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Clockwork Canada: Steampunk Fiction
Welcome to an alternate Canada, where steam technology and the wonders and horrors of the mechanical age have reshaped the past into something both wholly familiar yet compellingly different. These fifteen supercharged all-new tales reimagine Canadian historical events, explore other Canadas, and gather inspiration from the northern landscape to make us wonder: what if history had gone a different way?
295 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 1, 2016
3 people are currently reading
218 people want to read
About the author
Dominik Parisien
28 books79 followersDominik Parisien is an editor, poet, and writer. He is the author of the forthcoming memoir On a Scale of 1 to 500 Miles and the poetry collection Side Effects May Include Strangers (2020). He is also the co-editor, along with Navah Wolfe, of The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales, Robots vs Fairies, and The Mythic Dream. With Elsa Sjnunneson-Henry, he is the co-editor of Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction. His anthologies have won several awards, including the Hugo, Shirley Jackson, British Fantasy, and Aurora Awards.
His work has appeared in The Fiddlehead, The Humber Literary Review, Arc Poetry Magazine, Quill & Quire, Uncanny Magazine, Strange Horizons,, and various other journals. Dominik is a disabled, bisexual, French Canadian. He lives in Hamilton.
His work has appeared in The Fiddlehead, The Humber Literary Review, Arc Poetry Magazine, Quill & Quire, Uncanny Magazine, Strange Horizons,, and various other journals. Dominik is a disabled, bisexual, French Canadian. He lives in Hamilton.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
December 3, 2016
I'm going to update this review as I read through each story in Clockwork Canada, a (so far!) outstanding steampunk anthology from Exile Editions. Exile publishes themed anthologies with a Canadian focus - I own their zombie and apocalyptic anthos as well, and will review that later this year. I was sent Clockwork Canada for review, and I'm so glad it was.
I really enjoyed Editor Dominik Parisien's introduction: it's short, sweet, and doesn't make any grandiose claims for steampunk, as many steampunk antho introductions do.
The great thing about short fiction, like Poe said, is the intensity of focus the form demands. It requires concision and precision. Bad short fiction is usually a frustrated novel crammed into a short form. Thankfully, the first two stories in Clockwork Canada do a good job of maintaining Poe's single effect.
The first story, "Le Clochemar" by Charlotte Ashley, is positively fantastic. Canuck kaiju, clockwork compasses, and concise world building which never gets in the way of plot or character development.
The second story, "East Wind in Carrall Street" by Holly Schofield tells a tale of multiculturalism via a Clockwork Chinese lion. "East Wind in Carrall Street" has "teachable short fiction" written all over-It's nice to read steampunk without pyrotechnics.
The first two stories in Clockwork Canada are as different as they are enjoyable. I had to actively resist reading story 3!
Third story: Brent Nichols' "The Harpoonist" - former thug turns mechanized hero in face of mob violence. Not up to the level set by first two, but still compelling.
Fourth story: the lovely, touching, and haunting "Crew 255" by Claire Humphrey. This story takes my number two position for faves in the anthology. "Crew 255" isn't about the plot - it is about the characters. A very literary steampunk short story. But a few plot notes nonetheless: "Crew 255" is about immigrant workers, disability, and building the future in hope.
Fifth story: I didn't enjoy "The Curlicue Seahorse" by Chantal Boudreau but one weak story doesn't a bad anthology make. And I can see how it would appeal to steampunk readers who don't need good reasons for their Vic-style heroines to be empowered and capable: Female airship captain takes bookish male scholar on a treasure hunt. I just found it all a bit too easy. I like steampunk to reflect some of the challenges that women and POCs faced in the 19th century, but that's my bias. YMMV.
Sixth Story: Michal Wojcik's excellent "Strange Things Done" brings the antho back up to expectations! Wojcik's "Strange Things Done" tells of a manhunt in the Yukon with a heroine (w. cool steampunk gear) I'd love to see more of.
