“Pastworld” by Ian Beck
If there’s one thing fantasy readers want – especially from steampunk tales – it’s sensory immersion. A flood of sights, sounds and smells that make us feel we’re living in another world. Ian Beck does that, in loving and exquisite detail. It is his greatest strength.
The rest of this review has been moved to Comfy Chair, where I get paid for it.
That fits with my thoughts from reading it, too.
W: interesting. I deliberately searched out steampunk books before writing my own, and quite a few of them failed to impress.
It’s like a lot of things that have a small but fanatical market – things get published (and quickly!) that perhaps shouldn’t have been, or could have done with a more thorough editing. In addition, because it’s a side market, it’s mostly smaller publishers who perhaps don’t have the skills on hand or the throughput for it.
W: Agreed. “Small but fanatical market” is a perfect description of the steampunk crowd. I do think something will break through into the mainstream at some point, and then we’ll REALLY get some dodgy imitations (as is already happening in arts and crafts and, above all, tagging).
That really a pretty awfully written passage….. So much redundant language, and so awkward..
Ann: It wasn’t an easy book to get through, that’s for sure. I’m glad you feel my pain.
I tend to find that I prefer my steampunk in small doses – short stories and novellas are just my ticket. (I really loved N.K. Jemisin’s piece for Steam-Powered, for example.) I just can’t seem to stay with the longer ones!
I tend to find that I prefer my steampunk in small doses. Short stories and novellas are just my ticket. I loved N.K. Jemisin’s piece for Steam-Powered, but despite being very excited about it, could just not get into a very popular book that had something to do with a clockwork automaton revolution (and, pointedly, can’t even remember the name or author, although I do have a fuzzy image of the cover in my head).
Bah! My apologies for the duplicate.
Jaqbuncad: Don’t worry about the duplicate. It just makes me look more popular than I really am.
That’s interesting about steampunk lengths. I like the more recent steampunk, when there wasn’t so much technobabble.