Steampunk Links for January 29, 2010
This week’s links includes steampunked cell phones, Abraham Lincoln, Neosteam, pictures of squids, French steampunk, H.G. Wells on Fritz Lang, raptor masks, and a steampunk superhero.
Archive for January 2010
The Dragon is a Dragon: Sarah Monette
The other side of the story–Megan’s recovery from the dragon–comes from something I’ve realized recently is a theme in my work (and dude, you have no idea how weird it is to be saying that: “one of the principal thematic elements in Monette’s work is …”), namely what happens to heroes after they save the world.
Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan is a thoroughly delightful Young Adult novel, the first in a series based on an alternate history World War I. In this history Charles Darwin discovered the genetic basis for evolution, and how to manipulate it. As a result the United Kingdom and its allies have a society based on biotechnology, an example of which is the airship Leviathan, a huge beast (or colony of organisms) based on whale DNA and much more. By contrast the Germans, Austrians, and their allies, called Clankers, use steampunk-flavored machinery: airplanes and zeppelins, but also great walking land war machines.
After the Dragon by Sarah Monette (audio)
This month’s audio fiction is After the Dragon written by Sarah Monette and read by Sarah Tolbert
Legion: Get Thee Behind Me
A grinding gunfest, ridiculous and dull by turns, Legion is the sort of movie that makes you wonder how no one involved raised a hand at some point and said, “So…is this really what we’re going to go with?”
After the Dragon
Sightseers come to Dragon’s Beach, but they don’t stay long. The rough glass of the beach is too dangerous to walk on, the earth crumbles horribly beneath your feet, and besides, there isn’t anything to see. Just a weird rock formation and some holes in the ground.
The Book of Eli: The Sacred Apocalypse
Hollywood’s long-standing love affair with the apocalypse is once again in full bloom. Truly, who can deny the joys of struggling to survive in barbaric, radiation-blasted wastelands, where bloodthirsty savages lurk in the rubble, and the lucky ones die quickly?
Author Spotlight: Willow Fagan
I think that all stories are part of a long dialogue and, in certain ways, are responses to other, earlier stories. Metafiction just makes this conversational aspect explicit. Also, I know that my understanding of the world, especially when I was a child, was very much shaped by the stories that I read. I’m probably drawn to exploring this in fiction.
Life After Avatar: Fantasies Whose Time Has Come
On January 18, 2010, James Cameron won the “Best Picture: Drama” Golden Globe for his sci-fi epic Avatar. Cameron claimed backstage that no sci-fi movie since E.T. has gotten so much respect from the Globes. It’s true that not many sci-fi/fantasy films have won Best Picture . . . giving weight to his frequent assertion that Avatar would change the way genre film was perceived by Hollywood. The question is: if the genre really has been changed, what next?
Soulless: An Alexia Tarabotti Novel: The Parasol Protectorate: Book the First by Gail Carriger
If you’ve been looking for a steampunk-tinged urban fantasy novel of manners, Gail Carriger makes your dream come true with her delightful debut novel, Soulless. An intelligent and amusing alternate historySoulless should provide capital entertainment for anyone who enjoys urban fantasy or alternate history. And, for readers who’ve been avoiding all those post-Laurellian paranormal novels, Soulless is the exception that proves the rule…