Seventh Story: Colleen Anderson's "Buffalo Gals" currently vies for third place behind "Crew 255" and "The Seven O'Clock Man." It's an elegiac (and yet somehow hopeful!) murder-mystery ghost-story about a female First Nations Mountie.
Eighth Story: Tony Pi's "Our Chymical Seance" (which feels like a certain play on My Chemical Romance) is a fun, largely plot-driven mystery/occult/ghost story. Pi has a very engaging writing style, and the solution to the story's problem was firmly rooted in Victorian science, which is a rare approach in most steampunk I've read. I found the coda to the story tonally jarring, but it doesn't ruin the story. It was just bemusing.
Ninth Story: Kate Heartfield's "Seven O'Clock Man." Steampunk is rarely scary, and rarely heartbreaking. This story is both. It's a masterwork of concise, stylistically powerful writing, about a man who must wind a diabolical clock that maintains order over a community, or lose the thing he loves most in the world. This is the best story in the anthology so far.
I really enjoyed Editor Dominik Parisien's introduction: it's short, sweet, and doesn't make any grandiose claims for steampunk, as many steampunk antho introductions do.
The great thing about short fiction, like Poe said, is the intensity of focus the form demands. It requires concision and precision. Bad short fiction is usually a frustrated novel crammed into a short form. Thankfully, the first two stories in Clockwork Canada do a good job of maintaining Poe's single effect.
The first story, "Le Clochemar" by Charlotte Ashley, is positively fantastic. Canuck kaiju, clockwork compasses, and concise world building which never gets in the way of plot or character development.
The second story, "East Wind in Carrall Street" by Holly Schofield tells a tale of multiculturalism via a Clockwork Chinese lion. "East Wind in Carrall Street" has "teachable short fiction" written all over-It's nice to read steampunk without pyrotechnics.
The first two stories in Clockwork Canada are as different as they are enjoyable. I had to actively resist reading story 3!
Third story: Brent Nichols' "The Harpoonist" - former thug turns mechanized hero in face of mob violence. Not up to the level set by first two, but still compelling.
Fourth story: the lovely, touching, and haunting "Crew 255" by Claire Humphrey. This story takes my number two position for faves in the anthology. "Crew 255" isn't about the plot - it is about the characters. A very literary steampunk short story. But a few plot notes nonetheless: "Crew 255" is about immigrant workers, disability, and building the future in hope.
Fifth story: I didn't enjoy "The Curlicue Seahorse" by Chantal Boudreau but one weak story doesn't a bad anthology make. And I can see how it would appeal to steampunk readers who don't need good reasons for their Vic-style heroines to be empowered and capable: Female airship captain takes bookish male scholar on a treasure hunt. I just found it all a bit too easy. I like steampunk to reflect some of the challenges that women and POCs faced in the 19th century, but that's my bias. YMMV.
Sixth Story: Michal Wojcik's excellent "Strange Things Done" brings the antho back up to expectations! Wojcik's "Strange Things Done" tells of a manhunt in the Yukon with a heroine (w. cool steampunk gear) I'd love to see more of.
Seventh Story: Colleen Anderson's "Buffalo Gals" currently vies for third place behind "Crew 255" and "The Seven O'Clock Man." It's an elegiac (and yet somehow hopeful!) murder-mystery ghost-story about a female First Nations Mountie.
Eighth Story: Tony Pi's "Our Chymical Seance" (which feels like a certain play on My Chemical Romance) is a fun, largely plot-driven mystery/occult/ghost story. Pi has a very engaging writing style, and the solution to the story's problem was firmly rooted in Victorian science, which is a rare approach in most steampunk I've read. I found the coda to the story tonally jarring, but it doesn't ruin the story. It was just bemusing.
Ninth Story: Kate Heartfield's "Seven O'Clock Man." Steampunk is rarely scary, and rarely heartbreaking. This story is both. It's a masterwork of concise, stylistically powerful writing, about a man who must wind a diabolical clock that maintains order over a community, or lose the thing he loves most in the world. This is the best story in the anthology so far.
