There
is no love lost between me and the steampunk genre (I think it can be easily
defined as a genre nowadays, as it has grown constantly over the past several
years). I am afraid that I never have been considerably touched by steampunk,
we intersected our paths on occasion, but I must admit that only rarely the steampunk
literature hold my interest long enough. I am not as reluctant towards it as I
am when it comes to zombie fiction for example, another sub-genre taking a life
of its own but beaten more and more into a shapeless and featureless lump
recently. I do have a seed that can be caressed in sprouting buds with
steampunk, not many but I still cannot deny it. After all, one of my fondest childhood
memories is that of my grandfather taking me on his bicycle to the railway
lines and seeing trains passing by, our habit leading to an interest for old
trains and locomotives. I will always cherish Jules Verne’s works and back when I played a lot of computer games
two of those I played with great frenzy were Syberia and Syberia II,
developed by Microïds, both full of
mechanical things and automatons. So, there is something there to bring more
interest from my part for the steampunk genre, but somehow it never buried its roots
deep. However, like the zombie fiction I have already mentioned I do have some
favorite stories within steampunk, even more of them than those of the former, perhaps
a novel or two, but more of them coming in the shorter form. As I try as much
as it’s in my power to not be confined in a reading personal comfort zone I am
not the one to entirely discard steampunk fiction. Even more so when such genre
stories are coming from different areas of the world, the more the better. As
it was the case with a Romanian anthology dedicated to the steampunk genre, “Steampunk: The Second Revolution”
edited by Adrian Crăciun (in which Michael Haulică’s “The
Story of Calistrat Hadîmbu, Meanly Murdered by Nuncle Raul Colentina in an Inn
on Bucharest Outskirts” stands out), or
another such collection going far and wide across the Earth, “Steampunk World” edited by Jay Lake and Ken Liu. Regarding this genre it is its going outside England and the
United States that holds such appeal to me, not because I don’t like those
places, on the contrary, I love them, but because the historical
industrialization era in those lands came on the expanse of other less fortunate
countries and it is here where I can find the point of steampunk fiction only orbiting
me without changing its trajectory to a point of impact. I believe it is
because of such personal consideration that makes this genre not to be among my
high reading priorities and yet it doesn’t let me throwing it entirely to the
bin. And it is due to the same personal consideration that one of the steampunk
titles coming this year can be found on my 2015 reading list, even close to the
top of that list. Ediciones Nevsky plans
the release of a steampunk anthology gathering some of the best voices of
Spanish speculative fiction with stories that expand the borders of the genre.
“The Best of Spanish Steampunk” edited and translated by Marian and James Womack
follows the steps of two anthologies already released by Ediciones Nevsky, both
in Spanish, “Steampunk. Antología
Retrofuturista” edited by Felix J.
Palma and “Retrofuturismos.
Antología Steampunk” edited by Marian
Womack, but this time the editors hope to bring more awareness for the Spanish
speculative fiction, to bring Spain’s steampunk to a wider market and audience.
As much as I am concerned steampunk is alive and well in Spain, besides the two
anthologies previously mentioned I am aware of a few others published in
Spanish, for instance “Ácronos. Antología
Steampunk” published in two volumes by Tyrannosaurus Books or “Fuenlabrada
Steampunk”, a wonderful volume released by Kelonia Editorial which offered a chance for 12 young Spanish writers
to prove their talent within this genre. Speaking of “Fuenlabrada Steampunk”
there are other signs of the liveliness of the genre in Spain, this anthology
was born as a contest of stories and illustrations held during the Fuenlabrada
Fantastic Festival, dedicated last year to steampunk, a convention going hand
in hand with another, similar convention, but devoted entirely to steampunk, EuroSteamCon, with already three editions taking place between
2012 and today in Barcelona, Bilbao, Mairena del Alcor, Madrid, Mallorca, Orense,
Sevilla and Zaragoza, but also spanning across Europe in the past three years
with conventions held in Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary,
Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden and the UK. Without digressing
further from the point of “The Best of Spanish Steampunk” though, this anthology
edited and translated by Marian and James Womack brings into English what Spain
has best to offer in terms of steampunk. Not only that, but as I love to travel
far and wide across the world, more easily achieved through imagination and
fiction, “The Best of Spanish Steampunk” does just that, the collection featuring
stories from Spain, Mexico, Venezuela and Chile, but also Spanish writers who
currently live in Germany, Dubai and the UK. My passion for travelling is equally
matched by my love for visiting places without the restrains raised by time,
space or limits of dreams and “The Best of Spanish Steampunk” does that too. The
North-American-Spanish Cuban war, the Mexican war, the Anarchists revolts in
the 1930s Andalusia together with settings such as Asturias, Catalonia, Andalusia
or the times of the Imperial reign of Felipe II are all part of Marian and
James Womack’s anthology. So, can I ask for more? I think I could not and no
matter what my thoughts of steampunk are in general, “The Best of Spanish
Steampunk” is a welcomed reading for me. True, for the time being the anthology
is scheduled to be released in epub format only, but I can only hope that this
is the first step and such a promising volume would see the light of print in
physical format as well. And why not more, this to be one of the first themed
anthologies that offers us the chance to explore Spain and the entire world
through speculative fiction as meticulously as possible.
TABLE
OF CONTENTS:
INTRODUCING
SPANISH STEAMPUNK
“Introduction”
by Diana Pho
“Editor’s
Note” by Marian Womack
“The
Princess From the Centre of the Earth” by Félix J. Palma - Gaslight romance/exploration,
this tale ties into the universe of Palma’s New York Times Bestselling
VictorianTrilogy (The Map of Time, The Map of the Sky, & forthcoming The
Map of Chaos), unarguably the most successful Steampunk work originally written
in Spanish
ON
POLITICS: FREEDOM, SOCIAL AWARENESS, INEQUALITY, “THE WOMAN QUESTION”
“Icarus”
by Jorge Jaramillo - Allegorical
steam-tale of a young man’s obsession with flight and its consequences.
