SP2: The Steam Dancer by Caitlin R. Kiernan

Episode 2 of my Steampunk November; this post is a couple days late but that's alright because I am in fact caught up with my reading, and I'll be posting a few reviews tonight. So there :P

Kiernan's "The Steam Dancer" was a very different short story from what I've read in the past. Usually, there's a brief introduction and exposition, followed by a climax and resolution (you know, like when you learn about the parts of a book in middle school). This story, however, didn't really go anywhere, which definitely seemed like the entire point to begin with. Missouri Banks is a woman who went from street urchin (think Aladdin) to married woman with a 'career' dancing in Madam Ling's establishment. And honestly, I'm not entirely sure I'm convinced it was a strip club, and not a brothel. But I digress.

Missouri spent many a day on the streets begging for food and money, and after a storm of bugs weakens her to the point of death, she is rescued by a mechanic. The swarm of bugs infected her eye, forearm/hand, and leg, but luckily this mechanic was so generous he built her a new arm, leg, and eye. So, now she's half human, half machine (I'm thinking Cyborg from 'Teen Titans', because I'm a child like that), and dancing for Madam Ling. Apparently women with machine body parts are in high demand, because she's a main attraction. Her mechanical leg burns her one night though, and the mechanic has her stay home and rest the next day so he can fix it to avoid future injury.

Really, this is the entire story. I would have liked a little bit more plot, but I think this story was meant more to represent Kiernan's own upbringing (not literally, of course). Perhaps she was orphaned as a child, but was rescued and put back together. Part of me wanted to feel bad for Missouri, but I think that was just the grim style of writing. She seemed very happy though, in love with her mechanic husband and perfectly content to dance half-dressed with her mechanical arm and leg steaming up and such. As long as you're happy though, right?

Interesting story, although rather lacking in substance. I definitely feel like "The Steam Dancer" should be the first chapter to a much longer story, perhaps even a novella or novel. But, I dream.

I'll be back online in a bit to post 2 more reviews for yesterday's and today's steampunk short stories (check out that alliteration) :)

- Justin

Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice

I can’t even begin to describe how completely sucked into this book I became, right from the start. There was so much passion and intrigue, the characters were phenomenally well done, and this book earned itself 5 out of 5 stars for being so well written and addictive.

From the publisher:
Here are the confessions of a vampire. Hypnotic, shocking, and chillingly erotic, this is a novel of mesmerizing beauty and astonishing force --- a story of danger and flight, of love and loss, of suspense and resolution, and of the extraordinary power of the senses. It is a novel only Anne Rice could write.

My thoughts:
There are few stories that take the vampire and make him into a sensitive, romantic character while still maintaining bloodlust and avoiding sparkling in sunlight.  Interview with the Vampire eroticized this mythical creature, adding a touch of old world passion and romance that can only come from a setting such as New Orleans or Paris (our characters visited both).

Louis is essentially a lost soul, given the gift (curse?) of eternity by L’estat, a materialistic individual who enjoyed using his thirst for blood to obtain wealth and good fortune. All Louis wants is to lead a quiet life, hunting animals instead of people, and learning all he can with his extended life, but L’estat uses his sensitivity to lead him into a darker side of things, starting with Claudia, a young girl L’estat used as leverage against Louis, to stop him from leaving L’estat in pursuit of knowledge and answers to his questions.

Even in the moments when you dislike L'estat, or Claudia, or any of the other characters, you can't help but sit at the edge of your seat, hoping they get out of harm's way, or succeed in whatever they are attempting in the book. I love this feeling, of knowing the characters and feeling them as entities beyond typed words on a page. These fictional characters, particularly Louis, felt more realistic than some people that actually exist!

In my opinion, it's becoming harder to find a book that I cannot put down; that I am sucked into with every fiber of my being. There was little romance in this book, and yet I thought it was more tantalizing and erotic than Fifty Shades of Grey (and it took a lot of cajones for me to actually write this in my blog). Reading Interview with the Vampire made me want to be a vampire, to use my heightened senses to see the world in a way that I could only have dreamed of before. I dare you to read this story without wanting to be a part of it, without feeling yourself feel Louis’ guilt and pain, without being so enthralled that you’re the only person awake on a 6am bus into New York City (I did it several times, because of this book). I am very much looking forward to picking up the rest of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles.

