Sure, that’s a bold claim, but we can back it up. Steampunk has gotten pretty strange on occasion — but it’s never gone to such bizarre, Python-esque places as Paul Di Filippo took it to. And at last, The Steampunk Trilogy is out as an ebook (and a new paperback edition) on July 8.
This is the trilogy of stories which starts with the one where Queen Victoria runs away to a brothel, and is replaced a genetically engineered newt that looks just like the real Queen. That’s the story that convinced me steampunk (and alternate history generally) could be really weird and psychotic, when I read it back in the day. The other two stories are just as bizarre. Including the Emily Dickinson/Walt Whitman hook-up you never knew you needed. Warning: the middle story (which I haven’t read) features a racist Victorian naturalist, and by all accounts pushes the depiction of Victorian racism pretty far. [Amazon]
