Book Review: The Iron Duke

 The Iron Duke by Meljean Brook
This first novel in a series has a lot going for it.

First of all the steampunk world is phenomenal, one of the best I've read.  It's set in an alternate 19th century (I think, no actual dates to go by) when for the past 200 years England and Europe have been occupied by The Horde, Mongol invaders with highly advanced technology, including nanoagents that infect the blood and can be used to control the populace.  Nine years after their control is broken and a revolution removes the Horde from England, the rich who fled to North America have come back.

So there is a very complex class system of the wealthy who didn't experience 200 years of enslavement and the poor nobility who did, and then the lower class whose bodies were modified to do labour.  The heroine, Mina, is fantastic.  A product of rape, she has Horde features and faces racial hatred and violence, while being a badass Detective Inspector in the police force.  But her mother is a countess, so she lives in both worlds.  If it sounds like I'm giving away a lot, I'm really not.  This is the very basic setup.  It's a wonderfully detailed and thought-out world.

Then it's also a romance.  The hero, the Iron Duke himself, was a pirate who is a national hero for destroying the tower used to control the populace.  He's very much a romance novel type: arrogant, dismissive, and forceful.  So the romance starts out in a way that is familiar to anyone who reads romance very often.   She doesn't respond to his charms, he becomes obsessed with having her, she resists but secretly longs for him, etc.  Meanwhile there are murders and conspiracies and airships and firefights and giant armored kraken attacks, etc.  But although the romance starts out in a pretty cliched place, it ends up being one of my favorite stories of romance, ever. It's certainly not usual that a romance novel makes me shed tears at multiple points in the story.

Speaking of romance, there are quite a few explicit sex scenes.  On the one hand, they are well-written and well, hot.  And I personally hate when a novel skirts around the sex like its taboo.  No, this book calls things by their names and makes it very clear what's going on.  On the other hand, there are a lot of sex scenes and a lot of them take place in a row, so for a chunk of the book not much is happening besides the heroes getting laid.  Mostly I'm including this information for readers who wouldn't normally read a romance novel, but who are interested in the steampunk.  Know what you're getting into, but I hope the prospect of sexy times doesn't scare you off, because the steampunk society and technology is really incredible.

This novel manages to cover a lot of ground without being longer than it should be, and it juggles a bunch of different genres skillfully.  It's definitely my favorite new steampunk series and I'm looking forward to reading the rest with glee.

Book Review: Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon

Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon  by Mark Hodder.
This third book of the Burton and Swinburne series is a return to form after a disappointing second novel. The plot is much clearer and less cluttered than the second one, even though it shifts around in time without explaining itself. This book is set simultaneously in Africa in 1863 and in Africa in 1914 during a hellish alternate WWI. 

Time travel is handled excellently, and this series is such a must for time travel fans. I couldn't tell you if all the time travel paradoxes make sense, because they are so very difficult to follow, but it doesn't matter to me. The book does an excellent job of blending technology with the supernatural in such a way that it's difficult to tell the difference between the two. 

The only criticism I can give this novel is that in parts it moves very slowly, as long portions recount people walking through Africa. It was a book that took me a while to get through because I kept putting it down and reading or doing something else. It wasn't because I wasn't enjoying it, but I felt I needed breaks from it at times. But ultimately, all that journeying contributes to feeling empathy of what the characters have been through by the end.

I'm not sure if this is a conclusion to the series or not, as it could go either way. All I can say is that the ending does not disappoint.

Oh, one final thought. I expressed a wish in my review of the first novel to have female characters take a larger role. I was somewhat given what I wanted when Burton's fiance led a group of oppressed Arabic women as an army of mounted guerrilla fighters. However, it continually bothered me that these women were killed off by the ten and twenty without so much as an eyeblink, but when one of the male characters of the group died, it was a major tragedy with tears and funerals. Same with the African porters. I appreciate that these attitudes are probably historically accurate, but if you're going to create an army of female warriors to do all the fighting for the men, you could go all the way and give them names and make them more than cannon fodder.

But ultimately this third part cements the series among the must-read steampunk books, in my opinion.   

2172 Contest Entry: Minta Manning

Quoting from the submission email:
For consideration in your Steampunk 2172  contest:

I am friends and colleagues with  the extraordinary, Emmy award-winning puppeteer, Elizabeth Luce,  who recently interpreted  THE WIZARD OF OZ as a puppet show that she contracts to perform to young audiences.  Her link is http://www.lucepuppetco.com.

When I was helping her build wardrobe for her handcrafted and articulated  rod puppets, Elizabeth handed me the 2172 pattern, a bundle of fabric pieces, and asked me to interpret the pattern for the Wicked Witch of the West.  I built the costume strictly from the photos on the pattern envelope, as it did not come in puppet-size.... 

Steampunk Personas

I had someone suggest this topic to me as something that people new to steampunk often have questions about.  Just what exactly is up with steampunk personas?

There are two basic directions to go with steampunk costuming.  There are the people who create specific steampunk costumes: steampunk robot, steampunk Doctor Who, steampunk maid, whatever.  These are "high concept" costumes and tend to be made by people who are already into costuming or cosplay.  These people aren't necessarily steampunk "lifestylers."  They just like to dress in steampunk costume sometimes.  (There's absolutely nothing wrong with this and I don't want to imply that there is.  Some of the most incredible steampunk outfits I've seen are made and worn by this type of steampunk costumer.  There's just a difference in attitude from someone who is a steampunk first and someone who is a costumer first.)

So the second direction is that chosen by most die-hard steampunks: developing a steampunk persona or alter ego.  That means that they have a steampunk character that they portray, no matter what outfit they are wearing.  They have a steampunk name, and a history for their character.

So, why?  Well, I find that character and costume tend to go hand in hand.  As you put together a steampunk outfit, you make decisions about that outfit.  Some of them may be based on pure aesthetics, but others will come down to "what kind of person is wearing this outfit?"  Are you an aristocrat?  A scientist?  An airship pirate?  A mechanic?  An academic?  Deciding those things is probably going to have to come pretty early in putting together your steampunk outfit, because the answers will drastically affect what you wear.

Of course, the character may not come first.  In fact, in my experience it's the costume item that comes first.  You find a certain item or article of clothing that you really, really like and you then have to come up with an explanation for why you are wearing or carrying that.  As lots of these details are added to your outfit, your character story becomes more and more fleshed out.

My own steamsona (get it?) is the Baroness Violet von Micklesburg.  But I didn't just wake up one day and decide I was going to create a steampunk character named that.  It started with going to thrift stores looking for pieces for a steampunk outfit for a con.  I found a black taffeta skirt and decided I would wear it cinched up over a purple skirt.  So I decided I was a widow (since widows wore black and then purple after a year of mourning.)  And I decided I had married a wealthy, older man.  And the details were added a bit at a time.  He was German, an industrialist, etc.

My husband, meanwhile, was coming up with his own character.  He was an airship pilot.  And we needed some way for our characters to come together.  So my late husband built a prototype small "coupe" style airship intended as toys for the wealthy.  And then the test pilot and the grieving widow stole the prototype after he died.  The Baroness thing came later as I searched for some sort of title.  Baron is the lowest level of German nobility, and Baroness just sounds awesome, so that's how that happened.

Do you HAVE to have a persona?

Book Review: Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus

Due to the length of this review it gets it's own post.  I may keep this longer format for book reviews in the future or I might not.

Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus -

I was quite excited when I discovered this book.  The design and art associated with it was attractive.  I bought the Kindle edition for the reasonable price of $2.99.  Now before I get into my thoughts on this work, I have to make some things clear.  I am a Sherlockian.  I have been a rabid Holmes fan since the age of 12.  I've read all the Arthur Conan Doyle stories many, many times.  I've been part of scholarly discussions of them.  I've read lots of Holmes pastiches (what other fandoms would call fanfiction, but these are published. Yay public domain.)  I've written Holmes pastiches.

