
Visionaries Link and Grant have invited all-new interpretations, explorations, and expansions, taking a genre already rich, strange, and inventive in the extreme and challenging contributors to remake it from the ground up.  The result is an anthology that defies even as it defines the genre.

I've been fascinated by steampunk for a couple of years now.  I think it satisfies a whim I had when I was younger of wanting to live in Victorian times but with modern conveniences.  While that is not the definition of steampunk, it does fit into the realm of the genre.  When I saw this anthology, I knew that I had to read it, even though I'm not a huge fan of short stories.

Let me tell you... these are some darn good stories!  I was able to take a day and read one right after another, savoring the inventiveness of the authors and wondering what they could possibly think of next.  Whether you are a steampunk newbie or expert, there's lots here to savor and enjoy. I'm really hoping one of my friends will read this one so we can talk about some of these stories!