Steam Geared: Victorian Steampunk Erotica by Robinette WatersonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
When I saw the words Victorian Steampunk Erotica, I wondered if they should ever belong together. Unfortunately, my answer is maybe not. I thoroughly enjoyed the author’s mastery of Victorian language and locutions (for me, that was the best feature of the book), and I thought that the weaving of the steampunk technology into the Victorian setting was artistic and imaginative. I didn’t enjoy the erotic scenes quite so much, because they seemed to focus on sensation more than emotion and some of the metaphors chosen seemed a bit contrived. But the actual reason that I downgraded the book a star is that I don’t think that the erotic scenes meshed with the plots of the stories very well-many of the stories would have been fine without them. I think I would have liked Steam Geared better if was solely Victorian Steampunk stories or solely erotica. However, I still recommend Steam Geared to those who like this sort of thing, primarily because of the quality of the writing.
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