drupagliassotti @ November 15, 2009 # 2 Comments
Wicked Gentlemen Ginn Hale 2007, Blind Eye Books Wicked Gentlemen is a dark and lush gaslamp fantasy set in the Victorianesque city of Crowncross, where the Covenant of Redemption brought Ashmedai, Sariel, and Satanel up from hell to experience baptism and the Great Conversion. Now the demonic offspring of hell’s great princes, the Prodigals, dwell [...]
drupagliassotti @ August 12, 2009 # No Comment Yet
Over the weekend I read China Miéville’s The City & The City, and once again I’m in awe of his apparently limitless imagination. C&C is a much more understated book than, say, Miéville’s Bas-Lag novels, but its premise is startlingly original. Lit grad students take note — The City & The City is as analytically [...]
drupagliassotti @ June 15, 2009 # No Comment Yet
I picked up Gears of the City by Felix Gilman because the cover art made it look steampunk and because I’m a sucker for a good city. Gears isn’t steampunk, but it is very much an “eternal city” novel. Gears of the City introduces a curious cast of characters all struggling to pierce the secret [...]
drupagliassotti @ March 25, 2009 # One Comment
“Did either of you know she looked into a book? A glass book?” “Not at all,” answered Svenson. “Are you sure?” “She said nothing,” muttered Chang. “But when would she have?” admitted Svenson. [...] “The point is that my glass book was empty,” said Elöise, “its intent being to take my memories. But Miss Temple [...]
drupagliassotti @ March 16, 2009 # No Comment Yet
The rain beyond the porch roof sang and pattered and sighed. Electric lamps on the dam blazed all night, every night, but here, with the temple and half the scholarium buildings between, the rain stole all the light. Passageways and cloistered yards were filled with falling sparks, while the buildings were only an absence, a [...]
drupagliassotti @ March 10, 2009 # No Comment Yet
“To the great distress of my only available relative, I have been thrust into the company of two men at the very border — if that — of respectability. This morning we were strangers. In this instant all three of us are without sanctuary. What I want — in fact demand — is that we [...]
drupagliassotti @ March 4, 2009 # No Comment Yet
A few readers have asked me what other books I might recommend that are like Clockwork Heart. The novel that instantly leaps to mind is Paula Volsky’s richly textured The Grand Ellipse (2000). Although it’s primarily gaslamp fantasy, I think fans of steampunk, fantasy, and romance will appreciate it: the main characters possess very Victorian [...]
drupagliassotti @ March 2, 2009 # 5 Comments
As I began reading through “steampunkish” books to review on this site, I realized that it was going to become necessary to differentiate between two very similar genres, steampunk and gaslamp. In everyday discussions of books or movies, it’s quite likely that we’ll use the two terms interchangeably; however, when precision is needed (as in [...]
drupagliassotti @ February 11, 2009 # 4 Comments
The publication of Anima, by Italian manga team Dany & Dany, couldn’t help but get my attention — steampunk boys’ love? Yes, please. But Anima isn’t steampunk fiction in the most traditional sense, which, along with my own work on a Clockwork Heart sequel, has led me to think through what, exactly, determines whether something [...]
drupagliassotti @ November 20, 2008 # No Comment Yet
Last week I read Pandemonium, a first novel by Daryl Gregory, in which the world was altered in the mid-1940s with the appearance of demons — or perhaps Jungian archetypes — that seemed to possess individual humans for hours or weeks to satisfy their mysterious urges. The public has given these demons names based on [...]