April 11, 2022
Editor Dominik Parisien put together a really interesting anthology of Canadian steampunk stories. I think some of the stories will resonate more with Canadians, if only because some historical figures and locations are mentioned or alluded to, though it may depend on region.
The best written story was probably "The Seven O'Clock Man" but it was a bit too horrifying for me in the end to declare it a favorite, which probably goes to Michal Wojcik's "Strange Things Done" or Tony Pi's "Our Chemical Séance," but I have a very soft spot for Claire Humphrey's "Crew 255" about Azorean Portuguese laborers in Canada and featuring a woman with prosthetic limbs, clockwork-style.
The best written story was probably "The Seven O'Clock Man" but it was a bit too horrifying for me in the end to declare it a favorite, which probably goes to Michal Wojcik's "Strange Things Done" or Tony Pi's "Our Chemical Séance," but I have a very soft spot for Claire Humphrey's "Crew 255" about Azorean Portuguese laborers in Canada and featuring a woman with prosthetic limbs, clockwork-style.
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June 16, 2017Canadian authored short stories featuring inclusion of a variety of nationalities along with creative and imaginative steampunk fiction. Unique.
#CanadianBookChallenge10 - canadian located + authored
#CanadianBookChallenge10 - canadian located + authored
May 21, 2024
A really pleasant experience! Give this collection a read if you get the chance. Find my short takes on each story in the collection below.
For a TL;DR: “La Clochemar”, “Strange Things Done” and “Let Slip the Sluicegates of War, Hydro-Girl” stand out as incredible pieces and most of the others are well worth the read too. I only found “Tunnels of Madness” fairly underwhelming and the message of “Equus” to be a bit of an outlier.
“La Clochemar” by Charlotte Ashley:
Love the god-like creatures, the life-clocks, the interactions of Indigenous Peoples with Europeans. Rare to see a story like this where a settler such as Suzette is accepted to this degree, but Ashley seems respectful of Indigenous names so I take it as a hopeful relationship!
“East Wind in Carrall Street” by Holly Schofield:
Very cute; reminds me of R.F. Kuang’s Babel with the wax cylinders replacing silver. Enjoyed the relationship between the kids and how they help each other forward.
“The Harpoonist” by Brent Nichols:
Been a minute since I’ve been genuinely touched by a ‘superhero’ story, but this one was pretty great. Great atmosphere too – Gastown and unions and whatnot – though tough to pinpoint this one as particularly Canadian.
“Crew 255” by Claire Humphrey:
Not the ending I’d have expected, but a nice enough story about found family I suppose. As a neurodivergent and maybe aromantic person who doesn’t really understand these things, Casimiro only getting suddenly fixed by a relationship feels like it goes against a lot of what I’ve learned – but maybe I’m missing something.
“The Curlicue Seahorse” by Chantal Boudreau:
A quaint little treasure-hunting story! Again not feeling the most Canadian, but more than anything I’d have liked some details - I loved the clockwork key, gimme a description of some of the treasure and historical artefacts and I’d have been all over this story.
“Strange Things Done” by Michal Wojcik:
Yes yes yes, love this so much! Great foreshadowing that Amery is only finding things instead of inventing them, and wonderful descriptions throughout. Not sure I understand the explanation at the end that the thing wasn’t intelligent because it didn’t survive the blast, but otherwise excellent.
“Buffalo Gals” by Colleen Anderson:
Cool idea with a nice perspective from an Indigenous constable. The killer remaining mysterious makes sense if this is part of a broader world, but I think the story itself would be a little stronger by sticking to the standard ‘oh it was the other named male character’. Kind of interesting that both Walks Through Shadows and Peter have this odd ability to see the spirits, and that ‘Gastown’ is mentioned (maybe collaborated/brainstormed with Nichols?)
“Our Chymical Séance” by Tony Pi:
Cute how much fun the author was clearly having with alternate historical place names and everything! The amber are very reminiscent at first of Stormlight’s spren and gemstones, though they go on to diverge in cool ways as well. The Holmes/Watson dynamic was fun too in its way.
