Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories.

Steampunk!  An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories was cobbled together by Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant, with contributions from M.T. Anderson, Holly Black, Libba Bray, Cassandra Clare, Shawn Cheng, Cory Doctorow, Dylan Horrocks, Kathleen Jennings, Elizabeth Knox, Kelly Link, Garth Nix, Christopher Rowe, Delia Sherman, and Ysabeau S. Wilce.
     Fourteen short stories that fall under the category of steampunk that delight and entrance.  From automatons who can love, to 'summer people' who make wonderful things out of cogs and scrap bits of metal, to a boy who wants to travel the United States in his own, private car these stories take you past the basic definition of steampunk, showing you what machines can do to the human soul:  they can free it or destroy it, sometimes both at the same time.

It was the title that got me. Well, actually, the call letters which, in my library, are YASTEAMPUN.  I had to take it off the shelf after I saw that.  And I am so, so glad I did.
    There are a few authors and their stories I want to point out:
    Holly Black is my idol, and her story "Everything Amiable and Obliging" is a great example of why. It brings up the age old question, and the one that would eventually follow:  Can machines really love?  And how would we deal with them if they could? 
     Libba Bray's "Last Ride of the Glory Girls" was also different.  Sort of creepy, but then again, most of the stuff of hers that I've read is. 
       "Some Fortunate Future Day" by Cassandra Clare provoked a reaction of extreme disgust and another of extreme morbid fascination at the same time.  Who in their right mind would do that? 
      I did not like "Seven Days Beset by Demons" by Shawn Cheng.  It is a short story written in graphic form, and I didn't like it because, well, I was just disgusted by the character, frankly. I think that was the point of the whole thing, but I don't like stories in which I despise the characters so much I don't want to read the story.  Thankfully it was only fourteen pages.
      Kelly Link put in "The Summer People" which was wonderfully haunting as well.  My three loves in fantasy are steampunk, Faerie, and endings that leave you slightly off kilter.  Kelly Link has hit all three. 
      I could comment on all of the stories, but I'll do just two more:  Christopher Rowe's "Nowhere Fast" came with mixed messages.  Which is more important:  Our planet or the open road?  And Garth Nix's "Peace in Our Time" was wonderfully demented. 
      Really, this anthology is a treasure, in my opinion.  First off, each story looks at steampunk in a different way.  It wasn't all about cogs and gears, steam and the Victorian Era.  There were plenty of stories with no visible clogs or gears, stories with electricity and modern times.  Plenty of characters who had their own dreams, their own lives, their own hates. 
     Sure, it was pretty stereotypical that nearly every main character in the stories aspired to be an engineer, but I guess that's the whole thing about machines:  you have to be an engineer to work them. 
     Truth to be told, I'm going to be wanting some books made out of these stories.  What happened to the Glory Girls?  Did Luz ever get to surf in California?  Did Fran ever go back and rescue Ophelia?  How will it work out for Amelia and Nicholas?  Will Rocket Boy ever get to see Mars?  Will Rose ever get to the Capital?  I want to know all the answers, and sadly, I don't think I'll ever get to.  It's worth dreaming about it, anyways.  The dreams in this book should be enough to sustain me for a while, though, and I'll feed off them like they're azoth.  (Reference to the book:  I'm not out of my mind and just randomly making up words, thank you very much.)