The Steampunk Trilogy

(Paperback)

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An outrageous trio of novellas that twist the Victorian era out of shape, by a master of alternate history: Spooky, haunting, hilarious (William Gibson).

Welcome to the world of steampunk, a nineteenth century outrageously reconfigured through weird science. With his magnificent trilogy, acclaimed author Paul Di Filippo demonstrates how this unique subgenre of science fiction is done to perfectionreinventing a mannered age of corsets and industrial revolution with odd technologies born of a truly twisted imagination.

In Victoria, the inexplicable disappearance of the British monarch-to-be prompts a scientist to place a human-lizard hybrid clone on the throne during the search for the missing royal. But the doppelgnger queen comes with a most troubling flaw: an insatiable sexual appetite. The somewhat Lovecraftian Hottentots chronicles the very unusual adventure of Swiss naturalist and confirmed bigot Louis Agassiz as his determined search for a rather grisly fetish plunges him into a world of black magic and monsters. Finally, in Walt and Emily, the hitherto secret and quite steamy love affair between Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman is revealed in all its sensuous gloryas are their subsequent interdimensional travels aboard a singular ship that transcends the boundaries of time and reality.

Ingenious, hilarious, ribald, and utterly remarkable, Di FilipposThe Steampunk Trilogyis a one-of-a-kind literary journey to destinations at once strangely familiar and profoundly strange.

Reviews

Paul Di FilipposThe Steampunk Trilogyis the literary equivalent of Max Ernsts collages of 19th-century steel-engravings; spooky, haunting, hilarious. William Gibson

DiFilippo stirs up a funky stew of puns, literature, natural history and sex, and serves it up in an elaborate Victorian dish300-odd pages of juicy reading pleasure. . . . From Dickens to the cutting edge of the avant-garde, DiFilippos got it covered, in a spunky synthesis that manages to be at once raunchy and well-read. SF Site

With this superb trilogy, Di Filippo can lay claim to being [steampunks] supreme practitioner. . . . Di Filippo brilliantly combines authentic Victorian language with choice, outlandish premises to produce a variety of wry, inventive storytelling that is unlike anything else in science fiction. Booklist

Author Bio

Paul Di Filippo is a prolific science fiction, fantasy, and horror short story writer with multiple collections to his credit, among themThe Emperor of Gondwanaland and Other Stories, Fractal Paisleys, The Steampunk Trilogy,and many more.He has written a number of novels as well, includingJoes LiverandSpondulix: A Romance of Hoboken.

Di Filippo is also a highly regarded critic and reviewer, appearing regularly inAsimovs Science Fictionandthe Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. A recent publication, coedited with Damien Broderick, isScience Fiction: The 101 Best Novels19852010.