Tag Archives: Catherine Schaff-Stump

The Mammoth Book of Dieselpunk edited by Sean Wallace

Overview
Image result for the mammoth book of dieselpunk book cover

Title: The Mammoth Book of Dieselpunk
Author: Sean Wallace, Jay Lake, Shannon Page, Carrie Vaughn, Anatoly Belilovsky, E. Catherine Tobler, Jeremiah Tolbert, Brian Trent, Rachel Nussbaum, Trent Hergenrader, Gwynne Garfinkle, Genevieve Valentine, Joseph Ng, A.C. Wise, Kim Lakin-Smith, Nick Mamatas, Costi Gurgu, Tony Pi, Cirilo S. Lemos, Erin M. Hartshorn, Dan Rabarts, Mark Robert Philips, Catherine Schaff-Stump & Laurie Tom
Series: Mammoth Books
In: The Mammoth Book of Dieselpunk (Sean Wallace)
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Dieselpunk, Science fiction, Short story collections
Dates read: 18th March 2019 – 25th March 2020
Pace: Slow
Format: Anthology
Publisher: Robinson
Year: 2015
5th sentence, 74th page: The gremlins will be inside everything given long enough and they just want out.

Synopsis

21 tales of anarchic diesel mayhem. 88 From multiple Hugo Award-winning editor Sean Wallace, a new, cutting-edge anthology of twenty-one vibrant stories that explore the possibilities of history, while sweeping readers into high-powered, hydrocarbon-fuelled adventures that merge elements of noir, pulp, and the past with the technology of today… and sometimes a dash of the occult.

Journey into an era when engines were huge, fuel was plentiful and cheap, and steel and chrome overlaid the grit and grease of powerful machines!

Includes stories by Erin Hartshorn, Trent Hergenrader, Tony Pi, Catherine Schaff-Stump, E. Catherine Tobler, Jeremiah Tolbert, Laurie Tom, Genevieve Valentine, A. C. Wise and many more.

Thoughts

I’ve recently started to thoroughly enjoy steampunk. But this was my first excursion into Dieselpunk. And what an excellent introduction this proved to be! I was enthralled, mystified and totally sunk into some of the stories in this collection. And although it might not be my favourite collection of short stories… it certainly ranks up there.

I found this collection a lot darker than steampunk collections. There is just something about Dieselpunk that is a little more critical, and a little less optimistic than steampunk. Or at least, that’s how I’m finding it. Not that that was a bad thing, but this was certainly a darker collection than the steampunk collections and novels that have been filling my shelves lately.

As much as I loved these short stories, I did take a long time to read this collection. Mostly because I had to be in a pretty specific mindset to actually read them. There is something a little less approachable and more intense about this genre that I both loved and also found a little hard to factor into my daily reading schedules.

<- The Mammoth Book of Dickensian WhodunnitsRolling Steel: A Pre-Apocalyptic Love Story ->

Image source: Running Press

Mountains of Green by Catherine Schaff-Stump

Overview
Image result for the mammoth book of dieselpunk book cover

Title: Mountains of Green
Author: Catherine Schaff-Stump
In: The Mammoth Book of Dieselpunk (Sean Wallace)
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Dieselpunk
Dates read: 23rd March 2020
Pace: Medium
Format: Short story
Publisher: Robinson
Year: 2015
5th sentence, 74th page: Surely, one of those Hakodate women would want something like this at a good price.

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Synopsis

She’s a thirteen year-old fighting to create her and her little brother a new life at the close of the war. But will she have to give up her morals and parts of her soul so that they can survive?

Thoughts

At the beginning of this story I had a kind of sick feeling in my stomach. As the story unfolded, that feeling grew. And then… the conclusion was reached. And the sick feeling left and I was actually incredibly happy with the way that the story ended. And the karma that was dealt out. There was such a great sense of poetic justice to this story. That I seriously, seriously appreciated.

This short story shone a light on the atrocities committed against the native populations throughout World War II and in the occupation afterwards. More specifically, it focuses on the survivors of Hiroshima and the ways in which they were preyed upon… in the case of this story, preyed upon by literally everyone. It left me with an uncomfortable, guilty feeling. But also made me seriously appreciate the story that I was reading.

There is a great little Dieselpunk twist at the end of this story. One that incorporates a little bit of mythology and magic. A little bit of karma and a lot of better feelings than what the story started with. A great short story, and a pleasant way to break up all of the work that I need to do.

<- Dragonfire is Brighter Than the Ten Thousand StarsThe Wings The Lungs, The Engine The Heart ->

Image source: Running Press