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Broken Time Blues: Fantastic Tales in the Roaring ‘20s
No blind tigers or coffin varnish here. Broken Time Blues may be poorly lit, and not in the best part of town, but it's classy joint, see? The cat's meow. So toss on your glad rags and get a move on. Make sure no one follows you, then take a right down the alley and knock three times on the brown door. There won't be a sig.. Code word's "applesauce." It's okay to get your friends hip to the jive, but hush. Speakeasy, Bulls and Mrs. Grundys might be listening. Inside you'll be amazed by twelve outlandish tales. An alien burlesque dancer; a monstrous, people eating goddess; a buried city of automatons; Picasso as a villainous, flesh-sculpting wizard; a fae detective; a bootlegging chicken; and more. Broken Time Blues: the 1920s as you've never seen them...but always wanted to.
166 pages, Paperback
First published July 21, 2011
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156 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 23, 2014
Anthologies are strange beasts, because they give you many different stories and so you can find pearls and pebbles all together. Occasionally, you get lucky and get an antho which offers you mostly pearls.
This is the case with ‘Brocken Time Blues’.
I really enjoyed this collection of dieselpunk stories. Dieselpank isn’t a genre that focuses on storytelling so it’s not often that you get to read stories in this genre. This is a collection of very interesting authors, themes, different alternate histories and places. There’s something for everyone and a lot for lovers of the fantastic.
The anthology opens with one of my favourite pieces, ‘The Sharing’ by James L. Sutter set in a Prohibition America where Prohibition has been passed to stop aliens from annoying humans, since they get a very strange power when they get drunk. So unusual. The second story is probably my least favorite, ‘Chickadee’ by Frank Ard, about a giant, human-like chicken and his falling in love. Not really my thing.
But from here on, I enjoyed most of the stories. Some of my favourite: ‘Button Up Your Overcoat’ by Barbara Krasnoff, a very mild dieselpunk about a peculiar way of ‘passing’; ‘Nor the Moonlight’ by Andrew Penn Romine, a hard-core dieselpunk set in interwar Paris, with a fantastic noir atmosphere and one Salvador Dalì turned into a wizard; ‘A Drink for Teddy Ford’ by Robert Jackson Bennett, another atmosphere piece presenting a very unusual idea for a cocktail; and probably my favourite, ‘The Purloined Ledger’ by Ari Marmell, which blends dieselpunk and more proper fantasy in a seamless way and has at his core a very ingenious idea.
Well worth a try if you are a lover of the fantastical.
This is the case with ‘Brocken Time Blues’.
I really enjoyed this collection of dieselpunk stories. Dieselpank isn’t a genre that focuses on storytelling so it’s not often that you get to read stories in this genre. This is a collection of very interesting authors, themes, different alternate histories and places. There’s something for everyone and a lot for lovers of the fantastic.
The anthology opens with one of my favourite pieces, ‘The Sharing’ by James L. Sutter set in a Prohibition America where Prohibition has been passed to stop aliens from annoying humans, since they get a very strange power when they get drunk. So unusual. The second story is probably my least favorite, ‘Chickadee’ by Frank Ard, about a giant, human-like chicken and his falling in love. Not really my thing.
But from here on, I enjoyed most of the stories. Some of my favourite: ‘Button Up Your Overcoat’ by Barbara Krasnoff, a very mild dieselpunk about a peculiar way of ‘passing’; ‘Nor the Moonlight’ by Andrew Penn Romine, a hard-core dieselpunk set in interwar Paris, with a fantastic noir atmosphere and one Salvador Dalì turned into a wizard; ‘A Drink for Teddy Ford’ by Robert Jackson Bennett, another atmosphere piece presenting a very unusual idea for a cocktail; and probably my favourite, ‘The Purloined Ledger’ by Ari Marmell, which blends dieselpunk and more proper fantasy in a seamless way and has at his core a very ingenious idea.
Well worth a try if you are a lover of the fantastical.
August 23, 2025
Broken Time Blues is a collection of 12 short stories mixing speculative fiction with a 1920s setting. It was published by Absolute XPress, an imprint of Hades publications from Canada. XPress seems to have fallen by the wayside, but Hades still continues and I think I am right in saying is Canadas leading Sci Fi and Fantasy publishers.
The stories are varied, featuring aliens, fae, witch-hunters, and all the speak-easy, jazz age trappings one would hope for. With two exceptions the stories are set in America (France and Germany being the outliers).
As we may expect from an anthology, especially one who features a lot of lesser known writers there is a mixed bag in terms of quality. There is only one real dud, while a couple poke their heads above the pack. By far my favourite was Button Up Your Overcoat by Barbara Krasnoff a simple tale of a dancing girl who receives an unexpected visitor after a show one night - this contained all the period feel one could wish for, and the protagonist was drawn with a light touch, Krasnoff didn't attempt to force their life story into a couple of thousand words, and told us just what we needed to know to convey her character. The action in Button Up Your Overcoat is also kept to a bare minimum, we get only one act in a story which must otherwise construct for ourselves.
There is artwork scattered through out, two pieces per story I think. There is nothing wrong with the art, but the printing doesn't do it justice and I personally found it just distracted me from the prose.
I was not aware of any of the individual writers (or artists) before reading this anthology. Having looked them up it seems James L Sutter is the best known, but more for his work on the (ironically given my introduction to this book) TTRPG Pathfinder. Indeed several of the authors seem to have been involved with TTRPGs at some points. None of them have gone on to stir up the literary world since their contributions here, a couple seem to have dropped off the radar. Both the artists (Galen Dara and Evan Jensen) are still working in the field and Galen in particular is producing some amazing stuff, especially her personal work.