So with all of that background, I am a particularly picky audience.  Half-assed depictions of Sherlock Holmes are just going to annoy me.  But I do enjoy pastiches, and am open to pretty wild versions of Holmes.  As I stared reading this book (novella?  144 pages isn't much of a novel, really) I was impressed.  The language did a very good job of recreating the style of Doyle.  As I continued I started to notice that entire sentences were lifted from various places in the Doyle canon.  That's not unheard of in Holmes pastiches.  I started to appreciate the differences the author made from the Doyle stories: Watson has a cybernetic arm with weaponry, Mycroft is Holmes' sister instead of his brother, Holmes drives a motorized velocipede and is a tinkerer of gadgets.

But then as I got to the actual plot, I very quickly realized something: this is not an original plot.  It is the Arthur Conan Doyle story "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans" with some of the names changed.  Instead of the stolen plans being of the Bruce-Partington submarine, they are of the Nautilus.  The name of the dead man is changed from Cadogan West to Cadbury.  The gender of the villain is changed.  But the actual mystery, the solution to it, that's all lifted straight from Doyle.  A good 40% of this book is a slightly altered version of a Doyle story, and as such was really, really boring to me.  After finishing it, I compared the two texts side by side.  The author changes enough around to avoid being a direct find-and-replace plagiarist.  Wording of sentences are slightly changed without changing their meaning.  Paragraphs are added in between the Doyle sections. But it is still a retelling of a story that already existed.

After about 40% of the way through (don't you love the Kindle) the author suddenly breaks with Doyle by adding in a bunch of action sequences.  Shootouts and chase scenes.  Holmes and Watson sure seem comfortable killing a bunch of people.  The fact that the people they kill are mostly Indians may be consistent with the racial attitudes of the time, but since that is an addition by a modern author, I side-eye it a bit.  There is an attempt to make the climax and conclusion of the story different than the Doyle story and create more of a plot tied in with Jules Verne.  But I didn't find it all that interesting.  Action sequence, exposition scene, action sequence, action sequence, exposition scene.  There is no actual mystery or solving of mysteries after the author copies the mystery part of the Doyle story.

The only saving grace of this story, in my opinion, is the writing style.  The author is very good at making her style Victorian and Doyle-esque in a subtle way that modern writers usually have a hard time capturing.  So that impresses me.  The accompanying illustrations are nice, although I wish someone could have copy-edited the LARGE BOLD type under them so that "Lestrade" was spelled correctly.

So, ultimately, I don't feel I can recommend this story.  Someone who has never read the Doyle stories might really enjoy it, but its difficult for me to say that.  Of course, if you haven't, you might just want to go read those, which you can get for free.

Dress Diary: Steampunk Cleopatra: Corset Mock-up pt. 1

So, while I'm still trying to find the right gold fabric, I started working with the pattern for the corset.  As I mentioned before, I'm looking to recreate the Gold Exotic Corset from Jill Salen's book Corsets: Historical Patterns & Techniques.

My first problem to overcome is that the pattern in the book is 1/2 scale.  When I had problems enlarging it on a copier, I decided to try following the instructions in the Foundations Revealed Draft Your Own Corset tutorial.  I pretty much followed the instructions exactly.  Basically you take a bunch of measurements of you and your original corset pattern and then do a bunch of math to use percentages to scale to corset pattern to your exact measurements.  To get from start to a pattern that I could use to make a mock-up took me two days.  It's a very different way of working than I ever use, since I avoid math as much as possible.  And I'm not really "precise" in my style of working.  But this is much more like architectural drafting than sewing.

The real problems I had were based in the pattern I was using.  This method requires that you have a pattern that is all nice and lined up on the same horizontal axis, and the original pattern was just all over the place.  So I cut up the little pattern pieces and taped them into place, pretty much guessing at the waist, hip, and bust lines of them and how they were supposed to relate.  Similarly, it's a little difficult to determine exactly how much tilt the pieces were supposed to have.  I suspect I messed that up a little, as a tiny tilt in the small pattern becomes much more noticeable in the large pattern.

Here is the tiny pattern on top and the new pattern on bottom.  I honestly had no idea how this was going to turn out.  Up until putting the mock-up actually on my body, I half thought it was going to be an utter disaster and I would have to start all over.

So I was actually really pleasantly surprised to find that it fit!  Actually it fit pretty damn well for a first mock-up.  It was remarkably comfortable.  I thought I was making the corset way too long and would have to take inches off the top.  Not so much.  At first I thought I would leave the top right about here, but now I think I'll add some more to the top.   There are obvious minor things to change, but I am really pleased by the shape.  I intend to take the waist in more, since I can squish about 1-2 inches further than this, and I want the shape to be a dramatic as possible.  I'm not intending this corset for all-day comfort so much as maximum impact.

The original pattern has a spoon busk, and I briefly considered using a spoon busk myself because I like the shape of the panels.  But then I found out spoon busks cost twice as much as normal ones, so that went out the window.  Besides I want a busk with gold hardware.  So for this first mockup I kept the rounded bottom on the first panel because I loved how it looked with the elongated gore of the second panel.  And surprise, it worked great!  It is just rounded enough in the belly to allow for my own curves without trying to smoosh everything, but doesn't look weird.

Now, the side shot shows the big problem with this mock-up: the off-white panel (a different color only because I  ran out) is kinda weird.  It pulls forward in the hips and there is a lot of wrinkling, I think because it's being pulled off-grain.  This is something I needed to work on.

The back view shows that the first mock-up is almost totally closed at the back.  This is easy to fix, though, so it didn't bother me.  

So I set out to make some changes and see what happened.  First I took out the last panel completely.  It was just the lacing bone area and it was about how much I needed to take out for a lacing gap.  

Second, I wanted to experiment with that fourth panel that is twisted.  I started messing with it, when I realized something: I had installed that piece in backwards. Because it was the only non-printed fabric, I had turned it around and put it in backwards.  So I set out to see how it fitted the right way round.

2172 Contest Entry - Meg Eales

2172 Contest Entry - Amy Sue Rabe

Dress Diary: Steampunk Cleopatra- The Underskirt

I've finished the underskirt for my Steampunk Cleopatra outfit.

The pattern I used was Truly Victorian's 1892 Umbrella Skirt with Train. It's a pretty simple pattern, except for one thing: the size of the pattern piece.  Yes, piece, singular.  The entire skirt is one piece, with only one seam up the back.  With a skirt that used 5 yards of fabric, that's a pretty large pattern piece.

Here's the pattern spread out over the fabric.  It's taking up the entirety of the floor space in my living room.  (And attracting quite a bit of cat attention. That's Grimmie.  She's good.  Her older brother had to be locked up while I worked with this pattern.)

As you can maybe see, my measurements were a bit off when I cut this length of fabric off the bolt, and I'm short a couple of inches at the end of the train.  I intended to make the skirt with the long train, but as a result of this error I went with the short train.  And I'm really glad I did because it's the perfect length.

Here's the front of the skirt on me.  Forgive the wrinkles. I'm actually quite pleased with how this looks, although I think it looks better in reality than in any of the photos I got.  With a corset it will look better.  I'm also not wearing a petticoat in these pictures.  I will probably wear my natural form petticoat under this, but didn't feel like digging it out.  I guess I should make sure it works alright with this skirt before too long.

The pattern calls for two things I didn't include.  First, a lining.  I didn't have 5 yards of any fabric I wanted to use for a lining, and I don't see that it really requires one.  I'll be wearing enough layers when it's all said and done.  And especially since there's only the one seam it didn't seem necessary.  But that added a problem: the skirt calls for hem stiffening via canvas or other stiff material sewn around the bottom of the lining.  Since I wasn't using a lining, I couldn't figure out how to sew a hem stiffener on without having the stitching show.  So I left it out.  I don't think it's vital, although I still might try an alternate technique like iron-on stiffener or adding some stiff ribbon to the bottom as trim.

