Steampunk Reloaded…Already Reloaded!!

Well, we’ve reloaded Steampunk Reloaded, adding a few things at the last minute that were too cool to pass up. I’ll summarize the additions here, but I’ve also included the entire updated TOC below the cut for those who would like it in context. The anthology, out in October, is now almost completely unbearable amazingness as far as we’re concerned.

What have we added, besides our intro?

—A reprint of Tanith Lee’s “The Persecution Machine,” a Steampunk story originally published in Weird Tales.

—A “Future of Steampunk” roundtable interview with Libby Bulloff, S.J. Chambers, Jaymee Goh, Margaret “Magpie” Killjoy, Evelyn Kriete, Jess Nevins, Mike Perschon, and Diana M. Pho (Ay-leen the Peacemaker)

—A reprint of Sydney Padua’s comic strip “Lovelace and Babbage in ‘Origins (with Salamander)'”

—Extensive additions to the already awesome section “A Secret History of Steampunk,” which forms a unified story out of several pieces of fiction, nonfiction, and art, the new bits including:

>>A 5k frame story by the Mecha-Ostrich, Steampunk heretic

>>L.L. Hannett and Angela Slatter’s “The Curious Case of Physically-Manifested ‘Bed-Sheet Mania,” along with related letters and diary entries.

>>Felix Gilman’s “An Ode, on Encountering a Mecha-Ostrich.”

>>Jess Nevin’s “Unpublished Pages from the Encyclopedia of Victoriana.”

>>Additional snippets of text by Rikki Ducornet and Mary Shelley, as well as excerpts from Albert Robida’s “Railroad Wars” and the 1800s Edisonade “Electric Bob’s Big Black Ostrich”.

A comparison of the TOC below and the original one will also reveal that we’ve re-contextualized a few things. Finally, I cannot confirm or deny that I am the Mecha-Ostrich.

STEAMPUNK RELOADED: Steampunk 2
Edited by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer, from Tachyon, Oct. 2010
Interior design by John Coulthart, the genius behind The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases, et al.

This lavishly illustrated anthology edited by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer builds on the strengths of the World Fantasy Award nominated first volume, presenting 160,000 words of rich and varied Steampunk stories, nonfiction, and art that plays off the idea of Steampunk not just in the context of dirigibles and other antiquated technology but also as connected to the maker movement and other aspects of the Steampunk subculture that have begun to infiltrate the literature. It includes the William Gibson story that inspired the Steampunk offshoot called “Raygun Gothic”.

Original Art:
Ramona Szczerba (three collages)
John Coulthart (illustrations, design, and several facsimiles)
Eric Orchard (matching frontis and end pieces)

Original nonfiction:
—“Steampunk: Facts & History” – Ann & Jeff VanderMeer
—“Which is Mightier, the Pen or the Parasol?” Gail Carriger, author of Soulless
—“At the Intersection of Technology & Romance,” Jake von Slatt of the Steampunk Workshop
—“The Future,” a roundrobin interview featuring Libby Bulloff, S.J. Chambers, Jaymee Goh, Margaret “Magpie” Killjoy, Jess Nevins, Mike Perschon, and Diana M. Pho (Ay-leen the Peacemaker)

Original fiction:

Jeffrey Ford, “Dr. Lash Remembers” – A harrowing tale of Steampunk disease that will make you think twice about jumping into an airship.

Ramsey Shehadeh, “The Unbecoming of Virgil Smythe” – A fast-paced, riveting tale of time slips and the perils of colonialism, featuring the enigmatic Dromedons, rebellion, and a very strange train ride.

Vilhelm Bergsoe, “Flying Fish (Prometheus)”, translated by Dwight R. Decker – A novelette from 1869 previously unpublished in English, by a Danish writer. This progressive tale of the dirigible Flying Fish, written in the form of a letter from the future to the past, will dazzle you with its Steampunk stylings and its prescient knowledge of a genre that would not be named for more than another century!