BTB was edited and curated by Jaym Gates and Erika Holt, who seem to have been regular co-conspirators when Absolute XPress was active, and both still work in the industry now. The pair did a good job, both in selecting a broad variety of works, and in honing them into a professional product.
Overall, Broken Time Blue is a solid book, a couple of stories will make you think, a couple of stories will leave you cold, but nearly all of them will immerse you for a short time in a gin-soaked, trench-coat-wearing, dieselpunk world.
This review is taken from my world literature blog: https://theworldisabookblog.blogspot....
The stories are varied, featuring aliens, fae, witch-hunters, and all the speak-easy, jazz age trappings one would hope for. With two exceptions the stories are set in America (France and Germany being the outliers).
As we may expect from an anthology, especially one who features a lot of lesser known writers there is a mixed bag in terms of quality. There is only one real dud, while a couple poke their heads above the pack. By far my favourite was Button Up Your Overcoat by Barbara Krasnoff a simple tale of a dancing girl who receives an unexpected visitor after a show one night - this contained all the period feel one could wish for, and the protagonist was drawn with a light touch, Krasnoff didn't attempt to force their life story into a couple of thousand words, and told us just what we needed to know to convey her character. The action in Button Up Your Overcoat is also kept to a bare minimum, we get only one act in a story which must otherwise construct for ourselves.
There is artwork scattered through out, two pieces per story I think. There is nothing wrong with the art, but the printing doesn't do it justice and I personally found it just distracted me from the prose.
I was not aware of any of the individual writers (or artists) before reading this anthology. Having looked them up it seems James L Sutter is the best known, but more for his work on the (ironically given my introduction to this book) TTRPG Pathfinder. Indeed several of the authors seem to have been involved with TTRPGs at some points. None of them have gone on to stir up the literary world since their contributions here, a couple seem to have dropped off the radar. Both the artists (Galen Dara and Evan Jensen) are still working in the field and Galen in particular is producing some amazing stuff, especially her personal work.
BTB was edited and curated by Jaym Gates and Erika Holt, who seem to have been regular co-conspirators when Absolute XPress was active, and both still work in the industry now. The pair did a good job, both in selecting a broad variety of works, and in honing them into a professional product.
Overall, Broken Time Blue is a solid book, a couple of stories will make you think, a couple of stories will leave you cold, but nearly all of them will immerse you for a short time in a gin-soaked, trench-coat-wearing, dieselpunk world.
This review is taken from my world literature blog: https://theworldisabookblog.blogspot....
January 7, 2020
An interesting read
Definitely not what I was expecting, but in a very good way! If you like sci-fi or horror but want something a bit different, check this out!
Definitely not what I was expecting, but in a very good way! If you like sci-fi or horror but want something a bit different, check this out!
December 1, 2011
The idea of Spec-Fic from the 1920s intrigued me. At first, due to my own ignorance of the era, had assumed that each story would be filled with bathtub gin, rum runners, and speakeasys. Perhaps something about the depression.
I was wrong. Sure some of those elements were present, but the stories ran the gamut from magical to fantastic to out of this world. The authors (and editors) did their homework. I’m a stickler for details and when something feels out of place, I have a tendency to look something up. I only ran into a couple of snags that once I stopped, looked up the detail, I was pleasantly surprised to find the story accurate.
Aside from the details, the collection of stories were consistently different in tone, atmosphere, theme, and even locale. From the mean streets of Chicago, to a backwoods distillery, each story kept up a great pace to make the book a fun and fast read. Usually with a collection you’ll run across one story that runs across the grain, but with this collection I was surprised that each flowed well from one to the next.
I’d be hard pressed to choose just one story out of the batch that I’d call my favorite. As I look over the list I keep thinking, oh, I really liked this part of this story, and I liked this one a lot. This story was fun, and that story started out gritty, but gave me hope at the end. To be honest, I love this collection as a whole. I highly recommend this collection. For only $2.99 for the kindle edition, it’s a steal! Grab it. Read it. Enjoy it.
I was wrong. Sure some of those elements were present, but the stories ran the gamut from magical to fantastic to out of this world. The authors (and editors) did their homework. I’m a stickler for details and when something feels out of place, I have a tendency to look something up. I only ran into a couple of snags that once I stopped, looked up the detail, I was pleasantly surprised to find the story accurate.
Aside from the details, the collection of stories were consistently different in tone, atmosphere, theme, and even locale. From the mean streets of Chicago, to a backwoods distillery, each story kept up a great pace to make the book a fun and fast read. Usually with a collection you’ll run across one story that runs across the grain, but with this collection I was surprised that each flowed well from one to the next.
I’d be hard pressed to choose just one story out of the batch that I’d call my favorite. As I look over the list I keep thinking, oh, I really liked this part of this story, and I liked this one a lot. This story was fun, and that story started out gritty, but gave me hope at the end. To be honest, I love this collection as a whole. I highly recommend this collection. For only $2.99 for the kindle edition, it’s a steal! Grab it. Read it. Enjoy it.
January 28, 2012
In a year of many good anthologies, Broken Time Blues stands out as among the better ones. The stories are notable for imagination and treading new ground; I was going to list my favorites, but I couldn't decide.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews