Steampunk Reloaded, for Your Consideration

(Image from artist Ivica Stevanovic's blog--Ivica contributed two images to the anthology.)I'm not one for pushing projects I'm involved with for awards, but because we edit anthologies that more and more have a significant visual component and also mix original fiction with reprints, I'd just like to remind those who picked up Steampunk Reloaded (2010) that it contained three bona fide original stories:

Jeffrey Ford, “Dr. Lash Remembers” – A harrowing tale of Steampunk disease that will make you think twice about jumping into an airship.Jess Nevins, “Unpublished Pages from the Encyclopedia of Victoriana,” featuring three failed Steampunk inventions.Ramsey Shehadeh, “The Unbecoming of Virgil Smythe” – A fast-paced, riveting tale of time slips and the perils of colonialism, featuring the enigmatic Dromedons, rebellion, and a very strange train ride.

It also included a translation that has never before appeared in English to our knowledge:

Vilhelm Bergsoe, “Flying Fish (Prometheus)”, translated by Dwight R. Decker – A novelette from 1869 by a Danish writer. This progressive tale of the dirigible Flying Fish, written in the form of a letter from the future to the past.

There is, of course, also the original "A Secret History of Steampunk" by yours truly, but that was meant almost as much as a vehicle for an assemblage of other texts and images by a group much more talented than me and I'd prefer the spotlight be on them. (Full list here.)Not to mention original nonfiction. And plenty of refutation to the claim of Steampunk as reactionary in the form of stories by Cat Valente, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Margo Lanagan, and others. (What I think about this subject can be found here and here.) And not to mention a rather stunning layout and design by John Coulthart.The anthology was the juggernaut that also allowed us to do outreach in the form of Brazilian/Portuguese translations from Vaporpunk (thanks Fabio and Larry and Beyond Victoriana!) and post a story by Jacques Barcia on the Tachyon website.Which is another way of saying, when we do a reprint anthology these days, it's a lot more than just a collection of 12 to 20 stories placed in a certain order.Ann and I believe this is the future of anthology editing, and I'll talk more about anthology editing in the 21st century in a blog post once a certain website posts the full contents for The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities.