Diana Pho - Steampunk World

Some poems in this book gallop and kick. Some swerve elegantly like an escape pod caught in a gravity well. Other roll quiet as a child’s blanket. The words in these pages won’t seem the same each time you read them. They will be just what you were looking for, but nothing that you expected.

- Lucy A. Snyder, author of the Bram Stoker Award-winning poetry collection Chimeric Machines

Merging her fascination with images of the space age and cowboy/equine lore, Leslie Anderson gives a quirky personal vision of the contemporary world where "America is a boy with long hair/ Who holds cigarettes like a burden" and who tells us we can be anything we desire "but first you have to be sad for 200 years."

- Diane Wakoski, author of the William Carlos Williams Award-winning book Emerald Ice .

Sidekicks: We know them, and we ignore them. They sit courtside, they wait in the shadows, they ride on the coattails. They have nothing to offer.

Or do they?

Heroes and heroines perform world shaking deeds, but sidekicks? Sidekicks are the unseen glue holding those powerhouses together. They are the backbones. They are the voices of reason.

It's long past time for them to shine.

Here, the fangirls, the trusted associates, the loyal assistants, and the imperiled wards have their moment in the spotlight. Join them as they shake up the world in unexpected and understated ways.

Let the heroes sit this one out. Celebrate the Sidekick!

“Shedding Skin; Or How the World Came to Be”, originally published in The Clockwork Jungle Book (Issue #11) is by & © Joseph E. Lake, Jr.

“Introduction: Going Global, or Re-Engineering Steampunk Fiction” is by & © Diana M. Pho

“Shedding Skin; Or, How the World Came to Be” is by & © Jay Lake

“Hidden Strength” is by & © Jaymee Goh

“Promised” is by & © Nisi Shawl

“The Firebird” is by & © Emily Cataneo

“The Little Begum” is by & © Indrapramit Das

“Forty Pieces” is by & © Lucien Soulban

“Hatavat Chalom” is by & © Lillian Cohen-Moore

“The Leviathan of Trincomalee” is by & © Lucy A. Snyder

“The Hand of Sa-Seti” is by & © Balogun Ojetade

“The Omai Gods” is by & © Alex Bledsoe

“The Governess and We” is by & © Benjanun Sriduangkaew

“Tangi A Te Ruru/The Cry of the Morepork” is by & © Pip Ballantine

“The Construct Also Dreams of Flight” is by & © Rochita Loenen-Ruiz

“Budo, or the Flying Orchid” is by & © Tade Thompson

“The Şehrazatın Diyoraması Tour” is by & © S. J. Chambers

“The Emperor Everlasting” is by & © Nayad A. Monroe

“Mary Sundown and the Clockmaker’s Children” is by & © Malon Edwards

“Good Hunting”, originally published in Strange Horizons in October 2012, is by & © Ken Liu

All Rights Reserved.

This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and events are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. All trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Your purchase of this book directly supports the author. Thank you for your support.

Cover art by James Ng

Published by Alliteration Ink

PO Box 20598

Dayton, OH 45420

alliterationink.com

Steampunk World

eISBN 978-1-939840-12-7

pISBN 978-1-939840-19-6

June 2013

This work could not exist without the backers on Kickstarter. Thank you all.

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