Monsters, Magic, and Machines: A SteamGoth Anthology Paperback – January 10, 2011

Monsters, Magic, and Machines (The SteamGoth Anthology Book 1) I have always enjoyed anthologies, and think that some of the best SF and fantasy every written can be found in short stories. And I enjoy steampunk just as much. Not as much into horror, so I had not got around to checking this out until now. I should not have waited, the stories in this collection were a really enjoyable read.There were a lot of nice historical touches that I thought grounded the stories very well. Little touches like the story of the French Foreign Legionnaires fighting zombies including a few survivors from one of their most famous battles at Camerone, or a mention that Ben Franklin was the man who codified thaumaturgy in another story. Those touches of real history gave you a launching pad for the journey into the more fantastic world the writers spun for us.The story picking up the tale of John Henry, the steel-drivin' man was especially clever in several ways, which I urge you to read to see what I mean. There were detectives, all manner of monsters, even (gasp) a lawyer. I especially enjoyed a couple of the entries that appeared to introduce characters for continuing stories. I am really looking forward to seeing the further adventures of any I turn out to be right about.No review is truly complete without a critique. Only a bit of nitpicking, really, and all too common any more. I found some obvious errors distracting a few times. Obvious spelling errors in a couple of spots may have been introduced at any point in the production pipeline, and a few of them may well have been the result of the dreaded "auto-correct". I know very well just how hard it is to correct text you have been intimately involved with, because you KNOW what it is supposed to say. Sadly this is all too common any more, so I will just gently mention it as a minor flaw, perhaps a zen imperfection.I've already purchased a couple more of the later volumes in the series, and will post reviews when I get the time to read them. Kudos to Johnathan Baird and all the others who slaved over hot keyboards to bring these delightful little stories to us.

I read this book as a kindle book based on someone online recommending it on Facebook."Steam Goth" is new to me (though if you think about it, "Frankenstein" was maybe the first of this type.)I like the stories. in a couple cases maybe a little "campy" but the fun sort rather than the "cringe" sort.The kindle version could have been made a little more convenient to browse through as you had no links from the titles on the Table of Contents to their respective place in the book. Then again, I'm probably just spoiled that way.It's short and it's fun. Good, quick reads all of them. I'll now be keeping an eye out for "steam Goth" in the future.

Could have left the steampunk out of every story and no one would have noticed. I did like the dwarven lawyer story and would enjoy more adventures of him and his "girl fiend".

The two stars reflect the two tales I enjoyed. One was about a demon on an airship ("The Curse of the Cygnus"), the other was about a lass from the 21st Century taken into an alternative reality.The others? Some of the authors ought to be told that there are other punctuation marks besides full stops. Rambling sentences that are really paragraphs. Another uses "thru" and "Dr's" instead of "through" and "doctor's". This laziness meant I refused to read further.Some of the stories had promise, but not lived up to.I would happily read further adventures of the ones mentioned in the first paragraph. Besides those; no thanks.