Over the last few years, Mrs. Desperado and I have become serious anime fans. On the rare occasions when we can see a new show on the big screen, we jump at the chance. Recently we saw “Weathering With You” a feature-length anime by Makoto Shinkai, creator of the acclaimed 2016 film “Your Name,” which […]
Devon Monk’s Dead Iron, published in 2011, is yet another interesting example of the steampunk genre. Like most novels from the Era of Peak Steampunk, it’s of the historical kind, something we don’t see nearly enough of lately. It takes place in the 19th Century American West, featuring elements of the supernatural: witchcraft, spirits, and […]
Here’s an interesting variation on an epic fantasy series: a world that transitions from primitive to steampunk as it progresses. Brandon Sanderson’s “Mistborn” novels take place on Scadrial, a world settled by humans with strange powers. Centuries after some cataclysm, people are rediscovering steam power and electricity. This is the setting of The Alloy of […]
Much recently-published steampunk fiction could be described period romance with airships. I was seeking something different, which is why the blurb for this novel caught my eye: “A steampunk adventure with snark and sass.” It had a great title as well. I expected something unique, and it most certainly was. First of all, the story […]
Adventures in Alternate History When I saw this book on a list of best steampunk novels, I remembered that I’d seen its author, Naomi Novik, on a panel at Phoenix Comicon a few years back. She’d talked about her book series which featured “the Napoleonic Wars with dragons.” What a great idea! It may be […]
If the Japanese are the world’s masters at producing intelligent, mature animation, the French are surely runners-up. Recently we discovered another unusual, quirky French animated film: The Rabbi’s Cat. Released in 2011, it was directed by Joanne Sfar and Antoine Delesvaux. The movie is based on the comic series by artist/writer Sfar. We watched it […]
In June of 2012, a sensation hit the Internet – a story-type podcast called Welcome to Nightvale. Created by Jeffrey Cranor and Joseph Fink, it featured a small Southwestern town where the bizarre is an everyday occurrence. It was a huge hit among millennials, and I found it amusing as well. This wasn’t, however, their […]
