Review: The Steampunk Trilogy
<p>The <cite>Steampunk Trilogy</cite> (Paul diFilippo; Open Road Integrated Media) is three short novels set in a now-familiar sort of alternate-Victorian timeline replete with weird science, Lovecraftian monsters, and baroquely ornamented technology described in baroquely ornamental prose.</p>
<p>What distinguishes this particular outing is that it&#8217;s <cite>hilarious</cite>. In the first chapter of the first book, a runaway young Queen Victoria is replaced by a newt.  In the second chapter (a flashback) an experiment in powering a steam locomotive from the waste heat of masses of uranium comes to a tragic, mushroom-clouded end when an accident slams them together just a bit too hard.  </p>
<p>The books proceed in a tumbling cascade of ribaldry, parody, slapstick, and sly historical references that sends up every target in sight. And just when you think it&#8217;s all farce&#8230;Walt Whitman delivers a compassionate and psychologically astute critique of her poetry to Emily Dickinson, it isn&#8217;t comedy at all, and it&#8217;s even plot-relevant!  Along the way, Herman Melville tangles with the Deep Ones and the naturalist Henry Agassiz recognizes Dagon as an ichthyosaurus&#8230;</p>
<p>Even if you&#8217;re not equipped to parse all the historical and literary in-jokes, this is fun stuff.  If you are&#8230;I enjoyed the hell out of it.  You probably will too.</p>
