Tag Archives: Erin M. Hartshorn

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

Blood and Gold by Erin M. Hartshorn

Overview
Image result for the mammoth book of dieselpunk book cover

Title: Blood and Gold
Author: Erin M. Hartshorn
In: The Mammoth Book of Dieselpunk (Sean Wallace)
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: DieselpunkDragons
Dates read: 8th March 2020
Pace: Fast
Format: Short story
Publisher: Robinson
Year: 2015
5th sentence, 74th page: The other dragons had come too close that time.

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Synopsis

He’s a dragon who is looking for a new place to make his own. When he finds what he’s looking for… he will reign down blood and gold.

Thoughts

I really liked the use of a dragon in a Dieselpunk story. It was certainly different and unexpected. The imagery of him curled around the skeleton of the Chrysler building (even though I don’t know what the Chrysler building looks like) were kind of brilliant and poignant. And it gave this very industrial, turn of the century feel to the storyline. There was just something great and unique about this.

At first, I felt like the dragon would be somehow beneficent and a bit of a protector of the city. There seemed something about him that kind of screamed justice. And then I continued onwards with the story. And realised that that wasn’t really the case. He was just greedy and finding a way to gain the blood and gold that he needed.

Although I prefer my dragon stories to be about the powers, might and just simply placing the dragon on the “right” side of the argument, I kind of liked that this wasn’t about that. Sure, the power and might were there. But it was more about that traditional image of a dragon – one that wants power, might and gold. And really doesn’t give a damn about us measely little humans. It was nice to go back to something a little more traditional…

<- Act of ExterminationFloodgate ->

Image source: Running Press