This is a beautiful gem of an alternate history-steampunk-postwar-ghost story. I love novellas that have such a depth of world building and sense of cThis is a beautiful gem of an alternate history-steampunk-postwar-ghost story. I love novellas that have such a depth of world building and sense of context that they feel as if they've been lifted from massive, epic works, and this is one of those. Premee Mohamed never gives readers more than they need, but she gives them everything necessary to be deeply moved by this sensitive, haunting tale....more
This is another wonderfully witty and inspiring installment in the Wollstonecraft Detective Agency series, following the fictional adventures of not-sThis is another wonderfully witty and inspiring installment in the Wollstonecraft Detective Agency series, following the fictional adventures of not-so-fictional young Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (later Shelley), Ada Lovelace, and company. Steampunk detective girls with science! (and wonderful Easter eggs for those in the know). Great fun....more
I thoroughly fell in love with the first book in The Wollstonecraft Detective Agency series, The Case of the Missing Moonstone, and The Case of the GiI thoroughly fell in love with the first book in The Wollstonecraft Detective Agency series, The Case of the Missing Moonstone, and The Case of the Girl in Grey is a delightful sequel. Again Jordan Stratford brings together the mother of modern science fiction, Mary Shelley, and the world's first computer programmer, Ada Lovelace, as girls (14 and 11, respectively) who solve mysteries. This particular mystery is inspired by the Gothic classic The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. Once more, Percy B. Shelley and Charles Dickens play key roles in the tale, and this time Mary's stepsister Jane and Ada's half-sister Allegra also join the adventure.
The book ends with a discussion of the real history behind Ada, Mary, Jane, Allegra, Wollstonecraft, The Woman in White, and the other ingredients of the story, and Stratford makes it clear when and why he's taken liberties with the past. I said it before and I'll say it again: this is the perfect storm of inspiration, entertainment, and education. Buy it for the young readers you know, but read it for your own pleasure, too. ...more
In this steampunk story aimed at middle readers (but delightful for adults, as well), Stratford brings together the Three cheers for Jordan Stratford.
In this steampunk story aimed at middle readers (but delightful for adults, as well), Stratford brings together the mother of modern science fiction, Mary Shelley, and the world's first computer programmer, Ada Lovelace, as girls (14 and 11, respectively). In honor of the feminist writings of Mary's late mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, the two create the Wollstonecraft Detective Agency. They use science to solve the mystery of the missing moonstone. There is so much to love here: clever dialogue, evocative description, action, and intelligent young women using their reason.
For young readers, the novel serves as an introduction of sorts to the intellectual history of the Victorian era; for those who are already in the know, the inside jokes and loving homages are a treat. The mystery is a retelling of The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins, the first great detective novel in English. Percy B. Shelley and Charles Dickens play key roles in the tale, as do mesmerism and Newgate Prison. Fantastic.
The book ends with a discussion of the real history behind Ada, Mary, Wollstonecraft, The Moonstone, and the other ingredients of the story, and Stratford makes it clear when and why he's taken liberties with the past (for example, in narrowing the real gap between the ages of his protagonists so they have the chance to be young heroines together).
This is the perfect storm of inspiration, entertainment, and education. I'm already making plans to put a copy of this book into the hands of the young readers I know....more
The Clockwork Man is quite a remarkable little novel: steampunk before steampunk was cool; one of the first appearances of a cyborg in science fictionThe Clockwork Man is quite a remarkable little novel: steampunk before steampunk was cool; one of the first appearances of a cyborg in science fiction literature; and a delicate commentary on modern humanity and its great enemy, time.
The novel opens with the farcical setup of the Clockwork Man's abrupt appearance at an early-twentieth-century afternoon cricket match in the countryside, which he ultimately joins and wrecks. The novel soon changes tone, however, and views the threat and promise of the Clockwork Man from several perspectives, including that of a middle-aged doctor who has grown settled in his opinions and middling life and shame at his own lack of originality, and a young man who strains against convention and the predicament of his youth.
Along the way, the story challenges modern assumptions about efficiency, the tyranny of fast-paced life (and small-town opinion), and the value of free will.
E.V. Odle was the editor who founded Argosy, and some have claimed Odle was a pseudonym used by Virginia Woolf. This was his first and only published novel, and it is a gem of early science fiction. ...more
This is one of the pioneering works of steampunk, and I'm glad I read it. It has many of the staples of the subgenre, from the Victorian setting to clThis is one of the pioneering works of steampunk, and I'm glad I read it. It has many of the staples of the subgenre, from the Victorian setting to clockwork men, from time travel to not-so-mythical creatures (in this case, selkies). There are several well-crafted moments of ironic social commentary. It's easy to see how this wry and imaginative tale helped to set precedents for what followed.
That said, I didn't really enjoy this as a reading experience, despite Jeter's always-elegant prose. The narrator, who inherited his father's watchmaker's store but not the man's talent for imaginative clockwork inventions, remains passive and rather baffled throughout the action. The parade of characters he encounters are colorful, but none are exactly sympathetic enough to evoke an attachment. The tone was a bit too flippant for my taste, as well; it's hard to take the danger seriously when the story doesn't take itself seriously.
For most of the novel, the episodic adventures/perils are unexplained and meant to be mysterious, but they didn't engage me quite enough to leave me wondering how they fit together. Ironically, in the eleventh hour, when the "infodump" portion of the novel connected all the dots, I discovered the underlying story was far more interesting than I'd realized. By that time, of course, the novel was drawing to a close.
I love Jeter's Morlock Night, and I'm sure I'll reread it in the future. I appreciate Infernal Devices for its impact and legacy, but I doubt I'll revisit it for anything more than the insights it provides into the history of steampunk. ...more
If I rated books, I'd want to give this one two separate ratings, one for content (4) and one for layout (1). As grateful as I am to see these lesser-If I rated books, I'd want to give this one two separate ratings, one for content (4) and one for layout (1). As grateful as I am to see these lesser-known gems of Victorian and Edwardian science fiction gathered together in a single collection, I am in equal measure horrified by the poor production values of this volume. It seems as though someone scanned the original stories using OCR software and then never proofread the resulting text; exclamation points frequently are misrepresented as capital "I"s, quotation marks randomly appear or disappear with no regard to the beginning/ending of dialogue, periods and commas and apostrophes show up in arbitrary places (including in the middle of words), and glaring typographical errors ("pubic" for "public," etc.) constantly jolt the reader out of the rhythm of the stories. It's a shame, because these classic tales deserve much better.
For the content, however, this book is well worth reading. It includes fourteen "vintage steampunk" stories originally published between 1897 and 1916. All are fascinating from a historical point of view, but many remain quite entertaining for the modern reader. I especially enjoyed "The Automaton" by Reginald Bacchus and Ranger Gull (a dark psychological story about a chess-playing mechanical man), "In the Deep of Time" by George Parsons Lathrop (about a human who is kept in suspended animation for 300 years, and then revived, coincidentally, on the same day that the Martians send their ambassador to Earth), "Within An Ace of the End of the World" by Robert Barr (in which a new and inexpensive form of mass food production nearly spells the end for our species), and "The Last Days of Earth" by George C. Wallis (a chilling account of the last hope for - and sacrifice of - humanity). Helpful introductions by editor Mike Ashley set each story in its larger context with regard to the tradition of steampunk literature in science fiction....more
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