Review: The Expeditioners and the Treasure of Drowned Man's Canyon

The Expeditioners and the Treasure of Drowned Man's Canyon

by S. S. Taylor/Illus. by Katherine Roy

 

Book Description:
Computers have failed, electricity is extinct, and the race to discover new lands is underway! Brilliant explorer Alexander West has just died under mysterious circumstances, but not before smuggling half of a strange map to his intrepid children—Kit the brain, M.K. the tinkerer, and Zander the brave. Why are so many government agents trying to steal the half-map? (And where is the other half?) It’s up to Alexander’s children—the Expeditioners—to get to the bottom of these questions, and fast.

 

Review:

Honestly, this was one of the best, most interesting steampunk adventures I've read yet. I think, primarily, because it wasn't *just* steampunk. This is dystopian steampunk. That means that in this world, we've gone beyond the computer age to a period where all that technology was distrusted and society withdrew back to steam power! Very, very cool conceptually.

 

This book has a heavy focus on family relationships, gadgets, and mapmaking/reading. Each of the West children has a different "specialty." M.K. can fix any type of machinery. Zander can almost commune with animals. Our main character, and also the middle sibling, Kit, can read maps and solve codes, having learned from their Explorer father. In this world, too, the Explorers, like Mr. West are on the hunt to map out and claim new lands. They joke about the time when we were convinced that there were only seven continents!

 

 This book was exciting and intriguing and once I started reading, I did not want to put it down. Not only were there great descriptions of new creatures and awesome steampunk technologies, but the illustrator did an amazing job and every chapter there was at least one picture like this one of a typical Explorer's vest, full of cool gadgetry. There were full page illustrations and little ones sprinkled within the text. The book cover also comes off and on the reverse side is a full character sketch of each of the kids and the friend that eventually goes hunting for the secret cavern with them. 

 

This book tackled a great adventure, built an awesome and intriguing world, and also threw in a couple of great moral lessons. I cannot WAIT to read the next book in the series!!

Are you curious about Steampunk?

Steampunk in one of today’s growing trends in YA literature but many people still have no idea what steampunk means, let alone if they’ll like reading it. The clearest and most concise definition I could find online says steampunk is “genre fiction typically set in Britain in the 1900′s when steam power was prevalent and prior to the broad use of electricity. The location can be anywhere, however, including North America. Steampunk usually encompasses alternate history elements and fantastical inventions. They are often heavily geared toward science fiction and fantasy. Steampunk comprises romances and non-romances.” Even that definition can lead to some head scratching, though. What does it really mean?

Steampunk is alternate history. Steampunk is awesome gadgetry. Steampunk is corsets, cravats, top hats, goggles, and parasols. Steampunk is a variety of little elements that add up to a very unique reading experience. So, how to do you figure out if you might be a steampunk lover? Here are some questions you could ask to find out:

• Are you a fan of historical settings?
• Do you love when characters use cool gadgets?
• Are you fascinated by clothing from different eras?
• Do you find yourself dropping slang you’ve read into regular conversations?

If you answered yes to even one of these questions, you may find that you love steampunk. The next thing you have to figure out is where to start. Even though all steampunk books have core elements that make them fit the subgenre, there are elements that make each have an individual feel. You could definitely start with an anthology of stories like Steampunk, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, or Steampunk!, edited by Kelly Link and Gavin J. grant. If only one of the above elements strongly appeals to you, though, you may want to start with a title that fits that element more closely.

For example, historical fiction fans may want to start with Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan trilogy which is an alternate history of World War I. Another classical alternate history is William Gibson and Bruce Sterling’s The Difference Engine, in which Ninteenth Century London is experiencing both the Industrial Revolution and the start of the computer age. These books celebrate both details from our past and the possibilities of what could have been if the world had evolved in different directions.

Fans of gadgetry might be more interested in books like Kady Cross’s The Girl in the Steel Corset, which features some really cool steam-powered bicycles and automatons. Arthur Slade’s The Hunchback Assignments series centers around a hunchback named Modo who happens to be able to shape-shift, but is surrounded by secret agents and villains that utilize the most amazing inventions. These books have the historical version of James Bond’s spy gadgets!

Fashion fans can rejoice in the world of corsets and cravats. Some authors go out of their way to revel in the historical details of the time period, especially in the fashions. Gail Carriger is a perfect example. Her Parasol Protectorate seriesfeatures a heroine who will not leave the house without a parasol, a best friend with the most odious taste in hats, and a Lordly vampire who exemplifies men’s avant garde fashion in Victorian London.

If you find yourself picking up on Georgia Nicholson’s terminology or speaking with a British accent after watching Bridget Jones’ Diary, you may be more into steampunk for the intriguing slang you can incorporate into your everyday vernacular. Philip Reeve’s Larklight series will leave you with a resounding “Huzzah!” Not only is the family heartily British, but their travels through space allow them to combine traditional Victorian slang with imagined space terminology–a wordsmith’s delight.

So whatever the aspect of steampunk that may appeal to you, there is a matching book out there. Watch out, though! Once you’ve delved into your first steampunk novel, you may find that you cannot resist diving back into this complex and imaginative world. The language, the history, the style and the characters will be calling…

Review: Steampunk!

Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories

ed by Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant

Book Description:

Imagine an altrnate universe where romance and technology reign. Where tinkerers and dreamers craft and re-craft a world of automatons, clockworks, calculating machines, and other marvels that never were. Where scientists and schoolgirls, fair folk and Romans, intergalactic bandits, utopian revolutionaries, and intrepid orphans solve crimes, escape from monstrous predicaments, consult oracles, and hover over volcanoes in steam-powered airships. Here, fourteen masters of speculative fiction, including two graphic storytellers, embrace the genre's established themes and refashion them in surprising ways and settings as diverse as Appalachia, Ancient Rome, future Australia, and alternate California. Visionaries Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant have invited all-new explorations and expansions, taking a genre already rich, strange, and inventive in the extreme and challenging contributors to remake it from the ground up. The result is an anthology that defies the genre even as it defines it.

Review:
I adore steampunk. It's old, it's new, it's mechanical and magical, full of adventure and romance. It is a brilliant sub-genre. Traditionally steampunk means that the book is set in London, while Victoria was Queen, and unlike real life, steam power became the predominant power source.  So lots of flying machines, steam-powered vehicles, and cool gadgets!

That being said, I loved the concept of this anthology. It's like...steampunk twisted. These are tales that all have strong steampunk elements, yet push beyond what we think of as steampunk to become even more. Not a one is set in Victorian London, either!

My favorites from this anthology were Libba Bray's story about girl thieves who use a device to stop time so that they can rob trains, Kelly Link's tale of a girl who is bound to serve fairies and is only somewhat mollified by their mechanized trinket gifts, and Dylan Horrock's story about a girl from another world, trying to find herself in a flatter version of her own life. Each of these tales literally *sparkled* at me from off of the pages. *grins* The other tales were really well done, as well.

Reading this book felt like traveling the world in a dirigible with dashing young lads and lasses hanging off of the anchor ropes... *whoops, just had a Scott Westerfeld moment there, lol.* Anyway, though I didn't read it all in one go, each tale was enthralling in it's own way.