Full Steam Ahead edited by
Kortnee Bryant
(Raconteur Press, January 2024, 275 pp., pb)
“Bentley and Fullhead’s Armored Joy Shoppe” by E.C. Ratliff
“Call Me Sunny” by TC Ross
“Cloud Buster” by Spearman Burke
“Enter the Errant” by Evan Tarbell
“Innovation” by Erin Furby
“Steamed Dinosaur with a Side of Zombie” by Christopher Markman
“510 to Marakaj” by Peter Delcroft
“Beauregard Tremayne and the Sciuridae Dragoons” by Wally Waltner
“Flight of the Steely Dan: On the causes, Construction and Flight of the First Facinus to Enter Warp Space” by Jesse Barrett
“Gentlemen of Brave Metal” by Lee Allred
Reviewed by Mina
Almost every brand of steampunk comes out to play in this anthology: a delight for lovers of this genre.
“Bentley and Fullhead’s Armored Joy Shoppe” by E.C. Ratliff is full of machines running on steam, on ground and in the air. Texan Thomas and his Cuban-German wife Jerry are attending the Second Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace in London in 1882. In a nice twist, it’s Jerry who is the engineering genius but she supports Thomas making mechanical toys, some to sell and some to give away. Their mobile shop breaks down but they decide to still attend the exhibition even if they cannot take part. The great Isambard Kingdom Brunel himself will be taking part (my history teacher was obsessed with the Industrial Revolution so Brunel was a school hero of mine). Thomas and Jerry are invited to become part of a team to build a new engine but Thomas gets waylaid by a little girl stealing one of his mechanical toys. There follows a series of events whereby he gets to meet Brunel. The story feels a bit too crammed with details but it is meant to be light and frothy.
In “Call Me Sunny” by TC Ross, we meet fifteen-year-old Sunny who has a clockwork arm. It has taken him months to learn how to move it properly. Today, he is on the test flight for an air schooner. But the air isn’t safe and Sunny must use all his wits to fight a dragon as the ship is evacuated, armed only with a malfunctioning revolver and a knife. Help comes from an unexpected quarter. The tale leaves you wishing you could stay a bit longer in this world. Tick, tick, tick.
“Cloud Buster” by Spearman Burke is the bastard child of steampunk and Captain Horatio Hornblower. HM’s aerostat, The Tempest, flees its encounter with the much larger cloud buster, SMS Grusel, which can manipulate the weather and carries a lethal electric weapon that is like being struck by lightning. A young lieutenant comes up with a plan to hijack the much larger airship. It will mean risking all in a bloody battle. This will be up your street if you like long fight scenes.
“Enter the Errant” by Evan Tarbell starts with Rill returning home on an airship. She is almost a fully-fledged Errant who is trained in fighting and spellwork, amongst other things. As she winds her way through the streets to her destination, thinking only of food and a bed, she answers a Request from the City Watch to aid with rescuing some kidnapped teenagers. The story irritates in that it sows interesting tidbits then follows none of them, leaving the reader deflated.
“Innovation” by Erin Furby is a lovely tale. A lot of steampunk gets carried away with world building, machines and details, but this story remains human. We care about the characters as well as being interested in the blend of magic and industrialisation. Ximena arrives in the city to help her aunt and uncle with their children. In the train, she meets the heir of a lace factory and he learns of her ability to spellweave. His actions seem honorable but what of those of his friend?
“Steamed Dinosaur with a Side of Zombie” by Christopher Markman has some intriguing ideas, like zombie dinosaurs. This is a story for fans of complicated steam machines, who also have nostalgia for cowboy and Indian movies. Of course, it’s no longer acceptable to have two-dimensional red Indians as baddies, so the story is careful to give them justified motivation in raising zombies to fight for them. The cowboys are soldiers using a huge, crab-like tank, running on steam, to fight zombie dinosaurs and the enraged spirits of buffalo. No Indian is harmed but lots of white men die, whilst still remaining heroes. I fully understand the need to add accuracy to the portrayal of the First Nations but the author clearly couldn’t stomach turning the white man into the baddie either. Quite a conundrum. If you’re writing an alternative history: why not have the cowboys and Indians join forces against a common enemy? My biggest gripe with this tale though is the ending that is not an ending.
“510 to Marakaj” by Peter Delcroft mixes steam trains with elementals. Pacha works as an elemental engineer, coaxing water, fire and steam elementals to run the train’s engine. The train Pacha is on is transporting medical supplies. As it crosses the Great Salt Swamp, the train is hijacked by raiders. Pacha bonds with a water elemental to save the day. This tale is a good mix of world building and story, and the elementals are fun. For those who, like me, have a soft spot for action on a moving train.
In “Beauregard Tremayne and the Sciuridae Dragoons” by Wally Waltner, clockwork and steam meet James Bond. Beau is a spy whose handler sends him to recover stolen papers and a prototype, along with the kidnapped scientist. The story is not at all original, the escape preposterous and the ending predictable. But it’s a light read with the fun being in the details: pens with hidden tricks, Canadians as the enemy, giant flying squirrels and an airship with its own dairy.
“Flight of the Steely Dan: On the causes, Construction and Flight of the First Facinus to Enter Warp Space” by Jesse Barrett is light. After almost being destroyed in battle, Arc and Donny are stranded on a world running on steam. The locals help them to rebuild their ship with local materials, compounds of wood and metal, and steam power. The fun in the tale is how the author manages to suggest that the rebuilt ship looks like male gonads flying through space, from the shape to the colour to how its weapons fire.
The world building in “Gentlemen of Brave Metal” by Lee Allred is interesting: Mormon meets Wild West meets weird contraptions meets the moon. Oh and a giant cuttlefish, Babbage machines and mad scientists. It shouldn’t work but it does. In this tale, Agent Widtsoe finds himself under compulsion to help a scientist equip a railcar to fly to the moon. The might of alchemy.