Steampunk Voyages

By Irene Radford

Steampunk’s big, brassy, powerful, and sweaty way of looking at the world sideways inspires six stories of the Victorian age of wonder.  Author Irene Radford offers new and old stories that reach from a weapon of mass destruction that could change the outcome of the U.S. Civil War, the truth behind why the ballet Giselle disappeared for nearly fifty years, pirates in Indonesia questioning whether we should control technology or be controlled by it, to a glimpse of Princess Victoria coming of age as secret operatives try to protect her from madmen acting in the name of long dead Lord Byron. Adding to the fun Steampunk Journeys includes a sneak peek at an upcoming novel in the world of dirigibles, necromancy, a steam powered book catalog, and hints of romance.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bookview Cafe
• Release date: Feb 3, 2015
• ISBN: 9781611382808

Irene Radford

Irene Radford has been writing stories ever since she figured out what a pencil was for. A member of an endangered species—a native Oregonian who lives in Oregon—she and her husband make their home in Welches, Oregon where deer, bears, coyotes, hawks, owls, and woodpeckers feed regularly on their back deck. A museum trained historian, Irene has spent many hours prowling pioneer cemeteries deepening her connections to the past. Raised in a military family she grew up all over the US and learned early on that books are friends that don’t get left behind with a move. Her interests and reading range from ancient history, to spiritual meditations, to space stations, and a whole lot in between. Mostly Irene writes fantasy and historical fantasy including the best-selling Dragon Nimbus Series. In other lifetimes she writes urban fantasy as P.R. Frost and space opera as C.F. Bentley.

Book preview

STEAMPUNK VOYAGES

Around the World in Six Gears

Irene Radford

Book View Cafe

www.bookviewcafe.com

Book View Café Edition

September 10, 2013

ISBN: 978-1-61138-280-8

Copyright © 2013 Phyllis Irene Radford

Table of Contents

Why Steampunk? by Irene Radford

Weapon of Mass Destruction by Irene Radford

The White Swan by Irene Radford

Shadow Dancer by Irene Radford

Dancing In Cinders by Irene Radford

Pirate Queen of French Prairie by Irene Radford

Night Dancer by Julia Verne St. John (Sneak Peek)

Copyright & Credits

About the Author

About the Cover Artist

About Book View Café

Why Steampunk?

In the five Steampunk anthologies I have edited, I have tried to stretch beyond classic Steampunk in Victorian England or Western Europe. I have included tales from the weird west to China and Japan, to central Europe, and Africa. I’ve pushed the envelope of colonial attitudes and hopefully presented some sideways alternatives to make you think, make you laugh, and maybe inspire you to go out and make a costume. But don’t forget the goggles.

Steampunk is a combination of adventure, Romance (in the classic literary sense), with marvelous toys and gadgets, and an attitude. Steampunk starts with real history we can tweak in ways that made sense and yet thumbs a nose at prejudices and haughty scholars.

It starts with the premise that science happened much earlier than conventional history tells us. Automatons, weapons that shoot light instead of bullets, artificial lungs, and pollution, run rampant through the movement.

Steampunk is more than just the things you can do with steam. It is a sensibility, an approach to life, and a new way of looking at issues—through goggles if you will.

I have found Steampunk all around me. Not just in books, movies, and TV shows that shouted steam at every turn, but in subtle ways. The interior of the Tardis on Dr. Who looks and sounds as if it belongs in a Jules Verne tale. In watching the DVDs of the TV series Farscape, I find some of the same flowing elegance in the living ship Moya as I do in many a luxurious upscale steam train.

The huge What if factor in both of those shows is similar to the Steampunk movement.

At PDX Gearcon 2011, one of the topics tossed around frequently was that Steampunk allows us to explore the human relationship with technology. In our current reality we seem addicted to technology, almost the slave to the next upgrade rather than the master. We no longer have the knowledge or ability to understand the microscopic layers of silicon and circuitry. With steam, the inner workings are large enough that we can follow the hoses and coils, the pipes, and the fuel, visually discover the logic of the design and fix it if need be with found tools and material.

