An outrageous trio of novellas that twist the Victorian era out of shape, by a master of alternate history: ';Spooky, haunting, hilarious' (William Gibson). Welcome to the world of steampunk, a nineteenth century outrageously reconfigured through weird science. With his magnificent trilogy, acclaimed author Paul Di Filippo demonstrates how this unique subgenre of science fiction is done to perfectionreinventing a mannered age of corsets and industrial revolution with odd technologies born of a truly twisted imagination. In ';Victoria,' the inexplicable disappearance of the British monarch-to-be prompts a scientist to place a human-lizard hybrid clone on the throne during the search for the missing royal. But the doppelgnger queen comes with a most troubling flaw: an insatiable sexual appetite. The somewhat Lovecraftian ';Hottentots' chronicles the very unusual adventure of Swiss naturalist and confirmed bigot Louis Agassiz as his determined search for a rather grisly fetish plunges him into a world of black magic and monsters. Finally, in ';Walt and Emily,' the hitherto secret and quite steamy love affair between Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman is revealed in all its sensuous gloryas are their subsequent interdimensional travels aboard a singular ship that transcends the boundaries of time and reality. Ingenious, hilarious, ribald, and utterly remarkable, Di Filippo'sThe Steampunk Trilogyis a one-of-a-kind literary journey to destinations at once strangely familiar and profoundly strange.

An outrageous trio of novellas that twist the Victorian era out of shape, by a master of alternate history: ';Spooky, haunting, hilarious' (William Gibson). Welcome to the world of steampunk, a nineteenth century outrageously reconfigured through weird science. With his magnificent trilogy, acclaimed author Paul Di Filippo demonstrates how this unique subgenre of science fiction is done to perfectionreinventing a mannered age of corsets and industrial revolution with odd technologies born of a truly twisted imagination. In ';Victoria,' the inexplicable disappearance of the British monarch-to-be prompts a scientist to place a human-lizard hybrid clone on the throne during the search for the missing royal. But the doppelgnger queen comes with a most troubling flaw: an insatiable sexual appetite. The somewhat Lovecraftian ';Hottentots' chronicles the very unusual adventure of Swiss naturalist and confirmed bigot Louis Agassiz as his determined search for a rather grisly fetish plunges him into a world of black magic and monsters. Finally, in ';Walt and Emily,' the hitherto secret and quite steamy love affair between Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman is revealed in all its sensuous gloryas are their subsequent interdimensional travels aboard a singular ship that transcends the boundaries of time and reality. Ingenious, hilarious, ribald, and utterly remarkable, Di Filippo'sThe Steampunk Trilogyis a one-of-a-kind literary journey to destinations at once strangely familiar and profoundly strange.