Title: Tom Edison and His Amazing Telegraphic Harpoon
Author: Jay Lake
In: The Mammoth Book of Steampunk (Sean Wallace)
Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect)
My Bookshelves: Adventure, Steampunk, Wild west
Pace: Fast
Format: Short story
Publisher: Robinson
Year: 2008
5th sentence, 74th page: Legendary as they were, there were no whispered tales of the might monsters’ defeat in battle.

Tom Edison and his friend Salmon face up against one of the Nephilm. With a telegraphic harpoon in The Age of Reason.

Well. This was not what I was expecting. I thought something that featured Tom Edison would be a lot more concise and filled with a little less fantasy. But it was like a mad, crazy wild western tale that featured someone who is completely obsessed with electricity.

It wasn’t until the very end that I figured out why Edison and Salmon’s relationship was kind of secretive. It almost had homosexual undertones to it. Then, in the final pages, he was called ‘negro’. And, seeing as this is based in the wild west, I completely understood it. And it made this story all the better for me. I loved that this was fast-paced and filled with action. That it also touches on racism just made it all the better in my eyes.

Image source: Amazon