Steampunk Reloaded–Table of Contents
(Rough of the cover)
Without further pomp or ceremony, we present our latest anthology’s full contents. We’re both extremely happy with how it turned out–including materials original to the book and some great reprints at its heart.
UPDATE: Can now confirm that Jacques Barcia’s story from a Brazilian steampunk antho last year, translated from the Portuguese, will appear as a web exclusive in October in connection with the publication of Steampunk Reloaded.
UPDATE 2/24: We’ve confirmed that we’ll also reproduce an installment of Sydney Padua’s Lovelace and Babbage comic in the anthology. – Ann & Jeff
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 155,000 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 of “Raygun Gothicâ€.
Original Art by:
Winona Cookie
John Coulthart
Eric Orchard
Ivica Stevanovic
Original nonfiction by:
Gail Carriger, author of Soulless (fashion and fiction)
Jake Von Slatt of the Steampunk Workshop (maker movement)
Along with thoughts on the future of Steampunk by Mike Perschon, the Steampunk Scholar, and others.
Original fiction by:
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Vilhelm Bergsoe, “Flying Fish (Prometheus)â€, translated by Dwight R. Decker – A novelette from 1869 previously unpublished in English, by a Danish writer.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 further originals by:
Ekaterina Sedia “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.
Jeffrey Ford, “Dr. Lash Remembers†– A harrowing tale of Steampunk disease that will make you think twice about jumping into an airship. It was recently discovered by Dr. Ford in a trunk whilst cleaning out his attic, and most probably penned by one of his forebears. Its original context as an extended fold-out broadsheet from the 1800s will be represented by facsimile.
Matthew Cheney, “Confessions and Complaints of a True Man” – Incontrovertible evidence of Steampunk invention in the time of the American transcendentalists, including mechanized elephants.
As well as contributions by Fabio Fernandes, Brian Stableford, Jess Nevins, and the Steampunk heretic known only as “The Mecha-Ostrich.”
Amazing Reprint Stories Culled from Broadsheets Far and Wide:
Daniel Abraham, “Balfour and Meriwether in the Adventure of the Emperor’s Vengeanceâ€
Stephen Baxter, “The Unblinking Eyeâ€
Winona Cookie, “The Unlikely Career of Portia Dreadnought,†“Artemesia’s Absinthe,†and “Obadiah Theremin, MDâ€
G.D. Falksen, “The Strange Case of Mr. Salad Mondayâ€
William Gibson, “The Gernsback Continuumâ€
Samantha Henderson, “Wild Copperâ€
CaitlÃn R. Kiernan “The Steam Dancer (1896)â€
Andrew Knighton, “The Cast-Iron Kidâ€
Marc Laidlaw, “Great Breakthroughs in Darknessâ€
Margo Lanagan, “Machine Maidâ€
Lisa Mantchev & James Grant, “As Recorded on Brass Cylinders: Adagio for Two Dancersâ€
Shweta Narayan, “The Mechanical Aviary of Emperor Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbarâ€
David Erik Nelson, “The Bold Explorer in the Place Beyondâ€
Cherie Priest “Tanglefootâ€
Chris Roberson, “O Oneâ€
Margaret Ronald, “A Serpent in the Gearsâ€
Catherynne M. Valente, “The Anachronist’s Cookbookâ€
47 comments on “Steampunk Reloaded–Table of Contents”
Go Ramsey and Shweta! Woohoo!
Great line up. I’m really happy to see Narayan’s The Mechanical Aviary made it in. Also, more Sedia is always a good thing.
Does the title have to be Steampunk II: Steampunk Reloaded? Seems a bit redundant. Couldn’t it just be Steampunk Reloaded? For example it was The Matrix Reloaded not The Matrix II: Matrix Reloaded. Love the gun.
Heh. I feel the same way. The publisher seems to want to emphasize that it’s volume 2. We’ll see.
We were also very lucky in the way that some originals just fell into our lap. Note the Danish story–12k–that’s never before been translated. And it’s so cool because it’s actually a progressive story, and also very readable. Doesn’t seem like a period piece, per se. And Jeff Ford’s Steampunk disease story is way cool. Well, hell, we think the whole thing is awesome. And, going in, we had no idea if we were gonna just like doing this project or love it.
Jeff
Beautiful cover!
