'Corsets & Clockwork' offers 13 stories for teenagers

"Corsets and Clockwork: 13 Steampunk Romances," edited by Trisha Telep, Running Press Teens, $9.95, 437 pages (ages 14 and up)

In this collection of speculative fiction, Trisha Telep has included not only a variety of plot elements (animatronic attractions, dirigibles, vampires, hidden magic, supernatural rituals and cannibalism) but also a diversity of writing styles typical of each established author. All 13 stories in "Corsets and Clockwork" are original to this anthology but common among them are cliff-hangers or twist of events that leave the plots in limbo.

Attempting to follow a genre of “steampunk,” the stories are placed in an era where steam power — and other fictional technologies and culture — are before their time and tantamount to the adventure. The settings vary from Victorian England, World War II Germany, otherworldly sites and an ubiquitous seaside.

In Michael Scott’s “Deadwood,” 16-year-old Martha Burke becomes a victim of an airship-napping. In “The Clockwork Corset” by Adrienne Kress, Imogen, heir to a fortune, cuts her hair and follows a neighbor boy into war, hoping to keep him safe. Lesley Livingston’s “Rude Mechanicals” tells of Quintillius Farthing working with his uncle’s failing Shakespearean theatre group and finding the perfect Juliet, a clockwork autotron with copper filament hair and metallic skin.

Heightened suspense is found in “The Cannibal Fiend of Rotherhithe” by Frewin Jones where a lonely evil man kidnaps a mermaid and keeps her in a cage. She escapes and finds she enjoys the taste of human flesh better than fish. Jones’ description adds to the eerie plot: “The cracks between the stones were stuffed with rags and clods of mud, but the wind still fingered its way in … plucking at Hector’s threadbare blankets, insinuating its way into bed beside him, holding him in its arctic embrace and freezing his feet to shards of blue ice.”

In “Under Amber Skies” by Maria V. Snyder, Zosia’s father is a master inventor and has designed extraordinary machines for the farm such as an Octopus Plucker that picks apples in the orchard. The vicious mechanical crabs act as protection for Zosia under her command. But the Nazis want his knowledge and particularly the source of power for all of his inventions. The teenager realizes that his efforts are being spied upon. In a twist of events, Zosia’s mother changes from patriotic to psychotic and her obsessions try to overpower her own family.

Catherine, a Victorian heiress and protege of an inventor and underground social revolutionary, learns to make explosives in “Tick, Tick Boom” by Kiersten White. Catherine designs a weapon for down-trodden factory workers who are being held for treason. A delicate shift of enemy to friend leaves this story in complete surprise.

Not all stories in the anthology fit the accepted description of “steampunk” but are an excellent collection of urban fantasies — many with strong enough literary elements for full-length novels. The variety alone should make this a pleasing choice for young adult readers who relish short super-charged pieces.

Email: marilousorenson@ymail.com