“The Seven O’Clock Man” by Kate Heartfield:
Weird! But incredibly imaginative and cool! I’m struggling to grasp the overall message here (the Clock feels like a colonial system being imposed on this community, incorporating the worst aspects of Mr. Martin as well?) but the ending at least seems to be about remembering the past and keeping culture alive. A quick google also informs me that the Seven O’Clock Man is a known Canadian myth which is very cool. I’d love to revisit this one in the future.
“The Tunnels of Madness” by Harold R. Thompson:
I’d never really thought about the geopolitics of the American Civil War, so that was interesting in its way. Otherwise, this is the weakest story in the collection so far. Having the PoV character start to see the Confederates as evil only after having a gun pointed at him is pretty laughable character growth, and the twist was far from satisfying. [Plus with a title like that, I want some Cthulhu dammit.]
“Let Slip the Sluicegates of War, Hydro-Girl” by Terri Favro:
Fuck yes! Trans rep, Indigenous rep, abusers getting hanged, an unbelievably imaginative religion dedicated to electricity… This story is an absolute treat.
“Equus” by Kate Story:
This is the one story where I can feel its age (the collection was published in 2016, so the story was likely written around 2015). Although author Kate Story goes a long way to include Indigenous Peoples, she also has a lot of praise for the idea of Empire – surveying, expanding and exploring – in a way that is absent in most speculative fiction these days. This story’s fairly uncritical view of technology triumphing over nature and tradition feels jarringly out of place in this collection, let alone the genre as a whole. Narratively decent, but morally strange.
“Gold Mountain” by Karin Lowachee:
A great reminder of another dark corner of Canadian history, using the supernatural to offer commemoration to the many Chinese immigrant workers who lost their lives building the railways. It feels fitting that those very railways are all the “steampunk” aspect that this story needs. This story makes me feel even stranger about the previous one with how it celebrated the triumph of the railways.
“Komagata Maru” by Rati Mehrotra:
Another story with real, brutal history behind it. Also constantly relevant to refugee boats and immigration attempts happening on a global scale. The ending feels like a catharsis for a lot of frustration at the sad real history, and I enjoyed the triumph of imaginative hope over cruel bureaucracy.
“Bones of Bronze, Limbs Like Iron” by Rhea Rose:
A touching and hopeful finale. I’m tired and so not sure if the ideas were lost on me or if they really didn’t make much sense, but I’ll give the story the benefit of the doubt. Kind of nice to include another hopeful story about emigration without the context of colonization (mostly – granted, settling both the past and new worlds both have their own glaring ethical issues but at least there isn’t real history there?)
For a TL;DR: “La Clochemar”, “Strange Things Done” and “Let Slip the Sluicegates of War, Hydro-Girl” stand out as incredible pieces and most of the others are well worth the read too. I only found “Tunnels of Madness” fairly underwhelming and the message of “Equus” to be a bit of an outlier.
“La Clochemar” by Charlotte Ashley:
Love the god-like creatures, the life-clocks, the interactions of Indigenous Peoples with Europeans. Rare to see a story like this where a settler such as Suzette is accepted to this degree, but Ashley seems respectful of Indigenous names so I take it as a hopeful relationship!
“East Wind in Carrall Street” by Holly Schofield:
Very cute; reminds me of R.F. Kuang’s Babel with the wax cylinders replacing silver. Enjoyed the relationship between the kids and how they help each other forward.
“The Harpoonist” by Brent Nichols:
Been a minute since I’ve been genuinely touched by a ‘superhero’ story, but this one was pretty great. Great atmosphere too – Gastown and unions and whatnot – though tough to pinpoint this one as particularly Canadian.
“Crew 255” by Claire Humphrey:
Not the ending I’d have expected, but a nice enough story about found family I suppose. As a neurodivergent and maybe aromantic person who doesn’t really understand these things, Casimiro only getting suddenly fixed by a relationship feels like it goes against a lot of what I’ve learned – but maybe I’m missing something.
