Covert agent Cyril DePaul thinks he’s good at keeping secrets, especially from Aristide Makricosta. They suit each other: Aristide turns a blind eye to Cyril’s clandestine affairs, and Cyril keeps his lover’s moonlighting job as a smuggler under wraps.
Cyril participates on a mission that leads to disastrous results, leaving smoke from various political fires smoldering throughout the city. Shielding Aristide from the expected fallout isn’t easy, though, for he refuses to let anything – not the crooked city police or the mounting rage from radical conservatives – dictate his life.
Enter streetwise Cordelia Lehane, a top dancer at the Bumble Bee Cabaret and Aristide’s runner, who could be the key to Cyril’s plans—if she can be trusted. As the twinkling lights of nightclub marquees yield to the rising flames of a fascist revolution, these three will struggle to survive using whatever means — and people — necessary. Including each other.
Combining the espionage thrills of le Carré with the allure of an alternate vintage era, Amberlough will thoroughly seduce and enthrall you.
“James Bond by way of Oscar Wilde.” —Holly Black
“Sparkling with slang, full of riotous characters, and dripping with intrigue, Amberlough is a dazzling romp through a tumultuous, ravishing world.” —Robert Jackson Bennett, winner of the Shirley Jackson Award and the Edgar Award
“An astonishing first novel!” —World Fantasy Award-winning author Ellen Kushner
Time for Steampunk Hands Around the World, the annual blogging carnival and celebration of the global community! This year’s theme is a very relevant one, and in participation, I’ll be running a series of book giveaways throughout the month (since, of course, reading widely across different cultures and fresh perspectives from marginalized backgrounds is one way we can imagine ways of making life better.)
Check out details about the giveaway after the jump. You can also check out the Official Link guide to Steampunk Hands to follow what others are doing.
Edit: Congrats toAaronious01 for being selected our first giveaway winner! Follow along the blog the rest of this month for opportunities for more books. 🙂
Our third giveaway for Steampunk Hands Around the World, is an advanced reader’s copy of the upcoming anthology Clockwork Canada, edited by Dominik Parisien and featuring fresh new stories from fifteen Canuck authors. This anthology’s description is after the jump with details on how readers can enter.
For our second giveaway for Steampunk Hands Around the World, I’ll be giving one lucky reader an advanced reader’s copy of A.J. Hartley’s Steeplejack, which will be published this June from Tor Teen. This book has already gotten some nicereviews, and I’ve already shared some of my thoughts about it too in my recent podcast with Minorities in Publishing. After the jump is a brief book description, and how readers can enter.
Undoubtedly, some of my favorite aspects of the steampunk community are the social gatherings, especially conventions. Motor City Steam Con is a new convention in Detroit, and I’m excited to be one of their guests this year.Beyond Victoriana will be offering one free weekend pass to a lucky reader this week. Follow the rules below to enter!
1) This giveaway will be for one free weekend pass. Readers can only submit one entry per household. US and International entries are welcome.
2) Enter between February 1st 2016, through February 6th, 2016, at midnight EST (GMT -5:00).
3) Winners will be chosen via their comment number using Random.org. Winners will be contacted via email and must reply within 24 hours with their mailing address to claim their prize. Otherwise a new winner will be selected.
Beyond Victoriana has been a bit quiet as of late, but I wanted to kick out the new year — and BV’s seventh year on the aethernetz — by offering a gesture of appreciation towards our readers, with the help of some generous sponsors.
I’ll be giving away two prize packs, consisting of the following items:
One limited edition spray from Nyxworks / Wild Marjoram, which was offered at this year’s TeslaCon.
One wearable necktie from Redfield Designs (I’m modeling them both to show off their awesomeness).
One custom made corset from The Violet Vixen. (Note about this item: it may take up to three weeks to deliver once the order is placed, and availability depends on current stock.)
How to enter:
Reply to this post with a resource *you* use for steampunk, whether it be a costuming site, history book, film/documentary, website, museum, etc. People who do not include a resource will have their entry disqualified. You must also include your email in the comment info box when entering.
Readers can only submit one entry per household. US and International entries are fine!
Enter between January 2nd 2016, through January 10th 2016, at midnight EST (GMT -5:00).
Winners will be chosen via their comment number using Random.org. Winners will be contacted via email and must reply within 24 hours with their mailing address to claim their prize. Otherwise a new winner will be selected.
