Clockwork Fairy Tales: A Collection of Steampunk Fables

by Stephen L. Antczak (Editor), James C. Bassett (Editor)

Combining the timeless fairy tales that we all read as children with the out-of-time technological wizardry that is steampunk, this collection of stories blends the old and the new in ways sure to engage every fantasy reader.…

Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s "The Red Shoes", New York Times bestselling author K. W. Jeter’s "La Valse" forges a fable about love, the decadence of technology, and a gala dance that becomes the obsession of a young engineer—and the doom of those who partake in it.…

In "You Will Attend Until Beauty Awakens", national bestselling author and John W. Campbell Award winner Jay Lake tells the story of Sleeping Beauty—and how the princess was conceived in deception, raised in danger, and rescued by a prince who may be less than valiant.

The tale of "The Tinderbox" takes a turn into the surreal when a damaged young soldier comes into possession of an intricate, treacherous treasure and is drawn into a mission of mercy in national bestselling author Kat Richardson’s "The Hollow Hounds".

In "The Kings of Mount Golden", Hugo and World Fantasy Award nominee Paul Di Filippo tells the story of a young man’s search for his heritage and a mechanical marvel that lies at the heart of a sinister pact in this fascinating take on "The King of the Golden Mountain".


ALSO INCLUDES STORIES FROM
Steven Harper
Nancy A. Collins
G. K. Hayes
Gregory Nicoll
Pip Ballantine

Genres: Steampunk, Fantasy, Short Stories, Anthologies, Fiction, Fairy Tales, Science Fiction

326 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2013

About the author

I have a YouTube channel called "I, Nerdius" where I post videos about all things science fiction and other genres, including nonfiction. I also post videos about writing.

Reviews

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Its not the book, its me!

About 6 years ago I was really into Steampunk. Its how I was first introduced to the works of Cassandra Claire. Its was good times but at some point I stopped reading Steampunk other than Cassandra Claire(and I'm not really into her anymore either). I don't remember losing interest in it but I obviously did. So in an effort to see if I might want to get back into the genre I decided to read some Steampunk stories.

Clockwork Fairy Tales is a collection of classic fairy tales reimagined as Steampunk.

Sounds great huh?

Guys, it was a struggle!

I had force myself to finish it. I only finished it today because I'm donating some books I no longer want tomorrow and I wanted this included. I can't wait to rid my home of this book.

But I don't think its the books fault. I think its me. The stories are in theory well written and entertaining if you're into Steampunk. I'm just not anymore. I've moved on and I'm okay with that.

No rec.

[Cal Bowen · Rating 4 out of 5]

All reviews are based on two separate 5-point scales – 1 to 5 for clockwork usage and 1 to 5 for the story itself
3.5 stars overall.

La Valse
CLOCKWORK – 5
The usage of clockwork is fun, though a bit too technical, with terminology used that I had to look up to understand.
STORY – 3
The story itself did nothing for me though, and ended very strange, though I understand these are workings of fairy tales, but, strange all the same.
OVERALL – 8

Fair Vasyl
CLOCKWORK – 5
The clockwork usage in this tale is excellent, and has that suspension of disbelief covered.
STORY – 4
The story had 2 major plot twists, which I will not ruin, but I did see both of them prior to the reveal. The anachronisms in the dialog made this a difficult story to get lost in, without the usage of modern verbiage.
OVERALL – 9

The Hollow Hounds
CLOCKWORK – 5 4
The Hollow Hounds were neat, and the clockwork use in this tale was well done.
STORY – 4
The story in and of itself was almost three stories told in sequence, which made this a bit more fun. When a story was ending, another began, and you realized that you could stay a bit longer in this world, which I enjoyed.
OVERALL – 8

The Kings of Mount Golden
CLOCKWORK – 4
The clockwork in this is more ‘mad scientist’, but it is there. A la Prometheus
STORY – 3
The story itself flows, takes expected turns, and ends expectedly and with a hard stop of finality. The language is very much in the period, though some phrases from the now leak in, taking the story out of the sepia tone and into a more modern take. This is not a great tale overall.
OVERALL – 7

You Will Attend Until Beauty Awakens
CLOCKWORK – 3
Clock-workings of automata and some other mentions, this comes off very Prometheus, and very little clockwork.
STORY – 1
The story – oh this story is so useless. It rambles through the tale, and quick small bites of chapters into a pointless story. What I feared most when I started this, was an author trying to sound refined and cultured; but coming off out of place.
OVERALL – 4

Mose and the Automatic Fireman
CLOCKWORK – 5
Though it does not have any in the beginning, once it is introduced, it is full on there
STORY – 5
This is one of those short stories you long to read. It is full of character and action, and though there are no surprises, the story still holds true to form
OVERALL – 10

