Nick Gevers

I am a fan of short stories, and of themed anthologies as a rule, and this was a very good one. While it's being presented as a book of Steampunk stories, it seems many of the contributing writers have only a rudimentary understanding of Steampunk as a set of aesthetics, which is what I think makes the collection so very interesting. Fantasy writers not known for their Steampunk aesthetic try their hand at some 19th Century Ghosts Stories with terrific results. Gene Wolfe has the very show more compelling "Why I Was Hanged", and John Harwood gives us "Face to Face" and darkly disturbing exploration of the Myth of the Fatal Book (one of my favorite tropes). And Peter Beagle's "Music, When the Soft Voices Die" was equal parts terrifying and heartbreaking.

Another reason I tend to like themed anthologies, is that it is a way I often discover new readers. "Kiss Me Deadly" introduced me to Caitlin Kittredge's "Iron Codex" series, and "The Eternal Kiss" gave me Holly Black's *tremendous* "The Coldest Girl in Coldtown". "Ghosts by Gaslight", too, introduced me to new (to me) writers from whom I am anxious to hear more: Theodora Goss (her "Christopher Raven" was lovely. Part allegory, part cautionary tale), and Margo Lanagan to name only two.

I was also interested to see how the Victorian tropes were used throughout -- authors made great use of both travelogues and correspondance.

I recommend this for lovers of dark and elegant stories -- there is not much here to truly keep you up at night, but sometimes an elegant shiver is what I want more. show less

In writing class, all aspiring writers are told to avoid 3 big clichés. Never describe your main character by having them look at themselves in a mirror. Never make your character a perfect Mary Sue. And never base your stories around dreams.

The Book of Dreams is an eloquent "up yours!" by Nick Gevers to that last piece of advice; a short chapbook composed of 5 stories, all of them based in (if not entirely composed of) the realm of Oneiros. It's an excellent short collection and I highly show more recommend it.

*** - "The Prisoner" by Robert Silverburg - The first, and probably weakest, of the bunch. Silverburg's short story about a man plagued by nightmares of another man trapped in his dreams is well written and fun to read, but the payoff is predictable and a bit of a letdown. For all the buildup, the revelation should have been something more.

**** - "Dream Burgers at the Mouth of Hell" by Lucius Shepard - A cynical story about an up and coming screenwriter who discovers the true source of Hollywood's success and inspiration, and the price he'll have to pay to get it. Extremely well written, funny, and totally unpredictable.

**** - "Testaments" by Jay Lake - A bleak tale of the dreams of prophecy of conquerors throughout history, and of their victims, including the conquerors themselves. A good story with excellent, but deliberately oblique prose. Not exactly sure of the author's theme by the end. Felt like a story I'd need to read a few times to fully understand. Not that that's a bad thing.

***** - "Rex Nemorensis" by Kage Baker - The best of the bunch. A story that is both horrifying and heartbreaking at once, about an old veteran of the Vietnam war who searches and finally finds a new purpose, and a new god, in his dreams of the jungle. This is my first exposure to Baker's work, and short as it is, it still makes me lament the fact that she died suddenly of cancer earlier this year. A real loss to the field.

***** - "86 Deathdick Road" by Jeffery Ford - Runner up for best of the bunch. A story that begins with a visit to the smartest man in the world and then somehow devolves into a battle with killer owls, before ending with a lament to lost love. An excellent choice for wrapping up the anthology. By turns hilarious, horrific, bizarre, and forlorn, it's almost like a--well, do I really need to say it? show less

This collection is the first work of steampunk I have sampled, save for its period progenitors in the forms of Mary Shelley, Verne, Poe, and Wells, which I have enjoyed immensely. Therefore, I am unable to put it into any perspective with respect to other works in this sub-genre. That I cannot rave about Extraordinary Engines may say more about the feelings I am newly discovering for steampunk in general than about this book. I respect the work of editor Nick Gevers, having enjoyed his show more columns in Locus magazine.

I came to the book excited to understand what this brand of literature was about, and I ended up not especially drawn to it. For me it feels limiting, authors fitting themselves into particular tropes and settings. I prefer the more open and unlimited canvasses of SF and fantasy. Or the period literature, which to me feels more natural in its telling.

Of the stories in this collection, I most enjoyed the satirical and well-played "Lady Witherspoon’s Solution" by James Morrow; "Hannah" by Keith Brooke which might be a new form: gothic steampunk (or perhaps that’s just the punk in the steampunk); and "The Dream of Reason" by Jeffrey Ford, playing on the familiar Victorian theme of the brilliant and singular gentleman-scientist. show less

Steampunk is far and away one of my favorite escapist genres to explore. The playful Victorian aesthetics aside, there is something quite freeing in the retro-futuristic landscape of the worlds it encompasses. It allows for us to play in a setting where things were perhaps a bit more stifling for anyone that wasn’t a white, upper class man, and oftentimes show women who are going against the grain a bit. More recently, a subgenre of steampunk has emerged, that takes the ideas of steampunk, show more and focuses it less on scienes and gadgets and more on the Gothic horror literature of the Victorian era. This genre is aptly called dreadpunk.

Ghosts By Gaslight is a collection of steampunk horror fiction, falling squarely into the perimeters of dreadpunk. Naturally, I was very excited to see so many things I loved come together into one collection of short stories, as Gothic horror has such a unique charm for me. But did Ghosts By Gaslight manage to meet my hopeful expectations? Unfortunately, the answer is a very strong no.

Full review: https://thebechdelscream.wordpress.com/2015/09/22/ghosts-by-gaslight/ show less