Steampunk may have grown huge through the costume movement. It lingers for other reasons than just lace, velvet, goggles, and grease.

Steam engines are not just practical; they are elegant, as elegant as an artfully draped skirt or beaver top hot. They come from an era when craftsmen designed beauty into their creations and took the time to make every seam align and flow into decoration. The gilding and flounces were as much a part of the function as the hoses and coils, the heat and the hiss.

As we romp through the adventures, marveling at the possibilities of science and magic entwining, the mysterious flux and flow of the ephemeral steam, we also get a chance to tweak the laws and morality of the Victorian Age that have come to dominate modern life. In Steampunk, (this is Alternate History after all) women can stand beside the men as equals; they can tromp through jungles, climb mountains, and fix the bloody engine. All the while they will do it with grace and aplomb with an eye toward sensible fashion. After all, a corset is not just a symbol of sexual bondage; it contains useful raw materials and tools within the stays. It can become a woman’s barrier against unwanted advances. And when she chooses to take it off? Oh, the slow and wonderful possibilities that can follow.

I invite you to explore the age of steam, the sensibilities, the marvelous what if factor, and the optimistic, or cautionary, energy of Steampunk.

— Irene Radford

Introduction: Weapon of Mass Destruction

This story was hard for me to write. I grew up in Virginia at a time when the War Between the States still held a strangle-hold on the culture. The history taught in the schools took on a different slant from what I later learned in schools dominated by the Northern Aggressors. While nominally in the same world as the rest of this collection, this story is different, darker, and later chronologically. I learned some things about life and about the presentation of history while writing this. And so I present it first.

Weapon of Mass Destruction

Irene Radford

I am dying, General Pemberton, Jules de Chingé choked around a cough. The cramping in his lungs and the pressure that filled his chest caused yet another spasm. It wracked his frame; his entire body tried to turn itself inside out. The blood on his handkerchief told him it partially succeeded.

So the doctors tell me, the Confederate officer replied. He stood tall and erect. His spine, schooled by four years at West Point, would not bend in the strongest breeze, even if he had bent his loyalties from the Union to the Confederacy after marrying a Virginia woman.

Then the doctors must also tell you that I have not the weeks left to design and supervise the building of your magnificent gun. The intellectual puzzle of working through the physics of such a marvelous cannon intrigued him though.

He must not think of such things. He’d made his peace with God.

De Chingé turned his gaze away from the white asylum walls to gaze out on the Mississippi as it chugged and churned its way south toward his beloved New Orleans. At least he would not live to see how the Union army and navy had besmirched his natal city when they invaded. Uncouth Union soldiers had no respect for grace and dignity personified in the loveliest city in the world. They hadn’t left it to recover either. For the Union would win this war. They rolled northward from New Orleans and southward along the Mississippi as relentless as the river.

Only Vicksburg, the Gibraltar of the West, stood in their way.

I know that the Union offered you a great deal of money to design a weapon that would bring about a swifter end to the war, Pemberton said, maintaining his unyielding pose.

Then you must also know that I turned them down. I have not the time left to live and enjoy their money. Nor have I heirs to provide for. Although there was one quadroon demimondaine lady who deserved the price of her freedom. He would like to bequeath something to the lovely Mathilde.

I do not have money to offer you, Pemberton said, almost apologetically. What I can offer you is life.

De Chingé lifted an eyebrow, mocking the man’s audacity. Sir, the best doctors in the world can’t cure my rotting lungs.

No, sir. But we have purchased an automaton from Lovelace and Babbage. A very lifelike automaton with the face of one of our fallen enlisted men. It awaits only one procedure to activate it.

"Non, absolument, non, de Chingé fell back on his native French. C’est impossible. C’est le blasphème!"

But there was the puzzle of perfecting the aim of a massive weapon, the calculations of recoil, the balance of trajectory and size of a shell . . .

