The Sea Is Ours

Short stories, steampunk, Southeast Asia: I agree with the editors of this collection that this is an underrepresented niche, and find “The Sea Is Ours” to be a great expansion of this field. There are twelve stories in this anthology, from the Philippines to Vietnam and elsewhere in these Pacific seas. While there are many unfamiliar words (and some more familiar from the heavy Spanish influence in the Philippines), I didn't always know if these words came from the genre or the setting. Not having read much steampunk, there are plenty of onomatopoeias too, and the stories boil down to universal themes in exciting contexts. There are strong-willed characters, sibling conflicts that recall mythology, looming war and struggles against colonialism. Language and identity, authority and defiance are also shaped by the parallel steampunk technology.

The first story, punctuated by quotes from scholars or artists, is about a young girl learning from her father how to navigate aircraft. Music, played precisely, helps powers these vessels as they capture flying whales. (I admit: the cover art was a big part of what drew me to this book.) In the second story, the captain of the airship is calculating and little concerned about others. Cool under pressure, as you'd have to be when chasing volcanoes, her views on the politics of north and south change when a princess refugee joins their crew.

Animatronic creations, or well-crafted inventions that mimic life, are a staple of steampunk, often to the point of being indistinguishable from real life. Touches of magic and my reading these at odd hours added to the in-and-out-of-reality experience. This is one reason why I like short stories.

In “Life Under Glass” two sisters are naturalists collecting species for terrariums. The narrator is having a hard time accepting her love didn’t work out, but an image in the wilderness changes her outlook. The story motivated me to identify the species of lizard I saw near Monterey, California last year (since there are no lizards where I live). It is, I believe, the Coast Range subspecies of the Western fence lizard (Sceleporus occidentalis bocourtii), if you were wondering.

Although the writing was good in “The Unmaking of the Cuadro Amoroso,” I found the characters unsympathetic and ultimately self-destructive. In “Spider Here,” there are creative, imaginative animal hybrids, but the biologist in me was a little skeptical of the potential contamination or compatibility issues. Still, this was an imaginative tale, including spiderlikes made for combat, a la cockfighting. The steampunk technology in these pages is more often in the form of prosthetics than anything else, including some haunting golems. The abundant action, and details like shady underground dealings, make for entertaining reading. In the last story, music is again used but in a different connection with technology. The sum is greater than its parts, as this collection is so well-tied together.