Title: The Armature of Flight
Author: Sharon Mock
In: The Mammoth Book of Steampunk (Sean Wallace)
Rating Out of 5: 3 (On the fence about this one)
My Bookshelves: LGBTQI, Steampunk
Pace: Slow
Format: Short story
Publisher: Robinson
Year: 2010
5th sentence, 74th page: “If you like.”

Leo and William are in love, but Leo has obligations and William needs to find a way to stand on his own two feet. Will they find a way to make it work together? Or will life and all its pitfalls get in the way?

I really don’t know how I felt about this story. The idea of love and loss was a good theme. The use of two homosexual men and their roles in their societies was fun. But this just didn’t grab me and sweep me away like so many other stories in The Mammoth Book of Steampunk. And, since I liked all of the concepts in this, I was really disappointed in myself for not being swept away.

This is one of those weird stories that I can tell you all of the activities throughout. But I can’t really tell you what happened in it. The activities and the actions yes, but the actual emotional, social, psychological aspects of the story? I really don’t know. And these are the parts of the stories that I really love… which is why I gave this short story a lower rating. It was still really good, but nothing that really grabbed me in any way, shape or form…

Image source: Amazon