It is possible. Lord Byron proved in the summer of ’16 that the soul is measurable, quantifiable, and transferable. Our scientists have built an electric modulated transference engine as outlined by Dr. John Polidari. We have the automaton built to accommodate your genius. All we need is your consent. Pemberton leaned forward, the light of fanatic zeal blazing in his eyes. We can rid you forever of your consumption. Your genius can live forever.

Lovelace and Babbage, eh? They do build magnificent machines. I have used their unique codex system in some of my designs. De Chingé sighed and wished he hadn’t. His lungs immediately rebelled against the influx of too much air. He coughed long and hard, again and again, until he could not breathe. A sharp pain ripped through his torso. He’d cracked another rib with his spasm. Ah, well, he had not much longer to endure the indignity of dying.

And if I do not consent, General? I have seen my death in the sputum that stains my handkerchief. I have made my peace with God. I have so many more puzzles to solve. How can I die now?

Have you truly accepted an end to your work, and of you? I know that the magnificence of a Lovelace and Babbage machine must tempt you. What man readily goes to his death when he has an opportunity to live? When there is so much more work to do?

Lovelace and Babbage I trust. Polidari I do not. His machine worked once. He has never managed to repeat the experiment with success. What if your grand experiment fails?

Then you die a few weeks earlier without the long, drawn-out pain of fighting for air while your lungs collapse inch by inch and your body leaks blood drop by drop.

<<>> 

Steady, Sergeant. Keep the balloon steady, Captain Thaddeus Hyatt-Forsythe whispered.

As steady as the wind allows. Can’t afford to light the engine or spread the aelerons, the grizzled veteran replied, the best balloon pilot in Grant’s army.

Tad dropped a magnifying lens over his night vision goggles. The ectomorphic gel in the frames cast a greenish glow to the cautious dance of human figures around the flare and hiss of a massive steam engine below him. Heat from the living bodies glowed brighter than the river and the inert barge. The firebox powering the boiler showed bright enough to block details without extreme magnification.

Lower, Sergeant Nichols. Take the balloon one hundred feet lower, he ordered.

Aye, sir. But that’s as low as we dare go. That’s barely beyond rifle range. Nichols adjusted the flaps on the black painted balloon envelope above them. They drifted lower and further east on the wind, prisoners of the wind’s whims, on this chill night in early April.

That’s a mighty big firebox, Nichols said, leaning over the balloon’s basket. What they need that much steam for?

That’s what we’re here to find out. Tad added another lens over his goggles.

Details of men hauling ammunition toward the inferno on the Mississippi River’s surface jumped forward while darkness pressed against his peripheral vision. He hated the sense of viewing the world through a tunnel. That was the price of finding out what devilish plot the Rebs concocted aboard that bloody big barge.

One hundred yards square if it were an inch. High gunnels kept the rain-swollen current from splashing their machinery. He’d been watching the barge’s construction and the machine atop it for months, sometimes from the hilltops around Vicksburg, as often as he could from the balloon’s heights . He liked this new design that allowed aelerons to spread out and guide them in wide tacks against the wind to return to their original position.

Throughout the long winter, General Grant had launched seven separate attacks upon the fortified cliffs of Vicksburg and been repulsed each time. All the while, the enemy had constructed something in secret behind protective tarpaulin walls. Only the constant glow of a coal fire and the hiss of a steam engine leaked through. Tad had seen pipes taken on board to fill a boiler directly from the river. Shortly thereafter, on a calm day perfect for ballooning, he’d heard the hiss of steam.

Last night the tents came down, revealing a swivel turret reminiscent of the ironclad Monitor and a cannon barrel nearly as long as the barge was square. Tonight the Rebs hoisted a dozen twenty-four-inch shells aboard the barge from smaller, ironclad gunships. Each shell strained the cargo net. Three men steadied each shell and carried it to the growing stack at the turret’s base.

The craft was still moored on the river’s eastern bank. When deployed it would block the entire channel.

And if the cannon hit where it was aimed, it would kill everything within a quarter mile and tear up the land to bedrock. Who could conceive of such a devilish weapon?

Tad removed his goggles and handed them to his Sergeant. Nichols strapped the instrument on his head and peered at the scene below. Holy Christ! Look at the size of that thing.