“The Curlicue Seahorse” by Chantal Boudreau:
A quaint little treasure-hunting story! Again not feeling the most Canadian, but more than anything I’d have liked some details - I loved the clockwork key, gimme a description of some of the treasure and historical artefacts and I’d have been all over this story.
“Strange Things Done” by Michal Wojcik:
Yes yes yes, love this so much! Great foreshadowing that Amery is only finding things instead of inventing them, and wonderful descriptions throughout. Not sure I understand the explanation at the end that the thing wasn’t intelligent because it didn’t survive the blast, but otherwise excellent.
“Buffalo Gals” by Colleen Anderson:
Cool idea with a nice perspective from an Indigenous constable. The killer remaining mysterious makes sense if this is part of a broader world, but I think the story itself would be a little stronger by sticking to the standard ‘oh it was the other named male character’. Kind of interesting that both Walks Through Shadows and Peter have this odd ability to see the spirits, and that ‘Gastown’ is mentioned (maybe collaborated/brainstormed with Nichols?)
“Our Chymical Séance” by Tony Pi:
Cute how much fun the author was clearly having with alternate historical place names and everything! The amber are very reminiscent at first of Stormlight’s spren and gemstones, though they go on to diverge in cool ways as well. The Holmes/Watson dynamic was fun too in its way.
“The Seven O’Clock Man” by Kate Heartfield:
Weird! But incredibly imaginative and cool! I’m struggling to grasp the overall message here (the Clock feels like a colonial system being imposed on this community, incorporating the worst aspects of Mr. Martin as well?) but the ending at least seems to be about remembering the past and keeping culture alive. A quick google also informs me that the Seven O’Clock Man is a known Canadian myth which is very cool. I’d love to revisit this one in the future.
“The Tunnels of Madness” by Harold R. Thompson:
I’d never really thought about the geopolitics of the American Civil War, so that was interesting in its way. Otherwise, this is the weakest story in the collection so far. Having the PoV character start to see the Confederates as evil only after having a gun pointed at him is pretty laughable character growth, and the twist was far from satisfying. [Plus with a title like that, I want some Cthulhu dammit.]
“Let Slip the Sluicegates of War, Hydro-Girl” by Terri Favro:
Fuck yes! Trans rep, Indigenous rep, abusers getting hanged, an unbelievably imaginative religion dedicated to electricity… This story is an absolute treat.
“Equus” by Kate Story:
This is the one story where I can feel its age (the collection was published in 2016, so the story was likely written around 2015). Although author Kate Story goes a long way to include Indigenous Peoples, she also has a lot of praise for the idea of Empire – surveying, expanding and exploring – in a way that is absent in most speculative fiction these days. This story’s fairly uncritical view of technology triumphing over nature and tradition feels jarringly out of place in this collection, let alone the genre as a whole. Narratively decent, but morally strange.
“Gold Mountain” by Karin Lowachee:
A great reminder of another dark corner of Canadian history, using the supernatural to offer commemoration to the many Chinese immigrant workers who lost their lives building the railways. It feels fitting that those very railways are all the “steampunk” aspect that this story needs. This story makes me feel even stranger about the previous one with how it celebrated the triumph of the railways.
“Komagata Maru” by Rati Mehrotra:
Another story with real, brutal history behind it. Also constantly relevant to refugee boats and immigration attempts happening on a global scale. The ending feels like a catharsis for a lot of frustration at the sad real history, and I enjoyed the triumph of imaginative hope over cruel bureaucracy.
“Bones of Bronze, Limbs Like Iron” by Rhea Rose:
A touching and hopeful finale. I’m tired and so not sure if the ideas were lost on me or if they really didn’t make much sense, but I’ll give the story the benefit of the doubt. Kind of nice to include another hopeful story about emigration without the context of colonization (mostly – granted, settling both the past and new worlds both have their own glaring ethical issues but at least there isn’t real history there?)