“A Secret History of Steampunk” featuring the following originals:

Mecha-Ostrich’s frame story “An Account of XY and XX: Legacy Robbed, Information Suppressed, Darkness Victorious” (all other materials in this section discovered in the package Mecha-Ostrich sent to the editors prior to the mysterious explosion)

L.L. Hannett and Angela Slatter’s “Notes & Queries: The Curious Case of Physically-Manifested ‘Bed-Sheet Mania'” with related interrogatories on “The Prisoner Queen,” “The Great Air Ferry Disaster,” and Oyster Rime Spores, and including correspondence related to the Mecha-Ostrich’s inquiries. (Note that “Notes & Queries,” first published in the 1800s, appears to have been the inspiration for Ford’s “Dr. Lash Remembers” (see below).

Felix Gilman’s “An Ode, on Encountering a Mecha-Ostrich: Excerpt from a Strange Children’s story.” Children will never be the same after encountering this piece…

Ekaterina Sedia’s “Two Short Excerpts from the Russian Book of the Improbable” – Eclipses and lunar seas collide with robots and airships in these delightful Russian clockwork concoctions presented in their original context as pages from the heretical (and possibly theoretical) Russian Book of the Improbable.

Matthew Cheney’s “Confessions and Complaints of a True Man” – Incontrovertible evidence of Steampunk invention in the time of the American transcendentalists, including mechanized elephants.

Ivica Stevanovic’s “Illustrations from the Serbian Comic Strip ‘American Tinker Under the Influence of Absinthe'”.

Jess Nevin’s “Unpublished Pages from the Encyclopedia of Victoriana,” featuring three failed Steampunk inventions.

Featuring further contributions (reprints) and cameos by Fabio Fernandes, Brian Stableford, Rikki Ducornet, Mary Shelley, Albert Robida’s “Railroad Wars,” and the 1800s Edisonade “Electric Bob’s Big Black Ostrich”.

Amazing Reprint Stories Culled from Broadsheets Far and Wide:

Daniel Abraham, “Balfour and Meriwether in the Adventure of the Emperor’s Vengeance”
Stephen Baxter, “The Unblinking Eye”
G.D. Falksen, “The Strange Case of Mr. Salad Monday”
William Gibson, “The Gernsback Continuum”
Samantha Henderson, “Wild Copper”
Caitlín R. Kiernan “The Steam Dancer (1896)”
Andrew Knighton, “The Cast-Iron Kid”
Marc Laidlaw, “Great Breakthroughs in Darkness”
Margo Lanagan, “Machine Maid”
Tanith Lee, “The Persecution Machine”
Lisa Mantchev & James Grant, “As Recorded on Brass Cylinders: Adagio for Two Dancers”
Shweta Narayan, “The Mechanical Aviary of Emperor Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar”
David Erik Nelson, “The Bold Explorer in the Place Beyond”
Sydney Padua, “Lovelace and Babbage in Origins (with Salamander)” [comic]
Cherie Priest “Tanglefoot”
Chris Roberson, “O One”
Margaret Ronald, “A Serpent in the Gears”
Ramona Szczerba, “The Unlikely Career of Portia Dreadnought,” “Artemesia’s Absinthe,” and “Obadiah Theremin, MD”
Catherynne M. Valente, “The Anachronist’s Cookbook”

Web Exclusives: (in October)

—Jacques Barcia’s story from a Brazilian steampunk antho last year, translated from the Portuguese
–Mike Perschon’s short essay on the future of Steampunk

9 comments on “Steampunk Reloaded…Already Reloaded!!

  1. Richard says:

    Excellent, madam and sir! Looking forward to this….

    *drool*

  2. Strangely enough, I just finished the first Steampunk anthology this afternoon, and this is the first I’ve heard of the forthcoming sequel. I’m glad to see that again you appear to have included a generous helping of writing about the subgenre–it really helped me contextualize the stories in the first volume. Thanks for a great collection, and I’m looking forward to the next one. Cheers!

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  4. porno says:

    I’m glad to see that again you appear to have included a generous helping of writing about the subgenre–it really helped me contextualize the stories in the first volume. Thanks for a great collection, and I’m looking forward to the next one

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