Agreed.

SP1: Fixing Hanover by Jeff VanderMeer

And so we begin with Steampunk November.

"Fixing Hanover" by Jeff VanderMeer

Okay, the lone engineer in a beach village finds a robot in the ocean, and works to repair it and bring it back to life. Simple enough, right? NOPE. Right from the get go, there's a love triangle between our engineer Deniker, Rebecca the Lady Salt (some kind of hot blonde pirate?), and the village's 'leader' Blake. Blake used to sleep with the Lady Salt, who's now sleeping with Deniker. Blake married, but his wife and child died in childbirth. Now he hates Deniker for taking the Lady Salt from him. Soap opera drama.

But, all is not as it seems; the engineer is an escapee from Empire, which strikes me as any world empire from ancient or modern times. He designed airships, which were then used to destroy or take over cities, countries, and basically everything else to continue expanding the Empire. Deniker fled to this beachy town, and all is well until he finds a robot that he decides to fix in an effort to sell to the hill people in order to get money and supplies for the town. I sure hope nothing bad happens..

All in all, I enjoyed this story. I'm looking forward to the genre, because steampunk is so narrow and yet so broad at the same time. "Fixing Hanover" struck me because of the similarities between the Empire's takeover of the world, and England's takeover of the new world, America. Intimidating Native Americans with our technological advances, and destroying them in order to colonize the continent? Yeah, VanderMeer isn't far off the mark with his story. I liked it, and this story makes me more enthusiastic for my month of steampunk.

- Justin

General Updates and (drum roll, please!) November Challenges!

... I cannot even begin to describe how happy I am to be sitting at my computer, at 11:30pm tonight. I lost power on Monday afternoon from Hurricane Sandy, and FINALLY got it back about 15 minutes ago. And no, I did not hop online first thing; I took care of the priorities first (fridge and lights). In any case, I spent my extended weekend reading, and writing. I have a new blog post, in addition to the start of my 2 November challenges I am pleased to say I still managed to start on time :)

NONFICTION NOVEMBER!!

Because I don't read many nonfiction books, I figured now would be as good a time as any to start. I spent October getting through a few horror/thriller books that have been waiting on my shelf (Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice, The Passage and The Twelve by Justin Cronin, and The Likeness by Tana French, along with 7 other non-themed books), and wanted to expand my horizons with a nonfiction list. This month, I'll be working through this list:

The Rise of Rome by Anthony Everitt
No Easy Day by Mark Owen
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
The Butcher by Philip Carlo
War by Sebastian Junger
To the Last Breath by Francis Slakey
Rin Tin Tin by Susan Orlean
Pacific Crucible by Ian Toll
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

Hopefully I'll be able to get through a few of these (at least 4; I'm doing well with reading at least a book a week). Additionally, it's also...

STEAMPUNK NOVEMBER!
Last October, I gave myself a short story challenge- to read a short story a day for each day in October. Over the summer, I picked up an anthology of steampunk short stories, because it was on sale and I want to get more into the genre. It's got 30 stories, so November makes sense (I didn't think about it in September, so here we are now). I'll read a story a day, and post my thoughts on it. I will also be posting extra reviews this week, since I fell behind, want to catch up, and haven't had a chance to post them in a while. It's called The Mammoth Book of Steampunk edited by Sean Wallace(ISBN #9780762444687 if anyone's interested in reading a story a day with me). I'm really looking forward to this, it's basically my reward for going outside my comfort zone and reading nonfiction :P Not that I'm not looking forward to that too, since I get to learn new things and open my mind up to a whole separate section of books. I just like fictional made up stuff.

So anyway, keep a sharp eye on this blog, because I'll be all over it this month :)
PS, I hope everyone affected by Hurricane Sandy is alright, and that everything will get back to normal soon. I don't know what I'm going to do, with all my shore stops destroyed like they are.. BUT, we're New Jersey. Bars were open last night, and I highly doubt that any shore town will let this storm keep them down.

Looking forward to getting back in blog-mode this month!!
- Justin