I did, Tad replied. He drew a small notebook and pencil stub from his kit, sketching the weapon’s shape and proportions. On a fresh page he began the calculations. At a thirty-seven-degree elevation with a pound of gunpowder per shell, the gun can fire a shell three miles. At least. Sweat broke out on his back and brow.

He upped his damage estimate to a square mile. The crater alone would be almost half that.

Can’t aim anything that big, Nichols grunted. Can’t shoot at anything closer than half a mile. That’s why they’ve got all them little boats flitting around it, protection from attack closer in.

And they are all blocking the river so Admiral Porter can’t get his flotilla down to the crossing. Without that flotilla Grant can’t cross the river and attack Vicksburg from the vulnerable south.

Tad took back his goggles to survey the monster again. He dropped a third lens over the previous two, further decreasing his peripheral in favor of picking out faces and uniforms. The glow from the firebox gave him plenty of light, overriding the ectomorphic gel. One man stood out from the others by his very stillness. An officer, by the cut of his gray uniform, bent over an opening in the turret. He straightened and turned to issue an order to the enlisted man beside him. The distance and engine noise stole his words. Tad had no device to magnify sounds as the goggles did sight.

For five long heartbeats he gasped for breath, unable to believe the sight before him. The officer who controlled the delicate mechanism inside the gun was none other than Tad’s brother Nate. Eleven months younger than Tad and a near-mirror image.

Corporal Nathanial Hyatt-Forsythe had been reported missing after the battle of Shiloh. The letter of condolence to Tad’s mother in Richmond said they thought Nate had been blown to bits by a Union mortar. There wasn’t enough of a body left to identify. Or

Reviews for Steampunk Voyages

[lusi222 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I picked this book because I had read Irene Radford's collection Fantastical Ramblings and liked the book. I found the same great format in this book, she can tell wonderful stories. I liked the strong female character hidden behind the facade of Victorian properness. There are two reasons for the lower rating, one being my personal taste, I just have not developed an interest in the Steampunk environment of literature. The second is because in spite of having the same lead character the book lacked in my opinion the cohesiveness needed in a good collection of stories. It left me longing for a good hefty novel or two combining all the bits and pieces of the stories.

[daniellatham-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The stories in this anthology are enjoyable, overall. The author does a good job of setting a quick pace an imparting a feeling of adventure.That said, the style of writing felt cumbersome. There was far too much telling and not enough showing. I wanted to see a character demonstrate lust for another, not be told about it.There were plenty of steampunk tropes, though they sometimes descended into cliche. The sentence, "Today I needed her aware of how formidable my raw-boned Teutonic frame could be," made me wince.If Irene Radford can iron out these kinks in her style, she will be an author to watch for.

[eidolons · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect going into this book. I'd thought it was a collection from various authors at first and was confused when it wasn't. That said - I loved this book. The characters are interesting, the descriptions glorious. I particularly liked that the author put a focus on the technology of steampunk causing environmental issues. While most steampunk seems to include the smog and soot, they rarely bring it into perspective with the untouched areas that have clean water and green grass with minimal tech. I haven't looked yet, but I truly hope there are full novels with the two main characters. Throughout the short stories I felt a bit like I was missing the bigger, deeper story and would really enjoy delving deeper into this world.

[durga2112 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I just can't get through this book right now. I found the first story enjoyable after a while, and the second one a little less so, but I couldn't get interested in the third one at all. This could merely be because I don't have much time for reading these days, so perhaps I'll get back to it sometime in the future, although by that time this will certainly not be an Early Review.

[paulco_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I personally enjoyed this series. Steampunk is a favorite genre of mine, but needs to be well done. This is a series of linked short stories in the right style of this type. Two sisters, one a pirate queen (with a dirigible/balloon of course), the other a medium who's also a governess to a very powerful young woman, take on the forces of evil. The setting is North America, and Canada figures prominently.All in all, if you're looking for a fast fun read of the type, I don't think you'd be disappointed.

[chelseagirl_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I received this book as an Early Reviewers book from LibraryThing, and the untimeliness of my review is largely because I attempted, and bounced off, the first story several times. Military SF really isn't my thing, even when it's steampunk. What I really enjoyed are the Madame Magdala stories, which spin off from the worldbuilding in the earlier Shadow Conspiracy stories series which Radford edited. Anything to do with Ada Lovelace, Mary Shelley, or Lord Byron, and I'm pretty much there, and Radford plays with these characters in an interesting way. The writing, honestly, did not do much for me -- though Magdala and her sister, the steampunk pirate Trude, are very different characters, their voices didn't seem that different to me. However, there's a good bit of imagination and steampunk tech here.

[mrbove · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I will admit that this is one of my first forays into the world of steampunk. While I found the stories compelling and the writing engaging, it felt that many of the stories were created to support the technology, rather than the other way around; that is to say, the "cool tech" appears to be the driving element behind the tales, rather than being a creative tool for making good stories more compelling. When the tech was brought to the forefront, it became far more difficult to believe, and therefore the book became more difficult to "fall into" with that willing suspension of disbelief that usually making such tales so engaging. That said, this book was definitely worth checking out, and was certainly a welcome addition to my growing experience with the genre.

[keenchris · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Straightforward collection of short stories in the steampunk genre. It was a bit confusing as to 5 or 6 stories. The 6th, Night Dancer, is actually a sneak peek of an upcoming release. The other titles are about what you expect in this type of collection: some Civil War, some London, some automatons, some gadgets & gizmos etc etc. They are all well done and could have easily been turned into full length novels. I especially enjoyed Pirate Queen of French Prairie-really good story with pirates and a steamboat! The characters were interesting and I wish it had been a stand alone book with even more details and a longer storyline. If you like steampunk and quick reads, definitely get this book. I received a copy to review, my opinion is my own.

[crazy_bunny_lady · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I won a review copy & really enjoyed the book. I love steampunk thanks to a couple of authors on this site who offered revfiew copies & got me hooked on steampunk noivels. Now I request all steampunk novels. This was one of the good ones. Thanks so much. Looking forward to seeing more by this author!

[kaylaraeintheway · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed these steampunk stories, although I felt like they were not as fully developed as they could have been. The action jumped around a lot, and I was unsure of who the various characters were at times. I did like how the author set her first story during the American Civil War...that's not a time period usually explored in steampunk literature!While I was reading the stories that involved the Pirate Captain and her sister Elise, I kept thinking how much better if would be if Radford wrote a full-length novel starring one (or both) of the sisters. I was happy to discover that Radford is planning just that (although it unfortunately won't be out until 2015).Steampunk is a fascinating genre, and while Radford uses all the tropes one would expect to find, her settings and main characters add some delightfully unexpected freshness.

[ladycato · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I received this book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers Program.Radford's collection features five stories--most of them reprints--and an excerpt from a forthcoming novel, Night Dancer, under the name Julia Verne St. John. I have been reading a lot of steampunk as I write in the genre as well. Radford hits on many of the tropes of the subgenre, with fabulous fashion, female scientists (Ada Byron, no less), automatons and airships. The stories are within the same world, but the majority follow two sisters on very different life paths: one a tutor and seer, the other a moral airship pirate. The American Civil War is still ongoing--though with technological adaptations--and Victoria sits on the English throne. I was fascinated by the concept of wandering souls that can inhabit machines.The action flows well, but I was never completely immersed in the world. It felt like there was almost too much going on beneath the surface--too much back story, too much alternate history to try to absorb within a short word count. Really, I wonder if the forthcoming novel will be the ideal thing to read first and then go on to read the short stories.

[lkernagh · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

As with any anthology or short story collection written by an author I have never read before, I wasn't too sure what I was in for with this collection of steampunk-themed stories. I love steampunk as a genre so I figured I couldn't go too wrong by requesting a copy. The collection starts off with a short piece entitled "Why Steampunk", where Radford explains upfront that she likes to push the boundaries beyond classic steampunk. That prepared me a bit for what was to come, which was five short stories and one except for a novel to be released in 2015. All of the material contained in this collection, except for the short story Dancing In Cinders and the book excerpt, have been previously published in other anthologies.Radford's stories are focused on alternate realities of the mid-19th century. The first story, Weapon of Mass Destruction is set on the battlefields of the American Civil War where hot air balloons and ectomorphic gel night vision goggles are used for spying across enemy lines where an amazing weapon of mass destruction is being created by a brilliant scientist who's 'soul' is encased in a life-like automaton. This was the longest story in the collection and interesting from the perspective of morals and loyalties. Sadly, it had a rather abrupt ending that left me thinking "What?" Two of the stories, The White Swan and Pirate Queen of French Prairie focus on female pirateer, Trude Romanz, and adventures the crew of her dirigible, the White Swan, find themselves involved in. I enjoy a good swashbuckling adventure and the Canadian in me really got a good kick out of how Radford incorporated the Hudson's Bay Company into these two stories which involve an air battle over the South Seas with an unscrupulous slave trader and then a more stealth-driven mission to thwart a plan of Hudson Bay Company's Sir George Simpson. Yes, pirates do have a moral code, or at least in these stories they do. Unfortunately, the rollicking airship adventures these could have made for fun reading were a little stilted in delivery and too busy slinging banter, although I did find Pirate Queen of French Prairie to be a more polished story of the two. As much as I like strong female leads in the stories I read, I not a huge fan of the masculine female character that struts and swaggers. A female can be strong without having to come across as a guy.Two other stories in the collection, Shadow Dancer and Dances in Cinders replace swashbuckling pirates and the rough territorial country setting with the respectable drawing rooms and cafes of London, England and a Parisian ballet theatre. These two stories focus on Trude's sister, Elise Romanz, also known as a Madame Magdala, a spymaster who has the gift of prophecy - she can see mysterious glimpses of misfortune in the swirls of her coffee (not tea!). These two stories caught my interest more than the previous three. I can never get enough of 19th century England alternate history stories and I loved that Radford incorporates Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage into these stories so seamlessly. The thought of a bunch of zealous Lord Byron fanatics determined to have Lord Byron's soul transferred to another body so that his soul can live on is interesting food for thought and I loved the alternate form of transport used to travel to Paris in Shadow Dancer. The collection closes out with an except from the future Madame Magdala full length novel, Night Dancer, by Julia Verne St. John. While Radford states that she pushes the boundaries of classic steampunk, I like her stories in that they still contain a lot of classic elements. The stories have automatons and steam power is the predominant mechanical power source. There are no werewolves, vampires or zombies littering these stories. Instead, the other body elements are floating souls in search of a new body to inhabit, in line with some of the classic writers of steampunk and the question of whether a machine can house a soul. Yes, there are some weak points. These stories aren't amazing literary fiction or stellar reading material by any means....they are interesting entertainment pieces. Her Civil War story has potential for a full blown novel with some work and I am not a fan of the air pirates stories. The Madame Magdala stories I found to be on par with Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series - fun reading to relax with and no complex characters or intricate plots to focus on. I enjoyed the Madame Magdala stories enough that I am looking forward to keeping an eye out for when the novel Night Dancer publish, in 2015. This book was courtesy of Librarything's Early Reviewer Program.

[xxcoder · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Enjoyable read, this is first streampunk book I ever read, and I kinda like the genre of steam technologies.The world building and characters is really very well done, including few of period-correct historic people like Ada Lovelace and Mr. Babbage. The stories were pretty darn good.

[pratchettfan · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Stempunk Voyages is a short story collection containing five stories by Irene Radford and an Excerpt of the forthcoming Night Dancer by Julia Verne St. John.The first story Weapon of Mass Destruction plays during the height of the American Civil War and asks the question how the war could have progressed if high-precision steam powered weapons were available.Two stories focus on a pirate captain and her crew, and two more (and the excerpt) on her sister, an English spymaster who used to be governess to Ada Lovelace.I greatly enjoyed reading those adventures and am looking forward to reading more stories from this universe.Highly recommended to fans of Steampunk fiction!

[sunnysd_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I received this book as part of the Early Reviewers group on LibraryThing.A loosely linked set of stories surrounding characters in what would be Britain and the United States during the Civil War era. This being a steampunk chronicle, there's plenty of technology and a small of amount of magic. Soul transference and an alternate take on the events surrounding Frankenstein also figure heavily. This is more of a literary take on steampunk, and as such it isn't a lighthearted romp. Solid world building, solid - almost stolid - characters... There's definitely an assumption on the part of the author that the reader will come to the table with some knowledge of the period and the literature. As such, it's also heavier going than say Lindsay Buroker's work. All in all, I'd read more stories set in Radford's world, but it wouldn't be something I'd be on pins and needles waiting for.

[cat3crazy_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed the book and found it interesting. There were a few inconsistencies between the stories and they were not in the proper sequence. I would rather read about the invention and construction of a device before a description of it working. As with most short stories, I wish that there was more written about a few if the key characters.I would have given the book a higher score except I am not very found of battle scenes and three of the five stories were centered around combat.

[jcmontgomery · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I love anything steampunk and wasn't disappointed with this collection of stories. If anything, I wouldn't mind seeing more fleshed out work by this author and as a matter of fact, the last story "Night Dancer" is a sneak peek at a future novel.The blurb for the eBook is quite enticing and is a pretty good indication of what to expect:Steampunk’s big, brassy, powerful, and sweaty way of looking at the world sideways inspires six stories of the Victorian age of wonder. Irene Radford offers new and old stories that reach from a weapon of mass destruction that could change the outcome of the U.S. Civil War, the truth behind why the ballet Giselle disappeared for nearly fifty years, pirates in Indonesia questioning whether we should control technology or be controlled by it, to a glimpse of Princess Victoria coming of age as secret operatives try to protect her from madmen acting in the name of long dead Lord Byron. Adding to the fun Steampunk Journeys includes a sneak peek at an upcoming novel in the world of dirigibles, necromancy, a steam powered book catalog, and hints of romance.It will be interesting to see how far the author can take what's she's dished out as starters and see how some main courses will look.

[lauriebrown54 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Radford presents five short steampunk stories and an excerpt from her upcoming novel in ebook format. In Radford’s steampunk world of alt history, air ships were invented and came into wide use early in the 19th century; Lord Byron was working on immortality before he died; automatons are no longer novelties; Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage perfected their difference engine; and the map of North America is very, very different from our historical version. Four of the stories are related, featuring sisters Trude Romanz and Madame Magdala, one an airship pirate, the other an owner of an incredible bookstore and governess/assistant to Ada Lovelace. The fifth story is set in the same universe but with different characters, and is, in my opinion, the best of the stories. The stories are fairly brief; they read like selections from a larger work or perhaps installments of a series. They could really use a little filling out, a little more plot. Some of the self-description of the heroines- four of the stories are told in first person- need some work; there are passages in them that are Mary Sue-ish. Radford is an experienced author, so I’m not sure why she had a problem with this. I’ve not read anything else by her; perhaps this is her first time writing first person POV? I don’t know. But this world she’s created has great promise and I love that the main characters are women.

[ranaverde_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Steampunk Voyages is pretty good - its stories make for quick, fairly engaging reading. The only problem with it is that it feels a bit thinly sketched, like the plots and characters are more studies for a fully realized larger work, than capable of standing fully on their own. The stories with the two sisters are the best rendered and probably should be developed into a longer story. That said, I found the Lovelace/Byron/Babbage bits quietly annoying because that seemed too pat and too convenient as a way of marking these works as "steampunk" - but, then, I've long had issues with fictional writing that co-opts historical figures as an alternative to creating one's own characters. The stories where Radford explores less trampled ground (like her exploration of Oregon country) work far better, and seem less clichéd.The collection's worth a read, but steampunk fans may be better served waiting for her next full-length work.