The Clockwork Suit
CLOCKWORK – 3
Don’t let the title fool you. The suit is automata running on steam, so it is not clockwork. No mainspring, not clockwork. Get it?
STORY – 3
Simple and predictable – like Charlie and the Chocolate factory meets the Emperor’s New Clothes (which the tale is a retelling of), except in steam punk (not clockwork)
OVERALL – 6

The Steampiper, The Stovepiper, and the Pied Piper of New Hamelin, Texas
CLOCKWORK – 3 2
STORY – 1
This one gets the longest review for so many bad things within it:This comes off as a weird west take on clock-punk plus steam-punk with some Tesla-punk added for seasoning. The force of dialog with the German accent is annoying. They are German, I get it, but “zis iz not how zay talk in Jairmany” You vill haff to do better zan zis. A horse cannot carry a man and his gear and a divers helmet made of metal. That is ridiculous. Cacophony is a good word, unless you use it too many times in a short story. And finally, he has to try all three – yeah, didn’t see THAT coming.
OVERALL – 3

The Mechanical Wings
CLOCKWORK – 5
It started off with very little, but grew more as the story progressed.
STORY – 4
I was glad that this one ended the way that it did. You knew what would happen, but knowing and reading are two different ends.
OVERALL – 9

[All Things Urban Fantasy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review Courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy

LA VALSE by K.W. Jeter

The original fairy tales were pretty gruesome affairs with the wicked and sometimes the innocent meeting horribly bloody ends. LA VALSE is probably the most gruesome tale in CLOCKWORK FAIRY TALES was an interesting take on the RED SHOES by Hans Christian Andersen where instead of one bratty girl getting taught a lesson, horrible noblemen and women are tortured at a ball. I was a bit confused though about the application of the deadly technology on the nobility. I couldn’t figure out if they were just automatons or really trusting rich people who had odd steampunk attachments put on them during the ball. Either way it was kind of satisfying to see mean rich people meet a horribly bloody end while dancing at a ball.

FAIR VASYL by Stephen Harper

Being familiar with Vasilisa the Beautiful and other tales involving Baba Yaga I was surprised at the gender change of the main character from Vasilisa to Vasyl. I adored the steampunk house design on Baba Yaga’s house that stands on chicken legs. Along with the house there are lots of other little touches paying homage to the original story. FAIR VASYL was a very whimsical story with anamatonic animals and brooms helping Vasyl complete his tasks to win the hand of a girl and escape from the Baba Yaga. The most surprising and touching element of this story was the romantic twist over just who Vasyl really wanted to be with in the end.

THE HOLLOW HOUNDS by Kat Richardson

THE HOLLOW HOUNDS was an amusing tale with mechanical talking dogs helping a soldier save a town. I loved the visuals of a vast cavern of steampunk mechanics and dangerous monsters. The battle with the antagonist and the giant mechanical dogs was pretty epic and filled with amazing steampunk fighting machines. As with most of these stories the ending is slightly altered from the original to fit this version and I really enjoyed the adorable ‘happily ever after’ ending with the soldier and his dog.



THE KINGS OF MOUNT GOLDEN by Paul Di Filippo

Most of these tales you can kind of see the original story underneath the ‘steampunk’ veneer and slight altering of storylines. After reading THE KINGS OF MOUNT GOLDEN I had a really hard time figuring out what the original could possibly be like as this one felt the most original of the bunch. This story veers the most away from the original tale. I liked how it became its own story as it seemed to add a lot more depth to the tale and added a happier ending which while not in keeping with the original was satisfying after the horrible things the characters go through.



YOU WILL ATTEND UNTIL BEAUTY AWAKENS by Jay Lake

Only being familiar with Disney’s Sleeping Beauty which took liberties with the original by Charles Perrault I was excited to see a darker version. The storytelling for YOU WILL ATTEND UNTIL BEAUTY AWAKENS was really unique with various narrators and gave a more indepth and fascinating back story to the characters. For such a short story this had a lot of world building and I would love to see a full novel version of this world. The twist on the curse set upon “Sleeping Beauty” was ingenious and probably in keeping with the darker tones of the original story. The ending was not happy for some of the characters but oddly satisfying and pretty logical given the parameters of the curse in this version of the Sleeping Beauty story.



MOSE AND THE AUTOMATIC FIREMAN Nancy A. Collins

This was my least favorite of the stories as it was basically just a kid magically getting big and strong and becoming a famous firefighter. There were some fun steam powered gadgets but it just didn’t grab me like the other stories in this book did and Mose came off as kind of obnoxious and arrogant though one would if they suddenly were Paul Bunyan sized.



THE CLOCKWORK SUIT by G.K. Hayes

THE CLOCKWORK SUIT had a lot of story to fill in as the THE EMPEROR’S NEW CLOTHES (the tale its based on)is a pretty bare bones in plot. The story has children working in a sweatshop to create a Clockwork Suit for a vain, genius professor who wants to present it to the emperor. The shift of the professor being the vain one duped by children was a pretty nice change from the original as it allowed for a bigger story plotwise. While the emperor was not vain he did come off as a bit reckless trying on a huge steam powered suit himself rather than making another servant do it. Though the emperor did need to be naked in the end to stay true to the ending of THE EMPEROR’S NEW CLOTHES…



THE STEAMPIPER, THE STOVEPIPER, AND THE PIED PIPER OF NEW HAMELIN, TEXAS by Gregory Nicoll

This was a really clever adaptation of the original legend turned fairy tale of the PIED PIPER of HAMELIN. Being set in Texas it had a quaint Western feel to it especially with the added steampunk style guns and looming Native American tribe threat. While the Native Americans helped with the Western feel of the story their purpose to the story was kind of confusing and even unnecessary.

Aside from confusing Natives the rest of the story was engaging and fun. Instead of a magic flute luring rats and children away we have a grand steam powered organ. It was fun trying to imagine a steampowered organ travelling around the countryside with rats and kids mesmerized by its music. The addition of Stovepipe Montpelier as the protagonist of the story who helps figure out what the Piper has done to the children helped with connecting to the characters and get a feel for the town of New Hamelin and its citizens.



THE MECHANICAL WINGS by Pip Ballantine

THE MECHANICAL WINGS felt the most ‘fairy tale-ish’ out of all of these adaptations with actual magic and steam technology that seems almost magical in its creation. I actually had a hard time conceptualizing some of the technology in my mind and had to settle for the ‘its just magic so roll with it’ mindset. Aside from that Eleanor’s quest to save her brothers from the evil queen by making magic capes was exciting and satisfying to see. It was kind of like a hero’s journey where the hero has to be broken down and go through many struggles before finally being vindicated in the end.

Sexual content: references to sex, kissing

[Eric F · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wobbly collection. Starting off with strong re-workings by K.W. Jeter (La Valse) and Steven Harper (Fair Vasyl) - the remainder of the collection struggled. Most authors seemed to struggle to try to push all the required buttons in a short stories span and failed to do it in an unforced, "look, there's the fairytale part; look, there's the steampunk part!" kinda way. Middling were the pieces by Kat Richardson (The Hollow Hounds), Nancy A. Collins (Mose and the Automatic Fireman), G.K. Hayes (The Clockwork Suit), and Pip Ballantine (The Mechanical Wings). These stories just never gelled - often tripping over themselves and in the case of "Automatic Fireman" - leaving behind a "so what?" residue. Bottom of the barrel: Paul Di Filippo's overly affected "The Kings of Mount Golden", Jay Lake's awfully muddled "You Will Attend Until Beauty Awakens", and, in last place, "The Steampiper, The Stovepiper, and the Pied Piper of New Hamelin Texas" by Gregory Nicoll. The twee title should be warning enough to waste no further time - but if venturing on, the author's constant need to wink and raise an eyebrow at his own cleverness are regrettable: "you're the kind of man who likes to try all three." Dumbly crafted.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought I'd like these more than I did. They had some neat ideas & takes on classic tales, but most were way too long with little pay off. I really like SHORT stories with a twist, usually at the end. It's tough to put too much of a twist into a known tale, though. They also seemed to be trying for a Steampunk atmosphere which usually doesn't do much for me since it tends to be illogical. Some get it right & then it's pretty good, but too few & none of these authors managed very well. Mixing it with completely magical magic didn't help.

The stories were very well narrated. One of my favorites, John Lee, read a story. Even so, there were some strange word choices & after reading another review about the proofing, I think the narrators read what was written, which was incorrect in a few cases. I wish I could recall specifics because they were jarring.

Barely 3 stars because one story was really good. The rest were just OK.

[Shay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the twist on classic fairytales! Sure there were stories I wasn't a fan of, but as a whole this was a clever spin on tales we know and love.

[Cheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

The reading community needs fewer wannabe authors and more editors and proofreaders. These were cute enough adventures, ideas, attempts - but they had very little of the resonance or re-readability of classic tales. I'm not even sure that most of the steampunk was 'true' - to me it felt contrived. And 5 minutes after closing the book, I can only vaguely remember about half the stories. I was considering giving it 3 stars, but if the stories made such little impact on me, "it was ok" is the correct rating. Don't bother.

[Anna Kensak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some very well written and enjoyable retellings

[Love of Hopeless Causes · Rating 1 out of 5]

A beautiful book to look at with a cheery font. Unfortunately, the writing was not what I'd hoped for. See comments for the writing fouls that chased me off.

[Kara · Rating 3 out of 5]

An assortment of fairy tales retold with various Steampunk elements - some worked very well, some didn't work at all, and some were just so-so.

