Cover art by James Ng
This is a very important anthology that features some serious talent: Jay Lake, S.J. Chambers, Jaymee Goh, Ay-Leen the Peacemaker, just to name a few.
Editor Sarah Hans sums up the mission of Steampunk World as follows.
Steampunk is fascinating. There’s something compelling about the shine of clicking brass clockwork and hiss of steam-driven automatons. But until recently, there was something missing.
It was easy to find excellent stories of American and British citizens… but we rarely got to see steampunk from the point of view of the rest of the world.
Steampunk World is a showcase for nineteen authors to flip the levers and start the pistons and invite you to experience the entirety of steampunk.
It’s an admirable mission, and one that I believe will help elevate steampunk fiction to the transformative heights of which it is capable. Victorian England has been crucial in establishing much of the look, feel, and aesthetic identity of steampunk, and the tumultuous social context and the rich literary, historical, and pseudo-historical lore of the time and place leave room for all types of stories. However, that particular setting is hardly crucial to steampunk’s underlying raison d’être: the exploration of technological innovation on culture, society, and the diverse individuals therein. A multicultural perspective on the genre will be essential to the next step of steampunk’s evolution, thereby ensuring the genre’s longevity and its legacy within the world of speculative fiction, and it seems quite fitting that fans of the genre should have the opportunity to bring it to life.
The anthology has already been successfully funded, which is great, it means this thing is definitely happening, but I’ve been following its progress since I pledged a few weeks ago and it seems to have stalled just shy of its next stretch goal with only 6 days to go. If the project raises $12,000 it will be able to pay for original illustrations for every story in the book! Great multicultural steampunk art is every bit as crucial as great multicultural steampunk stories, and who doesn’t enjoy a book more if it has pictures? But the really crucial goal here is the next stretch goal of $18,000, which would pay for a second volume before the first has even gone to press, meaning original stories could be solicited with the promise of professional rates!
There are a lot of great rewards including limited art prints, fiction critiques, even handmade steampunk gloves. The most popular rewards are a DRM-free digital version of the book and a paperback copy at $10 and $20 respectively. If you think you’d like to buy a copy, why wait until it comes out when you could make the book better by ordering it now? What are you waiting for? back it here!
Posted by tvgilbert 
ENTROPIC WORLDS 