October 2, 2016
I'm greatly enjoying this collection of short stories which have Canadian and steampunk elements! Very readable, and it's wonderful to be introduced to some interesting and new (to me) writers.
June 4, 2018
A mostly good book of short stories.
November 30, 2020
Some good stories here, but several felt like they weren't quite finished or were rushed and needed more work to round them out. There's also one story which, while well-written and interesting, seems the odd-one-out in this collection because it has no noticeable steampunk element.
My favorites:
La Clochemar - Charlotte Ashley
East Wind in Carrall Street - Holly Schofield
The Harpoonist - Brent Nichols
Crew 255 - Claire Humphrey
Strange Things Done - Michal Wojcik
Buffalo Gals - Colleen Anderson
The Seven O'Clock Man - Kate Heartfield
Let Slip the Sluicegates of War, Hydro-Girl - Terri Favro
My favorites:
La Clochemar - Charlotte Ashley
East Wind in Carrall Street - Holly Schofield
The Harpoonist - Brent Nichols
Crew 255 - Claire Humphrey
Strange Things Done - Michal Wojcik
Buffalo Gals - Colleen Anderson
The Seven O'Clock Man - Kate Heartfield
Let Slip the Sluicegates of War, Hydro-Girl - Terri Favro
May 5, 2017
A fantastic collection of steampunk stories, each wildly different from the next. I always enjoy finding a steampunk story set anywhere other than London, so to discover an anthology of tales set in various Canadian locations was a true breath of fresh air. There are some absolute gems in here - 'The Seven O'Clock Man' by Kate Heartfield, 'The Harpoonist' by Brent Nichols, 'Crew 255' by Claire Humphrey, and 'East Wind in Carrall Street' by Holly Schofield were among my favorites. Absolutely recommended for any steampunk reader.
January 31, 2018
I really liked the first half of these short stories. The second half of the stories were more social commentary with the steampunk factor seeming to be only a second thought which is not what I expected in a collection like this.
December 15, 2018
Steampunk is not a genre I've spent much time on, but I couldn't resist giving this a try. And I'm glad I did. This was a book just full of surprises, and some of the stories were downright brilliant. For me, at least, Clockwork Canada was a wonderful breath of fresh, cold Canadian air.
May 26, 2022
A brilliant collection of fifteen Steampunk stories set in Canada. The variety of authors provides a rich variety of style, technique, theme and approach. Most of the stories are excellent, with only two or three that miss the mark, but most are superlative.
July 13, 2018
I think I originally picked this up on Kobo because it was on sale or I had some deal. Either way, it was a very interesting collection of Canadian Steampunk stories.
January 19, 2020
An excellent collection of short fiction, really brings the rough aspect of Canada in the wild in some of the stories. Creativity and imagination shine forth!
July 15, 2021
Interesting collection of Canadian short stories in the steam punk genre. Appreciated the variety of voices and perspectives.
May 31, 2016
Steampunk has often struck me as a genre that has tended toward overly rosey views of the Edwardian and Victorian Eras. The steampunk tales I have read have often uncritically represented colonialism as adventure, portrayed technology divorced from the horrible conditions of the factories, ignored massive wealth disparity and troubling social conditions. It is a genre that is ripe with neo-futurist possibilities to invite critical engagements with ideas of historicity and presentness, but often forgets the “punk” aspect of itself, the part that invites critical questions and instead pulls down the goggles of nostalgia.
Clockwork Canada: Steampunk Fiction does that critical questioning, inviting a history filled with possibility. The stories in this collection invite critical questions about the way that we view history and the relationship we have to the past. While inspiring an interest in local histories and tales, it also reminds the reader of all of those stories that get stuck in the cogs of the machines of nation-building and invites us to oil the machines and seek out new stories and new ways of viewing the past.
