Author: Scott Kinkade

Today we have Lexa Roi Clarke’s steampunk novel, Skyskipper (The Ballad of Bailey Jo).

The story takes place in a fictional nineteenth-century world. Lonely orphan Bailey Jo (no last name) makes a living as a transporter. Whether it’s people or contraband, she’ll deliver it for you.

At the novel’s outset, she makes a rather rough landing in the town of Wellington while transporting a group of people there in her airship Draggle. The passengers angrily disembark and Bailey Jo proceeds to steal a part she needs to fix the dirigible. She soon runs into a street performer named Ollie Arkwright, who greatly upsets her by pretending to destroy her most cherished possession.

Today I’m reviewing the latest volume in Cherie Priest’s Clockwork Century series that began with Boneshaker. The novel is Fiddlehead.

Like the other books in the series, the story takes place in an alternate 1880 United States where the Civil War is still being fought. This entry centers around Gideon Bardsley, a former slave-turned-inventor who has created the world’s first computer, a gigantic calculating machine called the Fiddlehead.

Today we have the steampunk fantasy novel Hope and the Clever Man by Mike Reeves-McMillan. We wouldn’t want to keep the gnomes waiting, so here we go.

The protagonist is a girl named Hope at Merrybourne, who lives at Merrybourne manor in the region of Koskant. When she was eight years old, she displayed a talent for magic, so her father arranged for her to be tutored in the magical arts. This goes on until it comes time for her to choose a college to attend.

She gains a scholarship to the University of Illene. She joins their magic program and does very well until a certain incident almost derails her stay there. You see, she dates a young man named Faithful and all seems well. Unfortunately, she catches him in bed with another girl.

Taking place in a fictional nineteenth-century world, Tanya Huff’s vaguely steampunk novel The Silvered starts off in the country of Aydori.

Young Mirian Maylin’s parents want her to marry into the Pack — Aydori’s ruling class of werewolves. The Pack traditionally only marries Mage-pack, female magic users. Nevertheless, Mirian’s mother is hopeful she’ll make the cut; marrying Pack would ensure status and prosperity for their family.

Sadly, these simple dreams don’t last long. The Kresentian Empire soon invades Aydori.

Today I’m bringing you my review of Cindy Spencer Pape’s steampunk novel Moonlight and Mechanicals, part of her Gaslight Chronicles series.

I’m actually not sure which book in the series it is, since the Amazon page doesn’t say and the story contains numerous references to the characters’ previous adventures, so I’m just going to treat this as a stand-alone story.

Rachel Eliason’s Building Beauty certainly has a plot and setting that distinguish it from other steampunk stories.

Taking place during World War I, the protagonist is a young man named Alejandro (although the Amazon page says “Alexander”) serving in the Russian army who is sent to Siberia for a special assignment.

When he arrives he is quickly taken to a factory that builds automatons. The officer in charge explains that there is a “social disease” of Russian soldiers frequenting brothels. Things would be so much better, he says, if the troops could be… err… serviced by an automaton in the form of a common prostitute.

Today’s Kindle pick is George Griffith’s steampunk epic, The Angel of the Revolution, A Tale of the Coming Terror. At around 446 pages, it’s a story you can sink many hours into.

The plot concerns Richard Arnold, a young man in England at the beginning of the twentieth century who devotes his life to creating the world’s first fully functional airship. After years of effort, he finally succeeds, but at the expense of everything else in his life — to the point that he finds himself broke and about to be thrown out of his home.

Ever wondered what would it would be like if someone wrote a steampunk version of Alice in Wonderland? Well, wonder no more, for Jason G. Anderson’s Gears of Wonderland is here to show you!

James Riggs has a lousy girlfriend and a lousy job. But, as he soon discovers, things can get so much worse.

He witnesses his oldest friend murdered at the hands of a hulking assailant and narrowly avoids becoming the next victim when a mysterious man in white pushes him down a hole. He ends up in a strange Victorian city and is informed by a gun-toting woman named Kara that it’s actually Wonderland.

He thought it was just a book, but it’s all too real.