Dreams of Steam II: Brass and Bolts
Edited by Kimberly Richardson
This anthology of Steam punk short fiction was at times very enjoyable to read and on some stories immensely frustrating. Let’s deal with the frustrating first.
Pricing. I am glad there was a kindle version for a reasonable price because I would never have read this otherwise. Editing. Though this is an anthology and all of the authors were likely responsible for final approval of the condition of their individual works the overall editor is responsible for the condition of the final product. That being said, though I found the overall condition promising the variation in editing quality from work to work brought that condition…down. Enough with the frustrating and on to the good stuff!
My favorite stories in this book centered around Nicola Tesla and his grasp of technology decades if not a century before the rest of the planet. My least favorite usually had to do with fiendish murderers playing off of Jack the Ripper. The most interesting story of the entire volume has to do with a Bantu Witch Doctor who was schooled in Europe and Egypt. He is called on by a local warlord to use his magical arts to help in repelling a Boer invasion.
I will give this book a four out of five what-evers. Reasoning: The stories were mostly enjoyable and the editing issues I saw could have been caused by any number of items present when one herds cats. My recommendation is buy the kindle version as the ‘dead tree’ versions are ridiculously priced.
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