Extraordinary Engines, edited by Nick Gevers - Despite the subtitle "The Definitive Steampunk Anthology", a very bold statement to make right after the publication of Ann and Jeff Vandermeer´s antho Steampunk, this book, on the other hand, presents us with authors like Jeffrey Ford, James Morrow, Robert Reed, James Lovegrove, Kage Baker, Ian R. MacLeod, Margo Lanagan, Keith Brooke, Adam Roberts, Jeff VanderMeer and Jay Lake. I´ll be starting to read it right away.
Necropath - Eric Brown - I have already reviewed two Brown books, Helix and Kéthani, and I can´t wait to begin reading this Bengal Station novel. I didn´t read the first novel, Bengal Station, and, while I´m kind of a grumpy reader (which means that I´d definitely rather reading the first stories first, and the more recent stories later), I´m in for a paradigm change - what the hell, I´m an SF buff and literature addict, so of course I´m going to read it!
Thanks to Mark Newton for sending the books.
illustration by Fabio Cobiaco
They're actual good companion volumes in that our antho is all reprints, classics of Steampunk, and this is all originals. But you're right that it can't be "definitive" by any standard, because it's just an all-original antho, unless it's "the definitive volume of contemporary steampunk stories".
JeffV
Yes, you´re right, Jeff, they are companion volumes. I hadn´t thought of it. That makes me all the more eager to read it.
The thing is: I want it.