K.W. Jeter's La Valse takes puritanical Hans Christen Anderson's 'The Red Shoes' and flips the script from the original Calvinist message of punishing someone for daring to not want to be poor to a more Marxist message of punishing the rich for being greedy and cruel. The story itself was a good retelling, but the world building was fuzzy as it was unclear what, exactly, all that tech was doing.

Steven Harper's Fair Vasyl is a composite of several Baba Yaga stories, and here we learn that she may be many things, but she is NOT homophobic, which was a nice change of pace when it comes to antagonists, you know what I mean? The Steampunk elements worked PERFECTLY with her fabled house, and I LOVED the snarky cat, who seemed to have wandered in from a 21st century sci-fi show, but it worked, and it all leads up to a great ending of chases, sacrifice, stand offs, sweet love, and a promise of more adventure.

Karen Richardson's The Hollow Hounds updates Hans Christen Anderson's 'The Tinderbox' and places it post-Civil War (with the war made worse by Steampunk weapons). The interesting thing about the original story is, instead of the usual protagonist of a foolish youngest son setting off to wander the world, this story specifically emphasizes the main character is a post-war soldier, used up and tossed aside by the army, and unsure what to do with his life. This, sadly, makes the story extremely flexible to work anytime, anywhere, as all times and places have people who were chewed up and spat out by war and struggle to figure out where they fit in back in civilian life. The soldier here does better than most, and I liked that this retelling gets rid of the creepy stalking subplot.

Paul Di Filippo's The Kings of Mount Golden takes a little known Grimm fairy tale 'The King of the Golden Mountain' and gives it a Boston Brahmin update. There's a reason the original isn't wildly popular - its a confusing mix of too many elements, and it's just as convoluted here. Good use of original Steampunk tech rather than just ticking off the usual boxes, but over all its a weird story that comes to an oddly abrupt ending.

Jay Lake's You Will Attend Until Beauty Awakens tells every single side of the 'Sleeping Beauty' story, developing side characters at the expanse of the main one, and is all just a little cute as it plays with mixing both the fairy tale setting and 19th century. I wanted to know about the twisted family of Summer and Winter, but, sadly, they get dropped after Act I.

Nancy A. Collins's Mose and the Automatic Fireman takes a now lesser known folk hero who was similar to Paul Bunyan or John Henry and gives it the Green Lateran treatment - with the expected results, given just how well that movie turned out. The story has a great opportunity to dig into some of New York's darker history, but ends up making sure everyone knows the main character was a hero, despite his gangster style leadership.

G.K. Hayes's The Clockwork Suit is a steampunk story of 'The Emperor's New Clothes' telling the story from an unwitting minion's point-of-view, and the kid's voice really grated on me, as the author tried to make an authentic sounding kid character, but instead was just annoying.

Gregory Nicol retells 'The Pied Piper of Hamelin' in The Steampiper, The Stovepiper, and the Pied Piper of New Hamelin Texas and moves it to Texas, but keeps all the German elements. There were several problematic aspects to the story, but I was very turned off by the fact the "hero" is rewarded at the end with a foursome with three sisters, one of the very underage.

And the collection ends with Pip Ballantine's The Mechanical Wings, a retelling of the 'Wild Swans' that felt like it was part of a wider universe. I was actually interested in the female characters and wanted to know more about them and the odd Steampunk airborne kingdoms they all lived in. The men, just like in the original, are all useless.

[Catherine King · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixed bag of stories, overall well-selected and with good developments on the motifs and images of steampunk. What's really weird was that the cover included what is clearly a Nightingale, a riff on Hans Christian Andersens' fable "The Nightingale" (which is almost a steampunk story on its own) but no riff on the story itself was inside. On to what WAS inside:

"The Valse" is a good opener but not quite of a piece with what else is in the collection. It's pleasantly macabre and though the ending is a bit rushed, (and why DO the rich people strap themselves in to machinery every year?) the story itself is very good for worldbuilding and building tension.
"Fair Vasyl" was probably my favorite story, with a sweet romance (and queer to boot!), good invention, a fascinating villain, and a theme of family and love that was sold throughout. An excellent update on its original tale.
"The Hollow Hounds" was my second favorite, a really good Cattlepunk (steampunk in the Old West) tale which hit all the right fairy tale notes AND all the right Western notes, without reusing poisonous tropes like "Steampiper" did below. The human drama was moving and the ending left me very happy. A good job all around.
"The Kings of Mount Golden" really felt like it was a novel straining to fit into a little story format, rushed but well-executed enough.
"You Will Attend Until Beauty Awakens" started out quite interesting but wrapped up very quickly and in a way to give all the agency to the Prince, right where it started.
"Mose and the Automatic Fireman" was a good take on American folklore, if not exactly stirring.
"The Clockwork Suit" was boring.
"The Steampiper, the Stovepiper, and the Pied Piper," by Gregory Nicholls, was good enough as an action yarn to keep my attention, but ye gods, it left a bad taste in my mouth. It managed to be racist (featuring Comanche raiders, violent murderers who can be killed off at a moment's notice), sexist (women were objectified to hell and back, including an underage girl -- hint, if your character is young enough to be taken by the Pied Piper, she is a child, and therefore too young to be given to the hero as a god-damned sexy prize for his victory), and condoning animal cruelty (electric spurs aren't cool, they're torture. And if there's electricity in such abundance you can use it for spurs, why the hell is the world steampunk?)
"Mechanical Wings" was a good finisher. The story itself was a bit rushed, but had a lot of very good ideas to expand on the original, and I definitely wanted to spend more time in the City of the Swans and the City of the Eagles, so Pip Ballantyne did a great job there.

[Michelle Leah Olson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Our Review, by LITERAL ADDICTION's GuestvReviewer - Michelle M:
*ARC received from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review

This book is a collection of Steampunk Fables based on fairy tales. These stories take you back to a time long ago but with a twist. I loved them. My favorite would be You Will Attend Until Beauty Awakens. This one is based on Sleeping Beauty and I just loved the story. Each of the Fables in this book stick to your mind and you will always remember them and I love that about a book that I read. So many times you can forget what the books were about but this one will always stick.

The technology in these makes a person like me, 'a tech nerd', happy and learning about Steampunk was a great experience for me. You had gears, laboratories, mechanical dogs and treasure. You get a little and a lot all at the same time. Short stories but great on detail and Steampunk goodness. This was my first book on Steampunk and I will definitely be checking out more of this genre now that I got to get into the worlds in each of these Fables.

LITERAL ADDICTION's Guest Reviewergives Clockwork Fairy Tales 4 Skulls.

[Miss Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of classic folk and fairy tales has been twisted with metal, steam, and gears. The intriguing premise was disappointing only in its disjointedness. A few of the stories were really strong, and a few were only middlingly good, but there were a few that were so intriguing, that I felt let down that they didn't continue. The adaptation of "The Pied Piper" however, with its overt (and really unnecessary) racism, its implicit approval of borderline pedophilia, and its clunky writing, almost made me gag with disgust. But I'm glad I made it through to the last story, the adaptation of "The Swan Maiden" with its mix of magic and steampunk tech, it was the most fairy-tale feeling adaptation, as most of the rest fulfilled the role of Victorian era sci-fi.

These stories are not all based on well-known stories, and I found myself Googling some of the stories, so that I had a frame-work.

I listened to the audio book, the voicing in some of these stories was just plain ANNOYING at first. I really had to give myself some time to adjust, and in some cases I had to start the story over once I'd done that. So, be prepared.

[Crete Public Library District · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review by Kelly (admin) This collection of classic folk and fairy tales has been twisted with metal, steam, and gears. The intriguing premise was disappointing only in its disjointedness. A few of the stories were really strong, and a few were only middlingly good, but there were a few that were so intriguing, that I felt let down that they didn't continue. The adaptation of "The Pied Piper" however, with its overt (and really unnecessary) racism, its implicit approval of borderline pedophilia, and its clunky writing, almost made me gag with disgust. But I'm glad I made it through to the last story, the adaptation of "The Swan Maiden" with its mix of magic and steampunk tech, it was the most fairy-tale feeling adaptation, as most of the rest fulfilled the role of Victorian era sci-fi.

These stories are not all based on well-known stories, and I found myself Googling some of the stories, so that I had a frame-work.

I listened to the audio book, the voicing in some of these stories was just plain ANNOYING at first. I really had to give myself some time to adjust, and in some cases I had to start the story over once I'd done that. So, be prepared.

[Nightfall · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love fairy tales, and I love steampunk... but I have to admit that I love steampunk more as a visual style. I'm still trying to figure out if I really like it as a fiction genre. Maybe not... if it's a good story I like it regardless of the steampunk or not, but if the fact that it's steampunk is all it's got, I'm not so excited. I had to rush to return this book to the library (I had it too long without getting time to read it) and so I admit I missed a few of the stories towards the end, but overall I wasn't all that in love with most of the stories I did read. They seemed a bit 'cold' to me, they were intricate, but they didn't have enough heart. (which I admit is an apropos, but not insincere, criticism of a steampunk book) Or maybe it's just me, I don't always do that well with short stories. There were a few in here I did enjoy - I think the one that stuck with me the most is the one about baba yaga (Fair Vasyl) - but mostly I forgot the stories even as I read them.

[Em (Verity Reviews) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of steampunk, but good books are hard to find in the steampunk genre. Most of the books have only one tiny clockwork device, and when I think steampunk, I think automata everywhere, fantastical machines, and half mad scientists. Clockwork Fairy Tales delivers all that as well as a sizeable dose of magic and tall tales.

Because it is an athology, the stories in Clockwork Fairy Tales range in quality, although they're all very good stories. The various authors showed awesome inventiveness in combining the fairy tales and fables with clockwork machines. Mixing the two genres gives the stories a new take on both steampunk and fantasy, and it works really well. The stories also take place in a wide range of settings, not just the typical Victorian England.

Although I'm still holding out hope for a kickass steampunk novel, Clockwork Fairy Tales deserves some recognition as a great anthology.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with most anthologies, this one is a mixed bag. Mostly mediocre, nothing terrible, with one or two standouts.

"La Vales" (a retelling of "The Red Shoes") is elegantly chilling dystopia. "You Will Attend Until Beauty Awakens" ("Sleeping Beauty") is written with great flair, although I ended up wishing the story had been less about the prince and more about the evil fairy. "Fair Vasyl" ("Vasilia the Beautiful") had a lovely LGBT twist.

"The Kings of Mount Golden" ("The King of Golden Mountain"), on the other hand, was just kind of awkwardly written. And while I appreciated the plot of "The Steampiper, the Stovepiper, and the Pied Piper of New Hamlin, Texas", I was really kind of disturbed by the lechery. If the girl was young enough to be caught with the other children (her exact age is never specified), then ending up in bed with the hero is just...inappropriate.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A real disappointment. I had high hopes for this collection, because, honestly-- fairy tales? Steampunk? Put together? How could you lose? The only answer I can come up with is that maybe the authors weren't given enough time between being asked to contribute and the submission deadline. Time and time again, a story consisted of a lovely, imaginative take on a fairy tale that was then just poorly executed, and would have benefited greatly from being reworked 2 or 3 times. Everything felt hurried and awkward. Jay Lake's offering stood out as being more polished and substantial than the rest, but there were one or two stories that I couldn't even finish, I was so annoyed.

[Mrs. Brim · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite works of steampunk literature thus far! Even though each of the stories had different authors, the language in each story was mesmerizing...I often got lost in the aesthetic joy of the words themselves and would have to reread sentences for content. Having been familiar with the original tales, I enjoyed each author’s reimagining into a mechanical world and often with modern details and themes (like set in a U.S. city or making the damsel in distress the hero).

[Liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh. I don't really understand the steampunk genre's appeal in books. It has a cool visual affect in movies, but in these short fairy tales, the steampunk aspect seemed tedious and forced - like, I get it, in the original story it's a vicious dog, but in the steampunk story, it's... a mechanical dog with scary moving pistons and stuff.

[Madelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed it for what is was but it fell flat often. I’ve read a few of these stories in other anthologies so that may be why I didn’t enjoy it as much as I hoped.

Clockwork Fairy Tales is great one to start with if you are looking to dive into the Gaslight/Steampunk genre!

[Juanita Johnson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Meh. Just meh. Okay to pass the time with but I wouldn't run out and get it just for something special to read.

[Deb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the stories deserved a 4 star but a few only merited 2 stars, dragging down the rating.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is sometimes not fair to rate a book of short stories. One story can be amazing and one can suck. Over all, I enjoyed this collection. There were about 2 that I didn't like that lost the collection one star. I will now be more specific, by story...

La Valse (based on The Red Shoes): I have never been the hugest fan of the Red Shoes as most fairy tales are lessons and the bad guys get what's coming to them and the good guys win. The little girl in the classic tale doesn't necessarily deserve her outcome. In this version, the correct people get the punishment and I definitely approve.

Fair Vasyl (based on Vasilisa the Beautiful): This was one of the best about following the original tale and just dressing it up with a new twist. I loved the gender-bend and the LGBTQ twist to tale. One of my favorites in the whole collection

The Hollow Hounds (based on the Tinderbox): I was very creeped-out by the original story and actually enjoyed this interpretation better than the original. Seriously good interpretation only all the ghoulsih bits are now clockwork bits and that wasn't as nightmarish for me. Definite improvement to the original

The Kings of Mount Golden (based on the King of the Golden Mountain): I do not recall the original story so this can be only a review of this story and not as an interpretation. While interesting and well written, I felt sad, mostly for Brannock/Roland who was such a good kid who just wanted someone to love him and both options for father sucked. Good story, just sad.

You Will Attend Until Beauty Awakens (based on Sleeping Beauty): This story had such potential. The structure splitting between the POVs was interesting. The twist where loves first kiss was the cause not the cure of problem was a really nice choice. I loved that the hero of the tale, the prince that saved the day was deeply disinterested and not at all into the Princess. What I thought failed was that they kept tip-toeing around this being a lesbian retelling but didn't go there in the end. Also, it just sort of stopped. There was no wind-down of the tale at all. I did not need "and they all lived happily ever after" but they never even bothered to show people waking back up. Finally, there was this hint of a deeper story in the beginning with the 13 fairies and that never got answered either. In short, great beginning no follow through.

