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pizzakarin
Posted 2016-03-23 7:16 AM (#13059 - in reply to #13054)
Subject: Re: Punk's Not Dead Reading Challenge		Quote Reply



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Location: Austin, Tx		I can't say that I came away from the challenge loving steampunk as a subgenre (I also didn't 100% finish the challenge though I was satisfied with the progress I made, having done 7 of 10), but I did enjoy the challenge and would like to finish up the three that I had picked out but not gotten to some day.

Of the 7, I would say that, for me, only Homunculus and The Digging Leviathan, both by Blaylock, rose above "good" and "fun" (not that there's anything wrong with novels who fall into those categories, I just want to point out which ones I would recommend to a list of standout fantasy novels).

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison came very close though I did not feel that it was strongly tied to steampunk.

The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia and The Mechanical by Ian Tregilliswas both explore the territory of "what is human?", a theme that I think is well suited for steampunk because of the smaller scope of the setting (as opposed to "what is human?" when dealing with computer AIs, most of the exploration of which I have found to be in books with other expansive setpieces to consider). My opinion of the former suffered because of a mediocre narrator for the audiobook. The latter is definitely intriguing, but clearly part of a larger story, which is not yet completely published (the sequel is out, but I understand it is a trilogy).

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest was fun, but had an eeevil mad scientist, a trope that irritates me. I will one day read the sequel, but it's not high on my list.

Edited by pizzakarin 2016-03-23 7:41 AM

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