Lisa Mantchev and Gail Carriger in the same anthology? *swoons*
So happy to see Fábio on the TOC. He´s an awesome writer.
“Tanglefoot”! Whoo!
William Gibson, eh? OK. I’m in. (Have to confess to having only “Extraordinary Engines” and not the first volume in this series. But I will say that clockwork ostriches — there are not nearly enough of them in fiction, are there?
Looking forward to this! Gail’s last name is spelled incorrectly if that helps
What a cool list of names. I’m not even much for steampunk, and that’s an insta-buy.
Donna–yep, a couple are. I thought I had the more recent mock-up and didn’t. I hope to switch it out very shortly. Sorry, all.
Eric–yeah, I mean, every story is identifiable as “Steampunk” but there’re so many different approaches.
Jeff
Oh–and I added an update about a Jacques Barcia story that didn’t quite work out for the anth proper timing-wise, but that will get a lot of attention as a web exclusive.
Jeff
Yay! :D
Yay!
Jeff, what are you gonna do? Mistakes happen :)
Any way you can send info to me on how to carry this in my shoppe? My email addy should be included with this as I see it above. Thanks
It should be available through the same distribution channels as the first volume–thanks for the interest!
Ann, Jeff, great job between you and everyone involved! Glad “Machine Maid” gets a reprint. That’s a worthy tale if there was one. Can’t wait for this on the shelves.
*glees all over the place*
Shweta,
I was just reading one of your stories last night! Very cool to be ToC-mates with you!
B,
D . . .
This is going to be amazing, and I’m not JUST saying that because Shweta and Ramsey are in it. Although I am confident they will play a large role in contributing to its amazingness. The contributor list is really impressive. I’m excited.
yes, I just have to caution the Mecha-Ostrich not to be twee…
Will this be available in Canada in Chapters/Indigo/Coles??? I’m new to steampunk (But I am a fan) and this book looks like a good buy!
should be
Great line-up, and I’m very happy to see Fabio Fernandes in there, and a web exclusive appearance of a Jacques Barcia story (so call me biased…;-).
Looking forward to it!
Thanks, Jetse!
Just added another update above–we can now confirm we will reprint one of Sydney Padua’s Lovelace and Babbage comics in the antho.
Jeff
Fascinating to hear about this. I look forward to reading every bit of it. I’m really looking forward to Narayan’s story based on the title alone, as well as everything else in the collection.
I am so excited to see G. D. Falksen’s fabulous tale in this book. He is a fabulous writer & I am excited so many more shall have the pleasure of reading his wonderful tales!
Thanks Jacques, thanks, Jetse! I’m very happy to be in this book too! It’s great to be in such a wonderful TOC (Come on, Bill Gibson, Kathy Sedia, Brian Stableford AND The Mecha-Ostrich? It’s a dream come true. :-)
Thanks, Ann, Jeff!
Erm, because the Mecha-Ostrich, steampunk heretic, requires some additional assistance, there may be some more material in the book than mentioned above. Will finalize in the next week.
Jeff
oh man oh man……sounds goooooood….
peace and love…..
Congrats, Shweta Narayan. Glad to see your name on the list.
I am so excited to see Ramona Szczerba/Winona Cookie’s included in this. I love her artwork and her intricate histories she creates for each one. I’m really looking forward to seeing it.
Thanks, all. I’m happy to have all the contributors in this book.
Jeff
That’s one impressive list of contents! I’m happy I could help contribute a bit to it! I’m also amazed by how quickly this whole project came together. I heard somewhere that making a book is a lot like making a baby elephant — a lot of kicking up dust and trumpeting at the start, but then nothing much happens for two years. You seem to have cut the time to less than half for this book!
Dwight–you’re a big part of this, a feature attraction. That story just makes the antho so much more complex and complete.
Two things contribute to the speed–Ann and I have done a lot of these and there are two of us to expedite various bits, and Tachyon’s got a good structure in place in terms of deadlines, benchmarks, etc. But the open reading period helped as well. We wound up getting seven stories from it, and also learned of many authors we’ll be looking forward to working with in the future.
Jeff
What a great line-up! Congratulations. Chalk up this sale. Ka-ching.
I’m sharing this submit on Facebook as I could not concur much more.
I just got my book today from Amazon. I can’t wait to dig in. Probably this weekend.
I think that we should promote a local business by making use of a nearby ‘man & van’ to move any large packing
cases.
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