And that’s it! Have fun, folks, and looking forward to the coming year.
***
Note: Congrats to Hannah R. and Kat A. for being the selected winners of this giveaway!
For our final giveaway for the week, two steampunk comics that you should have on your shelves if you don’t already — Girl Genius Omnibus Vol 1: Agatha Awakens and The Battle of Blood and Ink!
This hardcover volume of Girl Genius contains issues 1-10 and has been re-colored and re-lettered to showcase the fan favorite series in all of its glory.
Book Description:
Girl Genius, the multiple Hugo Award–winning steampunk webcomic by Phil and Kaja Foglio, now collected in hardcover!
The Industrial Revolution has become all-out war! Mad Scientists, gifted with the Spark of genius, unleash insane inventions on an unprepared Europe. For centuries, the Heterodyne family of inventors kept the peace, but the last Heterodyne disappeared twenty years ago, leaving their ally Baron Klaus Wulfenbach to maintain order with his fleet of airships and army of unstoppable, if not very bright, Jaeger Monsters.
At Transylvania Polygnostic University, Agatha Clay dreams of being a scientist herself, but her trouble concentrating dooms her to be a lowly minion at best. When her locket, a family heirloom, is stolen, Agatha shows signs of having the Spark in a spectacular, destructive fashion and captures the attention of the Baron—and the Baron’s handsome young son, Gilgamesh.
Swept up to the Baron’s Airship City, Agatha finds herself in the midst of the greatest minds of her generation, as well as palace intrigue, dashing heroes, and an imperial cat. Agatha may be the most brilliant mind of her generation and the key to control of the continent, but first, she just has to survive.
The Battle of Blood and Ink has everything that draws people to the sub-genre: high flying adventure, led by a daring young woman, and of course, the power of the written word to take down corrupt government conspiracies.
Book Description:
If you’re visiting the flying city of Amperstam without the latest printing of The Lurker’s Guide, you might as well be lost. This one-sheet is written, edited, and printed by Ashe, a girl raised on the streets of the flying city, and is dedicated to revealing its hidden treasures and deepest secrets—including many that the overcontrolling government doesn’t want anyone to know. The stakes are raised when Ashe accidentally uncovers the horror of exactly how Amperstam travels among the skies and garners the attention of those who would rather that secret be kept in the hands of the city’s powerful leaders.
Soon Ashe is on the run from thugs and assassins, faced with the choice of imperiling her life just to keep publishing, or giving in to the suggestion of a rich patron that she trade in her voice and identity for a quiet, comfortable life. It’s a war of confusion for Ashe, but one thing is very clear: just because you live in a flying city, you can’t always keep your head in the clouds.
Comment on this post before midnight EST on February 19th in order to enter.
For the academically-inclined or the subculturally-curious, two books that will spark your interest.
Vintage Tomorrows by James Carrott and Brian David Johnson first pinged on my radar with their documentary sponsored by Intel as part of the Tomorrow Project, which explores how real science and science fiction are changing our future. This companion book to the film is told as an accessible first-hand account about their dive into the steampunk community. Vintage Tomorrows address what steampunk means for today’s technological future, and features dozens of interviews from academics, artists, writers, and makers from the community. Right now, you can download an early release copy from their publisher’s website, but you can also get your hands on the published, hard copy final edition as part of this giveaway!
Still aren’t convinced about your need to own this book? Well, try taking a gander at the description and the documentary trailer below.
Book Description:
Can you imagine what today’s technology would have looked like in the Victorian Era? That’s the world Steampunk envisions: a mad-inventor collection of 21st Century-inspired contraptions powered by stream and driven by gears. It’s more than just a whimsical idea. In the past few years, the Steampunk genre has captivated makers, hackers, artists, designers, writers, and others throughout the world.
In this fascinating book, futurist Brian David Johnson and cultural historian James Carrott offer insights into what Steampunk’s alternative history says about our own world and its technological future. Interviews with experts such as William Gibson, Cory Doctorow, Bruce Sterling, James Gleick, and Margaret Atwood explore how this vision of stylish craftsmen making fantastic and beautiful hand-tooled gadgets has become a cultural movement—and perhaps an important countercultural moment.
Steampunk is everywhere—as gadget prototypes at Maker Faire, novels and comic books, paintings and photography, sculptures, fashion design, and music. Discover how this elaborate view of a future that never existed can help us look forward.
We also have one free copy of Fashion Talks: Undressing the Power of Style, edited by Shira Tarrant and Marjorie Jolles . This featured my academic debut with Jaymee Goh in our article about the meaning of steampunk fashion, but also contains TONS of great articles about the politics of fashion and its place in pop culture today.
Book Description:
Essays on the politics of everyday style.
Fashion Talks is a vibrant look at the politics of everyday style. Shira Tarrant and Marjorie Jolles bring together essays that cover topics such as lifestyle Lolitas, Hollywood baby bumps, haute couture hijab, gender fluidity, steampunk, and stripper shoes, and engage readers with accessible and thoughtful analyses of real-world issues. This collection explores whether style can shift the limiting boundaries of race, class, gender, and sexuality, while avoiding the traps with which it attempts to rein us in. Fashion Talks will appeal to cultural critics, industry insiders, mainstream readers, and academic experts who are curious about the role fashion plays in the struggles over identity, power, and the status quo.
“Think of this book as your contemporary style guide. With wit and verve, these fine thinkers redress fashion as a force both frivolous and profound, offering the kind of intelligent, entertaining analysis that transcends trendiness. Topics vary widely—think: baby bumps, little-girl looks, steampunk, colonial chic, feminism, fur, emirati couture. The result is an elegant mix-and-match that brings thoughtful consideration to everyday issues (like getting dressed!), while deepening understanding of our sartorial worlds.” — Deborah Siegel, author of Sisterhood, Interrupted: From Radical Women to Grrls Gone Wild
“From indie brides to Islamic abayas to emo-hipster style, Fashion Talks speaks volumes about the sophistication of contemporary feminist scholarship. Its essays bring together a wide range of different, occasionally divergent perspectives on how style has been applied, critiqued, analyzed, and of course donned for political ends, in ways that encourage readers to truly reconsider the popular slogan ‘This is what a feminist looks like.’ This book is an invaluable source of new scholarship on the subject that will have tremendous appeal to those interested in gender studies, popular culture, and their sartorial expression.” — Maria Elena Buszek, author of Pin-Up Grrrls: Feminism, Sexuality, Popular Culture
Shira Tarrant is Associate Professor in the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Department at California State University, Long Beach. She is the author of Men and Feminism and When Sex Became Gender and the editor of Men Speak Out: Views on Gender, Sex, and Power. Marjorie Jolles is Assistant Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at Roosevelt University.
Comment on this post before midnight EST on February 19th in order to enter.
Since we’ve always been about international relations, it only makes sense that today’s giveaway comes from TeslaCon 4: The Congress of Steam! The premiere steampunk immersive convention in Madison, WI, is setting its sights globally for its Year Four. The propagator of this event, Lord Bobbins, has been inviting steampunk communities around the world to participate. One of the stated goals is to have a space where people from different communities can talk about what steampunk is like where they are from, and — perhaps — even come to some sort of fandom-wide agreement. That’s pretty ambitious, but whether you want to come for a rousing debate or some cultural exchange, I think that TeslaCon 4 has a lot of potential for being a convention to remember for years to come.
And Lord Bobbins is serious when he says he wants international folks to come — in fact, he’s giving away hundreds of weekend tickets for free to all international attendees. And Beyond Victoriana is lucky enough to grab a pair of tickets to give to one lucky winner. This is a $136 value and a helpful discount for anyone planning on booking a flight to come to the US this November (but anyone inside the 50 states has a chance of winning these too of course!).
Comment on this post before midnight EST on February 19th in order to enter.
Artist James Ng has rocked the steampunk world with his Imperial Steamworks series, which envisions an alternate world where the Industrial Revolution began during the Qing Dynasty in China. His imaginative vision, dynamic use of color, and attention to detail has always blown me away, and now you have a chance to own your own print.
Contributor in Sarah Hans's Steampunk World, Winner of the 2015 Steampunk Chronicle's Reader's Choice Awards for "Best Fiction"
Winner of SteamCon's 2013 Airship Award for Community Contributor
About Beyond Victoriana
The Nutshell Explanation Beyond Victoriana is the oldest-running blog about multicultural steampunk and retro-futurism--that is, steampunk outside of a Western-dominant, Eurocentric framework. Founded in 2009, Beyond Victoriana focuses on non-Western cultures, underrepresented minorities in Western histories (Asian / Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, First Nation, Hispanic, black / African & other marginalized identities), and the cultural intersection between the West and the non-West.
Beyond Victoriana 