In The Guns Above, the exciting first book in her ongoing Signal Airship series, writer Robyn Bennis not only brought some Master & Commander-esque sensibilities to the steampunk genre, but she did so with a masterful commander who challenged the idea that women can’t be as capable as men. And while she’s continuing the adventure elements in the second Signal Airship book, By Fire Above (hardcover, Kindle), in the following email interview, she explains it’s a different aspect of sexism that’s fueling this new flight of fancy.
Tag: Steampunk
Given that he has a hard sci-fi writer best known for his robot revolt novels Robopocalypse and Robogenesis, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Daniel H Wilson’s new novel has mechanical men rising up against their human overlords. But while there are robots in his new novel The Clockwork Dynasty (hardcover, digital), it seems Wilson has employed a different genre to tell this new story about metal people.
In these political times, it’s easy to read too much into things. It’s why, when quizzing writer Robyn Bennis about her debut novel — the steampunk adventure The Guns Above (hardcover, paperback, Kindle), which has the tag line “Lean In. Fire At Will.” — I avoided asking any questions about feminism and its role in the book. Though after she told me what The Guns Above is about, I didn’t really need to.
In speculative fiction, one of the “What If?” questions that gets asked the most is “What if [War X] went on longer than it really did?” But in his novel The Ratten Expedition (hardcover, paperback, digital), writer David A Hornung doesn’t show us what The Civil War would be like if it lasted six years longer than it really did, but what life is like ten years after that longer war concluded.
With his 1987’s novel Infernal Devices, writer K.W. Jeter presented a unique and (ultimately) influential work of steampunk fiction. Now — after twenty-five years and as many other books — he’s following it up with Fiendish Schemes (Tor Books), a sequel of sorts that catches us up with the original book’s main character, George Dower.