One-sentence summary: Three steampunk short stories: Queen Victoria disappears and is replaced by a newt-human hybrid; naturalist Agassiz is sucked into a bizarre plot involving the pickled remains of the Hottentot Venus; and Emily Dickinson meets Walt Whitman and has a Spiritualist experience.

Why did you get this book?: Brief steampunk lit obsession

Do you like the cover?: Yes.

Did you enjoy the book?: Sort of? On one level, yes, definitely -- the writing was great and the plotting lovely, and the steampunk ambiance was delicious. But even though the second story in the collection, 'Hottentots', was meant (I assume) to be tongue-in-cheek, it was so racist I was embarrassed to read it in public, for fear of someone reading over my shoulder. ( )

The first story, Victoria, is really a mere appetizer for the other two, which are like your very funnest historical fever dreams.

Hottentots takes a Venture Bros. episode and mashes it up with some history and a bit of the Cthulhu mythos, with a bunch of extreme accents thrown in just for fun. (Unfortunately, the part about the genitalia of Saartjie "Sarah" Baartman, the Hottentot Venus, being removed and preserved is absolutely true...as is the part about her being put in a cage and being displayed throughout Europe until she died of pneumonia, which you would, too, if you were stuck in a cage, minimally clothed, and prodded at like that.)

Walt and Emily is also quite fun, especially for those English majors out there...you know who you are...and other lovers of poetry. I shall say no more so as not to spoil it.

This book doesn't come across to me as what we now know as the "steampunk" genre, but more of a straight-up alternative history. Mostly, though, it's wink-wink, nudge-nudge fun for the literary set, although the sci-fi tag might drive the same away. (Snobs!) ( )