Mose and the Automatic Fireman (based on Mose the Fireboy): This had the feel of American Folk Heroes like Paul Bunyan and John Henry. Absurdly larger than life great men, defeating the machine that will take away their livelihood and usually sacrificing themselves to save someone else or a group of people. It's almost hard not to like these characters. Mose is the same!

The Clockwork Suit (based on The Emperors New Clothes): This one bore little to no resemblance to the original except in barest bones concept and final "Emperor has no clothes on" line. That said, it was a cool steampunk story and I certainly enjoyed it.

The Steampiper, the Stovepiper and the Pied Piper of New Hamelin, Texas (based on The Pied Piper of Hamelin): Worst story of the collection. The male gaze in this one made me want to puke. There was a pause to hear about a Freiburg sister's breasts every other page. I'm not much a fan of westerns on the best of days, but I could almost handle the classic cowboys-and-indians archetype with some gears on it in a classic steampunk way if it weren't for the gross sexism. However, even without the male-gaze BS, there was still the painful trope of a Comanche Raider with a belt full of scalps buying/stealing white children. Even if this trope was based on something that went on, I need people to stop repeating this crap and actually learn the true story and tell it to me without describing everyone's boobs.

The Mechanical Wings (based on the Wild Swans): Brilliant and absolutely perfect retelling of one of my all time favorite fairytales. This was not clumsily putting some gears on it either, the tale was masterful. I am so glad the collection ended on this one and not the Pied Piper.

[Jodotha · Rating 3 out of 5]

For someone who doesn't generally care for short stories, I seem to be reading an awful lot of them this year. Sadly, more exposure to the works hasn't improved my opinion of them, much. They continue to prove a hit-or-miss kind of thing for me. As for this anthology, there were several amusing entries, and some interesting ideas.

The male narrators were quite good. I always love Kaleo Griffith, who has a downright sexy voice, and though I wasn't sure who was reading which story, both John Lee and Robertson Dean did fine jobs - one with an excellent English autocratic style, appropriately utilized in the stories he was given, and the other with a range of masculine tones from soft to hard that worked perfectly as well. Sadly the ball was dropped with Anne Flosnik's performance. Though possessed of a pleasant accent, her delivery was regular and lacked any real change in pace - there was no heart to her speaking.
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The stories varied from Western American to Europe, and in one case, to Russia. There were then, of course, plenty of fantasy regions as well. Since I listened to the audiobook, I don't have a ready list to tell which stories I liked and which I didn't. Most of the stories were good. Reasonably diverting. You could pick them up for a good in-between books read. I have a hard time attaching to any of them in so short a time, though (the curse of one who just isn't into short stories).

That said, the second story in the collection was wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. It was a tale based on the Russian fairy tale Vasilisa the Beautiful (a brilliant choice, as the story seems readily adaptable from a magic doll to an automaton). Vasilisa becomes Fair Vasyl, a young man, and his encounter with Baba Yaga is retold and respun very well. I would recommend picking this book up for that story alone, and I confess I listened to it several times, as it was skillfully performed and managed to grab hold of my elusive empathy with only a short story length.

All in all, if you're a fan of Steampunk and short stories, I think you'll find this collection a good one. If shorts aren't naturally your thing, this collection isn't likely to change that, but with some good narration and interesting ideas, it won't wholly waste your time, either. Three stars.

[Jenny Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

La Valse
Based on The Red Shoes
This one was creepy but a good revenge story. The connection to the fairy tale is a tad tenuous, but the idea behind it is still there and executed pretty well. The idea of setting it in Russia was pretty cool as well.

Fair Vasyl
Based on Vasilisa The Beautiful
This is a fairy tale I don't know, so I can't compare it to the original, but I did like this. I like Baba Yaga, so that was a huge bonus for me in this one. I also like how it winds up being happy all around, and Petya and Vaska are so great together!

The Hollow Hounds
Based on The Tinderbox
This is another fairy tale I don't know, or at least don't remember. I really liked this one, I thought it was one of the better ones in the collection, and I really enjoyed the soldier's growth in it, and the idea of the mechanical dogs was really cool as well, and that ending...

The Kings Of Mount Golden
Based on The King Of The Golden Mountain
Yet another one I am not familiar with. This was one of the better ones with it's moral ambiguity and really cool idea.

You Will Attend Until Beauty Awakens
Based on Sleeping Beauty
I was on the fence about this one. While I did like the idea behind it, I would have liked to get to know the characters more.

Mose And The Automatic Fireman
Based on American folk hero Mose The Fireboy
This was a really good one too. I need to look up tales about Mose now, as this really intrigued me. I love how strong and good Mose becomes by the end.

