The strongest anthology I've read in ages.

Some favorites were "The Last Aswang", "Chasing Volcanoes", and "The Unmaking of the Cuadro Amoroso", but there wasn't a single story that I didn't enjoy.

Can't wait to throw this at customers. ( )

This collection is quite admirable for highlighting an overlooked literary category, and for including a varied group of authors.

I have a great regard for all things Steampunk. Having lived in and traveled extensively in Asia, I felt I would be sure to love these stories. Sadly, I could not continue reading them. After reading for a few pages, I would put the book aside for a few days and try again with another story. While the ideas were captivating, the characterizations and writing were generally uninviting.

I can not recommend this strongly as other than an introduction to a new literary area, but I would recommend this to fans of science fiction who are looking for a different taste.

**eARC netgalley** ( )

I find the star system generally quite useless in terms of rating books (sometimes a whole lot happens between "liked it" and "really liked it"); more so for an anthology, where there are definite stand-outs and a few less appealing ones. A mixed-bag, as it usually is, and my three stars don't accurately convey how some writers did really well, while some were so-so. That said the stories here have consistently intriguing ideas and a real attentiveness to details and structures and mechanisms of how things work; where some stories didn't work for me, then, was when this overrode the writing and the characterisation. Some just didn't have emotional depth and/or didn't quite experiment with form or perspective to hold my interest beyond the time it took me to read it; chief among these are the highly-praised central pieces by Kate Osias and Paolo Chikiamco. Both were overwrought and more style than substance. Also, sometimes the rhythm of language in a piece of writing is like individual personality; either you get on with it or you don't. This was pretty much my problem with L.L. Hill's story, as well.

Quieter stories by Nghi Vo, Timothy Dimacali, Pear Nuallak and ZM Quynh worked better for me; these did not announce themselves with much bombast, but were intelligent and subtle and worked a delicate magic. In these stories, the world as seen through the characters' eyes is slightly off-kilter, lovely, menacing, and mysterious. Favourites were Alessa Hinlo's remarkable fusing of Filipino myth with anticolonial politics and Olivia Ho's Singaporean take on Frankenstein's monster via the appropriated labour and bodies of Chinese women under capitalist rule. On the whole, it's really nice to read so many stories that take Southeast Asian history and culture as points of departure to subvert or modify standard steampunk tropes in order to create something wholly distinctive. (Perhaps best to point out that I don't generally read steampunk, or gravitate towards it, and was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this. Or maybe what I enjoy is just Asian steampunk by Asian writers minus the orientalist gaze. Or basically just good writing that incorporates steampunk ideas. In any case, this book has set a standard for me.)

Most of the stories here are from Filipino writers and there was plenty that was new to me and fun to learn about--I really look forward to looking up more of the stuff I took notes on. A really nice and welcome effort by the editors and contributors, with lovely illustrations. If there's another volume planned at some point, I hope we'll see greater representation from other SEA countries.

Longer review is up here. ( )

An anthology of SE Asian steampunk stories. Like many multi-author anthologies, it’s a bit of a mixed bag, and the SE Asian background makes for a more difficult read. The other thing was the overt anti-colonial tone in some of the stories; I don’t disagree with the sentiment but I found it a bit heavy-handed and probably not entirely suited to the story length. (In a novel, I think it would have worked but in a short story I think the world-building needs to be more seamless.)

I dipped in and out of this one, reading a story at a time. Worth reading, but probably not everyone’s cup of tea. Whether I’ll ever return to this is debatable.

A solid selection of short stories, some of which would be fun to see in a bigger novel. The Southeast Asian flavours are wonderfully rich and add great colour to the well worn steampunk tropes. ( )