Short stories with both steampunk and erotica elements. Started off really well, slowed down towards the last few stories...but a great idea to read a story before going to bed each night ;) ( )

Steampunk is a subgenre that pastiches and parodies the SF of the Victorian and Edwardian era, Verne, Wells, Doyle and the rest. The term was coined as a reaction to Cyberpunk, the hi-tech computer-geek subgenre that emerged in the late 80's in response to the development of the internet. In contrast, Steampunk is all about steam engines and Zeppelins; corsetry and top hats; brass, wood and leather. As a lover of Victoriana, and Victorian genre fiction from SF to erotica, I'm a sucker for this kind of thing. Unfortunately, most of it is dreadful, though there are exceptions: Michael Moorcock's seminal Bastable trilogy, and Dahlquist's Glass Books spring to mind. Given this, I approached Carnal Machines, an anthology of Steampunk Erotica, with mixed feelings - it all seemed rather too good to be true.

I was pleasantly surprised. The writing is of a uniformly high standard, and the authors all deliver an effective period style, avoiding the linguistic and social anachronisms that undermine so much of the steampunk in print. Perhaps inspired by the title, most of the contributors have given us tales of characters at the mercy of fiendish Heath-Robinson sexual contraptions. In short, machine sex, a small but well-established fetish subculture that combines bondage with hobby engineering. On the face of it, mixing this esoteric kink up with an SF subgenre might seem likely to produce a result too specialised to find an audience. However, like the machines in the stories, it all works devilishly well. Most tastes and combinations are catered for, and the tales are told so well they capture your interest even when they aren't pushing your buttons. Many are begging to be opened out to novel length. In the end, it's the old-fashioned craftsmanship in the storytelling that makes Carnal Machines a hot and truly steamy collection. ( )