I promised you guys a full post on Steam-Powered II: More Lesbian Steampunk Stories, right? I cannot and should not write my usual sort of unbiased review for this book, so instead you are going to get some information on each story and WHY IT IS AWESOME which will be extremely biased, but also very true. So, going down the table of contents!


Journey's End: I am most biased of all about this one, so we'll try and get the gushing out of the way early, but . . . it's so awesome! It's about an engineer who makes the decision to accompany her sentient airship on its final ride, and it's quiet and gorgeous and hopeful and probably has my favorite airship in fiction and I love it to pieces, okay?

Amphitrite: This is a short and excellent story about a badass Cuban lady engineer, and her stolen submarine, and her romance with an inquisitive MERMAID, at which point I just started laughing with delight and did not stop.

In the Heart of the Yellow Mountain: In steampunk, civil service exams involve solving giant labyrinth mazes of mechanical puzzles! Which is a cool enough premise in and of itself, but add in a backstabbing partnership between two competent ladies with a razor-sharp dynamic full of class issues and complicated backstory, and I am in love.

Playing Chess in New Persepolis: The romance in this one takes place during an international competition between engineers playing GIANT MECHANICAL CHESS, in which the players have to both build and repair their own players and be really good at chess, which is such an awesome idea for a tournament that I now really wish it was part of the Olympics or something so that I could watch it!

A Thousand Mill Lofts Gray: So I read the ARC, including this story, almost right after I read a book about Yiddish theater on the Lower East Side, and then spent the whole story beaming because I kept recognizing bits! It's about a Jewish seamstress with a mechanical hand and her romance with a reformer, and class and labor issues, and the character voices and the setting and all are totally brilliant, but really my favorite part is when they go to see a Yiddish play about lesbians and I was like THAT WAS A REAL PLAY, I READ ABOUT IT!

Dark Horse: This is exactly the kind of story I love to see full of women, because it so rarely is - there's a mysterious lady spy, and a mercenary from an all-female Moroccan corps who cheerfully lets herself get recruited to help out with the spy hijinks because the lady is hot, and then there is lots of sneaking around and secret codes and it's all just enormous amounts of fun.

The Return of Cherie: Okay, so this is full of complicated and fascinating relationships and complicated and fascinating politics in Africa, but I think all I really need to tell you guys is that the characters in it are based on Colette and E. Nesbit and J.M. Barrie and Zora Neale Hurston and you should be sold, right?

One Last Interruption Before We Begin: The awesome Malaysian Chinese protagonist of this story is on the verge of getting involved with a revolutionary movement to change her country for the better, and - man, I was just so happy to see a story like this, that is all the things I like, since I somehow ended up writing my own revolutionary story for the collection from the point of view of people who don't like revolution at all!

Selin That Has Grown In the Desert: This story is just kind of adorable - it's set on the steppes, about a young girl who is just starting to figure out her own sexuality, and her friendship with a woman from far away, and figuring out a way to be herself within her culture. I wanted to hug everybody in it.

Granada's Library: . . . this one is mine! So, uh, Andalusia, middle-aged ladies, steampunk library, crisis of faith, revolution, let's move on.

The Canary of Candletown: This is an awesome example of social protest steampunk that tackles class issues head-on; it's about mining, and labor revolts, and a woman who has been agitating for change for years meeting a woman to whom it had never occurred she could protest at all.

Fruit Jar Drinkin', Cheatin' Heart Blues: The voice in this story is just so incredibly strong and stellar that it threw me into it one hundred and ten percent. The protagonists here make the best moonshine for miles, so when they get in a huge breakup, followed by a even more huge feud, EVERYONE SUFFERS. Hilariously.

Deal: As I've said before, I can't compete with the author's own summary for her story - "Alt-western silver-mining tall tale. Midwife vs. Pinkertons!" So all I will add is that the voice in this story is also incredible, the tall tales amazing, and the whole thing completely delightful.

Not the Moon But the Stars: What I really like about this story is that it takes a really thoughtful look at the way the introduction of technology can change a culture . . . of course, I am also fascinated by the fact that it is an alternate universe in which the point of change centers around BUDDHA. (Also there are robots!)

The Terracotta Bride: In a very bureaucratic Chinese underworld, a dead girl married off to a powerful man finds herself caught in complex relationships with her husband's stylish and powerful ex-wife and his new junior bride, who is an automaton made out of clay. Have I mentioned I am in awe of the way Zen Cho's brain works? I try to describe how much I love this story and I just end up flailing my hands around, which is as good a way as any to end this write-up, I guess.

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