The Clockwork Suit
Based on The Emperor's New Clothes
This was pretty cool from the steampunk perspective, and I like that the emperor is not stupid in this, but the idea behind the suit is the same.

The Steampiper, the Stovepiper, and the Pied Piper of New Hamlin, Texas
Based on The Pied Piper
This was so so. I felt no connection to any of the characters nor did I feel any real drama. It's not boring just... bland.

The Mechanical Wings
Based on The Wild Swans
I think this one did the best in keeping with the spirit of the original fairy tale. I would love to know more about the floating cities for sure!

[Kayla Zabcia · Rating 3 out of 5]

70%

In order of enjoyment:
1.) Fair Vasyl (based on "The Red Shoes" by Hans Christian Andersen): Baba Jaga story about taking agency of your own choices
2.) The Hollow Hounds (based on "The Tinderbox" by Hans Christian Andersen): Aladdin meets mechanical dogs meets Avengers
3.) Mose and the Automatic Fireman (based on tall tales about American folk hero Mose the Fireboy): the Johnny Appleseed of firemen
4.) The Mechanical Wings (based on "The Wild Swans" by Hans Christian Andersen): a pretty cool take, though it leaves some questions unanswered: what happened to Stella's body after she was shot? did it just fall out of the boat or did Eleanor have to dispose of it herself? also, did the incomplete cloak have any detrimental effect on the brother?
5.) The Kings of Mount Golden (based on "The King of the Golden Mountain" by the Brothers Grimm): lost love-fueled necromancy and shape-shifting
6.) The Clockwork Suit (based on "The Emperor's New Clothes" by Hans Christian Andersen): fun take on the story, though they should've been more explicit about saying that ALL of the emperor's clothes came off, as they made it seem like only some of it did.
7.) Attend Beauty (based on "Sleeping Beauty" by Charles Perrault): Sleeping Beauty where she makes her own love instead of waiting for it to happen
8.) La Valse (based on "The Red Shoes" by Hans Christian Andersen): revenge on the bourgeois; Marie Antoinette French Revolution vibes I don't really understand the ending with the soldiers coming in from the steppe
9.) The Steampiper, the Stovepiper, and the Pied Pipe of New Hamelin, Texas (based on the legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin): DNF. this one had grotesquely pedo vibes; after the kidnapped children returned, the younger sister joined Stovepipe and her older sisters naked noting he liked to "try all three" - even though she was one of the children who had been kidnapped with the others. Even if she was on the older end of the child spectrum, she was still explicitly grouped with the children, thus making an already skeevy story even more vile. gross.

[B.P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall I didn't like this collection of tales. Really I only gave it 3 stars because I liked two of the tales so figured they each should have one star and most of the others weren't bad, I just didn't much care for them so I gave the rest all together a star. My favorite story in the whole book that got a star was Fair Vasyl in my opinion it was the best in the whole book. It felt like a complete little tale and was pretty good. The other story in this collection that I really liked was The Mechanical Wings. I felt this story was very interesting take on a classic tale and thought it could be expanded upon. The short story was good, but I would have liked there to have been more. The other tales in general weren't terrible, but I just didn't feel any love for them. There, however, was one that I didn't like and that was the piper story. After that one I was ready to be done with the book, but realized there was only one story left so figured I should finish it, and was glad I did because the last story was one of the better ones. So in the end I think I'm done with steampunk for a good long while as my first tentative trip into it didn't really do anything for me.

[Alli · Rating 2 out of 5]

Out of this collection of 9 short stories, only three are excellent.

These three are the following: La Valse by K W Jeter, The Clockwork Suit by G K Hayes, and The Mechanical Wings by Pip Ballantine.

The other short stories are readable, but I couldn’t finish two of them. In particular, I think Fair Vasyl by Steven Harper was well-written and enjoyable, but not as excellent as the three I previously named.

Do yourself a favor and skip short story by Gregory Nicoll in this anthology. The plot revolves around an ex-soldier perving on three sisters ultimately culminating in a foursome with them at the end. I have no idea how this self-indulgent boomer shit got published, and it’s inclusion in the collection lowered my rating from 3 to 2 stars by itself.

[Nathan Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-imagining the classics is a special sort of challenge. The contributors to this anthology rose to different levels to meet it. A few of the retold tales should be familiar to most readers, while others are more obscure. A few of the retellings were particularly brilliant, some made an obvious effort to ground their new versions in their updated steampunk settings, while others failed to strike a chord with me. All expounded greatly upon the typically compressed narratives of the originals. The retelling of "Sleeping Beauty" was particularly brilliant, with deep world-building just visible in the wings. That of "The Emperor's New Clothes" also handled the original's story elements in a keenly interesting way. Others...maybe not so much.