Steampunk III: Steampunk Revolution

VanderMeer’s follow-up to previous similarly themed anthologies targets established fans of the retro-infatuated steampunk movement. In addition to four nonfiction pieces by gnere luminaries such as Jaymee Goh of “Silver Goggles” fame, including Margaret Killjoy’s “Steampunk Shapes Our Future,” the collection offers 28 stories, several of them standouts. In Ben Peek’s ”Possession,” a botanist trying to regenerate soil in the Earth’s crust discovers a dying female android, while Karin Tidbeck’s sad, whimsical “Beatrice” relates a tale of love between man and airship. Vandana Singh’s “A Handful of Rice” entertains with its alternate history of India. Technology runs amok in Jeff VanderMeer’s “Fixing Hanover,” in which inventors suffer unintended consequences from their creations, and in Christopher Barzak’s surreal “Smoke City,” about an urban industrial hell. Readers who enjoy steampunk largely for its visual aesthetic or use in other genres like YA and mystery may find less appeal in a collection geared mostly toward hardcore devotees. (Dec.)