The regionalism of Clockwork Canada, its setting within a national boundary, invites readers to question canonical tales of history and our founding origin myths by asking who benefits from the history that we tell ourselves and what erasures have been part of the construction of this thing we call “Canada”. These tales question the stories we tell ourselves by providing alternative stories, stories that highlight people and groups that are under-represented in our national myths.
Rather than representing the historical tales that we see in Heritage Minutes or CBC specials, the stories in Clockwork Canada highlight the oppression of indigenous peoples in Canada, border conflicts, representations of disabled people, labour conflicts, the exploitation of Chinese labourers on the railroad, Canada’s head-taxes and borders closed to immigration … all of the narratives we erase in constructing ourselves as a Just Nation. These are tales that speak back to erasures and the editing of Canadian history to include only canonical narratives that focus on Canada as a place of tolerance, acceptance, and openness.
Clockwork Canada reminds readers that the idea of “nation” is itself a story that we tell ourselves to hold us together and that that story, that history, can be divisive, damaging, and harmful. The multiplicity of stories in Clockwork Canada invite readers to think of our nation as a storied space, filled with a multiplicity of voices. These steampunk stories punk canonical narratives and invite readers to question the history they encounter. This isn’t nostalgia fiction, these stories are all about gearing up for a critical take on history.
To read reviews of some of the individual stories in this collection, visit my website at
https://speculatingcanada.ca/2016/05/...
https://speculatingcanada.ca/2016/04/...
https://speculatingcanada.ca/2016/04/...
https://speculatingcanada.ca/2016/04/...
https://speculatingcanada.ca/2016/04/...
https://speculatingcanada.ca/2016/04/...
https://speculatingcanada.ca/2016/05/...
https://speculatingcanada.ca/2016/05/...
Clockwork Canada: Steampunk Fiction does that critical questioning, inviting a history filled with possibility. The stories in this collection invite critical questions about the way that we view history and the relationship we have to the past. While inspiring an interest in local histories and tales, it also reminds the reader of all of those stories that get stuck in the cogs of the machines of nation-building and invites us to oil the machines and seek out new stories and new ways of viewing the past.
The regionalism of Clockwork Canada, its setting within a national boundary, invites readers to question canonical tales of history and our founding origin myths by asking who benefits from the history that we tell ourselves and what erasures have been part of the construction of this thing we call “Canada”. These tales question the stories we tell ourselves by providing alternative stories, stories that highlight people and groups that are under-represented in our national myths.
Rather than representing the historical tales that we see in Heritage Minutes or CBC specials, the stories in Clockwork Canada highlight the oppression of indigenous peoples in Canada, border conflicts, representations of disabled people, labour conflicts, the exploitation of Chinese labourers on the railroad, Canada’s head-taxes and borders closed to immigration … all of the narratives we erase in constructing ourselves as a Just Nation. These are tales that speak back to erasures and the editing of Canadian history to include only canonical narratives that focus on Canada as a place of tolerance, acceptance, and openness.
Clockwork Canada reminds readers that the idea of “nation” is itself a story that we tell ourselves to hold us together and that that story, that history, can be divisive, damaging, and harmful. The multiplicity of stories in Clockwork Canada invite readers to think of our nation as a storied space, filled with a multiplicity of voices. These steampunk stories punk canonical narratives and invite readers to question the history they encounter. This isn’t nostalgia fiction, these stories are all about gearing up for a critical take on history.
To read reviews of some of the individual stories in this collection, visit my website at
https://speculatingcanada.ca/2016/05/...
https://speculatingcanada.ca/2016/04/...
https://speculatingcanada.ca/2016/04/...
https://speculatingcanada.ca/2016/04/...
https://speculatingcanada.ca/2016/04/...
https://speculatingcanada.ca/2016/04/...
https://speculatingcanada.ca/2016/05/...
https://speculatingcanada.ca/2016/05/...
July 22, 2016
Honourable mention goes to Strange Things Done, Our Chymical Seance, and Komagata Maru
April 23, 2017
Anthologies are always hit-and-miss, but this one has way more hits than misses. Great collection of stories!
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews