Steampunk 9/11

Like most people, my only contact with the Steampunk genre is the Will Smith movie “Wild Wild West”. I read this short story, “Zeppelin Jihad”, mostly because it was free of charge and I had nothing better to do (well, I really *did*, but you know how weekends are).

Apparently, S G Schvercraft's first foray into the world of zeppelins, Tesla coils and gilded hand guns is something of a break with the conventions of the genre, or at least that's what the author claims. Rather than creating a Neo-Victorian environment with safe modern values, Schvercraft has created a Neo-Victorian environment with, well, Neo-Victorian values. Very unsafe! Unfortunately, Shvercraft isn't a good writer (OK, it depends on how old the author might be – this would be good for a high school student, for instance) and the political incorrectness of the story feels forced, blunt and artificial.

The action is set shortly after 9/11 at a mysterious island in the Indian Ocean, Steam Pointe, the inhabitants of which still insist on being uncomfortably conservative, sexist and racist, while their technology is a bizarre blend of hyper-modern and 19th century. The villain is a Muslim terrorist who attempts a rerun of 9/11 by attacking the “Face Towers” with a high tech blimp. The hero, such as she is, is a feminist police officer from the United States, sent to Steam Pointe in hot pursuit of the bad guy. Apart from the action scenes (explosions, explosions, explosions…), the story revolves around the locals lecturing the feminist rather bluntly about the Good Ol' Days of Empire and what have you.

The story does have a twist, which I won't reveal here, and since this is the first in a projected series of Steam Pointe stories, I suppose there is more to come. Apparently, the Neo-Victorian society isn't just threatened by stray Mideast terrorists. No, there are darker and deeper forces at work, forces spawned by Steampunk tech-culture itself…

Or something, LOL.

I'm sorry, but I don't think I will give this more than two stars.