ODDEST OF ALL -- Bruce Coville

Harcourt -- hc
Orlando -- ©2008 -- 235pp
ISBN: 978-0-15-205808-1

 A collection of stories:
"In Our Own Hands"
"What's the Worst That Could Happen?"
"The Ghost Let Go"
"In the Frog King's Court"
"The Thing in Auntie Alma's Pond"
"The Hardest, Kindest Gift"
"The Mask of Eamonn Tiyado"
"Herbert Hutchison in the Underworld"
"The Boy with Silver Eyes"
A Note from the Author

*****

 I've said it before and I'll say it again...Bruce Coville is one of the finest writers writing sci-fi, fantasy, YA, mystery, horror, humor today!

If you think you know Coville's work based on some of his humorous kids' books ("My Teacher Was an Alien" and the like), then you don't really know Coville.

This collection, the third of his "Odd" collection of short stories easily stands alongside my other favorite sci-fi authors: Harlan Ellison, John Varley, Kim Stanley Robinson, Roger Zelazny.

And I don't feel like I'm reading a 'kids'' story. Not a single story in this collection disappointed, and each story was as different from the next as possible, displaying Coville's versatility as a writer.

If you want to be moved, nearly to tears, read "The Boy with the Silver Eyes" (and if you've read his fantastic "unicorn" series, you'll be mighty pleased with this additional story). If you want to be a little terrified (but know that you'll come out okay on the other end), then "The Mask of Eamonn Tiyado" will satisfy (and again...fans of a Coville 'series' -- the Magic Shop Books -- will be mighty pleased here).

I just can't recommend Coville enough. Pick up a book, start to read, and you won't be disappointed.

STEAMPUNK! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories -- Kelly Link & Gavin J. Grant, editors

Candlewick Press -- ebook


As it says in the title...a collection of Steampunk stories.

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"Some Fortunate Future Day" by Cassandra Clare -- a girl and her mechanical dolls rescue a soldier who fell from an airship.  The girl, all alone, fantasizes about his rescuing her.  Rate it 2-1/2 of 5

"The Last Ride of the Glory Girls" by Libba Bray -- a young girl with an aptitude for mechanics and working for the Pinkertons, joins the Glory Girls, a band female criminals, and creates a watch the stops time.  Rate it 3-1/2 of 5

"Clockwork Fagin" by Cory Doctorow

"Seven Days Beset by Demons" by Shawn Cheng -- a comic/graphic tale of boy meets girl/boy loses girl/boy goes crazy; in steampunk fashion.

"Hand in Glove" by Ysabeau S. Wilce -- a female detective is certain that the favorite detective is wrong and an innocent man will be executed ... all based on finger-print evidence, something which the popular detective and their boss, doesn't believe in yet.

"The Ghost of Cwmlech Manor" by Delia Sherman --  Ghost story featuring automatons and a sensible mechanic's daughter hired to work as a housekeeper for an inventor. I liked the friendship between the protaganist and the titular ghost.

"Gesthemane" by Elizabeth Knox --  not a steampunk story, about two people.

"The Summer People" by Kelly Link --  Story of a girl freeing herself from her role as a faery housekeeper.

"Peace in Our Time" by Garth Nix --  The man who perhaps triggered the weapon that started a world-devasting war, is approached by a survivor representing the 'other' side.

"Nowhere Fast" by Christopher Rowe --  Interesting take on technological progress versus environmental concerns.

"Finishing School" by Kathleen Jennings --  An orthodontist reminiscences about the time her friend Gwendoline built a flying machine at their boarding school. 

"Steam Girl" by Dylan Horrocks --  Sweet story about the developing relationship between a loner boy and the new girl who tells him stories about her adventures as an interplanetary adventurer and inventor.

"Everything Amiable and Obliging" by Holly Black --  Questions of humanity and power relations in love wrapped in an upstairs/downstairs romance package.

"The Oracle Engine" by M.T. Anderson --  Alternate history based on a true Roman story with a steampunk twist. The world building is excellent, I was caught up right away. Has an ending you're likely to see coming – particularly if you're familiar with Roman history – but like most stories that deal with fate and revenge, that's kind of the point.


*****

Although I am a huge fan of Bruce Sterling's work, I would not consider myself versed in the literary world of 'steampunk.'  I borrowed this book from the Amazon-library database to see if this was a genre I might enjoy.  Based on these stories, the answer would be 'no.'

The first two stories were decent tales that held my interest, but thereafter, my interest waned until M.T. Anderson's alternative history tale.

"The Ghost of Cwmlech Manor" and "The Summer People" were interesting and worth reading, but the rest of the stories I found to be dull, and not at all what I was expecting from the world of 'steampunk.'