“The
Shepherd” by Cristina Jurado - Steam-futuristic
tale: in a dystopian society one individual rebels against the system.
“Saturn’s
Children” by Sergio Lifante - Steam-retelling
of one of Barcelona’s darker crimes, the child killings in the early XXth
century.
“Prey’s
Moon” by Joseph Remesar - A
Steam-London ravaged by poverty, an unknown beast seeks to avenge the poorest
members of society.
“Mad”
by Santi Pagés - Steam-feminist
tale, imagining a Spanish suffragist movement.
“Priceless”
by Cano Farragute - Feminist-gaslight
romance. A feisty tale of female piracy, and the fight against female
inequality.
ON
CONFLICT: WAR, ALTERNATIVE HISTORY
“May
the Fifth” by Paulo César Ramírez - Steam-retelling
of the Mexican battle of 1862.
“Shots
to the Gut” by Jesús Cañadas - Steam-retelling
of the Anarchist Revolt in Casas Viejas (Andalusia) in the 1930s.
“Flesh
Against Metal” by Rafael Marín - Steam-retelling
of the American-Spanish war for Cuba.
“Board
Them” by Javi Argauz & Isabel Hierro - The boarding of an airship causes the outbreak of
Steam World War.
“The
Hands That Built America” by Francisco Miguel Espinosa & Ángel Luis Sucasas
- Steam-retelling of the American
Civil War.
“Speed”
by José María Merino - Allegory
of the risks of progress: motorcycles become the target of ruthless attacks.
ON
TECHNOLOGY: SCIENCE & MACHINES, SPAIN & THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
“Hating
Lester Murray” by Laura Fernández - Steam-humor
tale. A very talkative airship with aspirations to write, annoys its successive
owners.
“Dynevor
Road” by Luis Manuel Ruiz - A
dark tale of how playing with our memories affects our identity.
“The
Guts of a Clock” by Luis Guallar - Steam-horror
tale, set in a clock-like building with maze-like shape.
“Surprends
le Monde” by Ismael Manzanares - Steam-adventures
and romance in the context of an alternative Paris Universal Exhibition.
“The
Blue of the Sky” by Pedro Moscatel - An
imagined future after the Steam-Revolution, highlighting the ecological damage
it has produced.
“The
Stranger” by Leonardo Ropero - Steam-ghost
story, revisiting one of the sites of the Spanish Industrial Revolution,
Asturias.
“The
Lady of the Soler Colony” by Rocío Rincón - Steam-tale revisiting the ‘Colonies’, Catalan factory
cities during the Industrial Revolution.
ON
MECHANICAL MEN: AUTOMATA & CYBERNETICS
“Music
Box” by Paula Rivera - Steam-tale
about Köpte, a child automaton, and its fight against a mysterious Steam
disease.
“Berlin
Mechanical Men” by Noemí Sabugal - Hardboiled
noir Steam-tale. A detective investigates the killing of several automata.
“The
Mechanical Flower” by Josué Ramos - A
young man’s heart-machine stops working after a break-up. A romance with
language.
“Don’t
Forget to Wind It Up” by Santiago Eximeno - A couple’s daily ordeal to keep their child alive,
tied to the requirements of a Steam-machine.
“Come
to My Arms” by Gloria T. Dauden - Steam-erotic
tale. A mechanical arm brings a woman only unhappiness.
ON
TIME & PERCEPTION: TIME TRAVEL, TIME CONTROL, MESMERISM & DIVINATION
“Biocronography:
Aub’s Theorem” by Guillermo Zapata - Steam-retelling
of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, featuring Dalí, Buñuel and Lorca.
“All
That Never Existed” by Oscar Navas - Dark
Steam-tale on the dangers to health posed by time-travel.
“Dead
Time” by José Ángel Menédez Lucas - Clock-fantasy
on the domination of time.
“Professor
Pinetti’s Divination” by Oscar Mariscal - An illusionist, his three divination balls, and his
unwilling solution of a crime.
“Instrumental
Transcomunication” by Francisco J. Pérez - A meeting between a medium and a phantasmagoric
child, in a Steam approximation to the weird genre.
“In
a Glass, Darkly” by Marian Womack - A
Circus with Lola Montes, Siberian tigers and blue monkeys; a young man and his
visions of the woman he loves.
ON
METALITERATURE: STEAMPUNK & OUR CULTURAL MYTHS
“The
Cyclotech of Bubblelon” by Sofía Rhei - Steam-retelling
of Oscar Wilde’s fairy-tales, with an ecological message.
“Hatter’s
Rust” by Alfredo Álamo - Steam-retelling
of the Mad Hatter’s tea party.
“The
One-Armed Man” by Rocío Tizón - Steam-detective
story, inspired by the Ripper murders in London.
“Giants”
by Rubén Sánchez Trigos - Steam-reimagining
of the world of Georges Méliès, featuring a steam-propelled fairground.
“Masked
Justice” by Rafael González - Steam-fantasy
on Alistair Crowley, Stonehenge and a very peculiar kind of vampire.
NOVELLAS
“Black
Eagles” by Eduardo Vaquerizo - A
tale set within the universe of Vaquerizo’s original take on an alternative
Spanish Empire, built after the imagined early death of Felipe II, and which
extends into the XXth century.
“London’s
Rivers” by Javier Calvo - An
early example of Spanish pseudo-proto Steampunk, written preceding the arrival
of the genre in Spain, a curious retelling of Mary Poppins, in the context of a
detective investigation fuelled by the London fog.
