Tuesday, June 25, 2013

D.S. Brown - SteamFunk An Anthology By Milton Davis & Balogun Ojetade


As an ever aspiring critical thinker I put upon myself to always consider, to question, to not dismiss without the benefit of perspective.  In the case of Steampunk it was consider the perspective of those that like it before dismissing it.  And just to be clear I was very childish in my immediate dismissal of the genre.  I just didn't want to get with the Victorian Age thing.  I wasn't considering why so many people enjoyed it or what it could bring to me individually as a devourer of tales.

I love good stories, and Steampunk offers wonderful stories of alternate history, sci-fi, supernatural, fantastimagorophic detail with the Victorian feel always pervasive within the genre.  A small exposure online via my friends at Black Science Fiction was all it took.  However, I had not gone far before they hit with me with SteamFunk.  I was sent into overdrive.

Milton Davis and Balogun Ojetade have continued their mission in furthering African based speculative fiction with SteamFunk an anthology.   This book is a basis, a foundation for something both wonderful and powerful.  They have collected the works of various authors, some of whom have been sitting on their stories for over a decade.

Do you fancy a damn good story?  Are you eager for a basket of outstanding tales that stretch your imagination?  Then SteamFunk is for you.  The main protagonists in these stories just happen to be, purposefully, most imaginatevely and indubitably of African descent.

Steamfunk takes you on a roller coaster ride of imagination through elseworlds where nations like Freedonia hold powerful position in a Post-Civil War America, struggling against persistant intractable ethnic hate with the aid of technology provided by the mind of George Washington Carver. 

It continues through dimensions of magic, Victorian sense and sensabilities, and the evolved power of steam.  We even find ourselvs on different worlds where names are numbers and oppression is maintained through treachery and proxy, something so simple as the word Switch embodies passion and intrigue in a world in need of saving. 

We find ourselves feeling and seeing through the eyes of John Henry as he takes on the mantle of a hero and freedom fighter, a man who weilds hammers of devastating force to fight the villainy of Peter Pan and his Lost Boys.

There is so much magic and wonder in this anthology I can't begin to do it justice in just a few words.  The only way to know and understand Steamfunk is to experience Steamfunk.  Don't miss out.  Go get your copy today and become a Steamfunkateer!

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