 Speaking of trim, I still haven't decided if I'm going to add any trim to the bottom of this.  I really like this skirt, and if I add any gold trim, I won't wear it for anything other than the Cleopatra.  And there's something very riding habit-ish about the skirt that I think would work well with a different outfit.  But....well, we'll see.

As you can see, the train is lovely.  It's exactly what I wanted to recreate the Cleopatra costume.  The train will probably limit me to wearing this costume indoors.  I intend to add a loop of fabric to the underside of the train so I can carry it off the floor if need be.  I might also see about bustling it up, but I think that will interfere with the overskirt.

As for the rest of the outfit, I'm still waiting on getting the right gold fabric before I can start the overskirt.  I got two swatches of gold silk dupioni, but one was too pale and the other too orange.  I've ordered about 5 more swatches and am waiting for them to arrive.  I'm having nightmare visions of never being able to find the right color gold.  I didn't think it would be this difficult.

So in the meantime I'm working on the corset pattern.  I spent this past weekend working on converting the corset pattern from 1/2 scale to full scale and my measurements.  I'll have a post on that probably later this week after I've made the first mock-up.

Corset Links Roundup

I collect links like its my religion, but I don't actually post them here on the blog much.  I typically consider there are better places to post links, like Pinterest and Facebook.  But I've got so many good corset related links that I have been meaning to post them for y'all.

General Corset Info:
Video Comparing the Shape of a Cheap Corset with a Custom Corset- When you want to know why you can't get a real waist reduction with a cheap off-the-rack corset, this is why.
Corsets, Lungs, and Breathing Video - Excellent informative video that covers how breathing works, what groups of muscles are used, and what a corset does and does not impair when it comes to breathing.
How to Lace a Corset - Several different ways to lace a corset and WHY they are used.
FairyGothmother on the difference between real quality corsets and cheap ebay knockoffs.  With video and pictures of the exact same corsets, real and knockoff on models.  This is why anyone who knows corsets can identify a cheap ebay/Chinese made knockoff corset from across the room.
The difference between corsets, waist cinchers, corselets, and swiss waists - An excellent article on a confusing topic.
Corsets in Print - A great post busting some corset myths by Dragonfly Designs.
Dispelling the Myth of the Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Waist - A great article about the myth of tiny waists
What Everyone Should Know About Wearing a Victorian Corset - Lots of good info here, although I don't personally agree with everything.
Everything You Know About Corsets is False - My personal favorite of the corset myth-busting articles. It includes a great brief history of corset styles.
4 Myths about Waist Training - Good info about the most common questions about tightlacing and waist training.
How to Care for Your Corset - Good tips for general corset case, while you are wearing it.
With and Without: How Wearing a Corset Affects You and Your Clothes- An excellent article on the importance of wearing a corset under period clothing, with lots of good info about what corsets do to your figure and how corsets were actually worn and why.


Corset-Making Tutorials:
Sidney Eileen's Corsetmaking Tutorials - They are fantastic.  She has lots of different ones on all aspects of corsetmaking, so you should check them out.
Waisted Creations Alternate Busk-Insertion Tutorial
Katafalk's Folded Seam Method Tutorial -That's what I call that method.  It's an excellent tutorial on the subject, probably better than mine.
Katafalk's Custom Underbust Pattern Drafting Tutorial - I haven't used this, but it looks good.
Making a Custom Corset Pattern by wrapping yourself with duct tape
Foundations Revealed Guide to Drafting a Custom Corset Pattern - This is THE guide for custom corset pattern drafting.
A really helpful diagram of how to neatly fold bias trim corners in from Bridges on the Body.

EDIT: This is really great collection of every link you will ever need as a corsetmaker by Sidney Eileen

So You Want to Be a Steampunk?

There is one question I've been asked more than any other when I am vending at cons, and that is: "I want to get into steampunk; what do I do?"

It's a huge question that is really difficult to answer in less than, oh, an hour.  I always feel bad when I can't come up with anything to say to this question that is actually helpful.  I tend to go with somewhat pat answers like, "you can be anything you want" or "go to a thrift store."  There are lots of articles and panels that attempt to address this question.  Let me add my thoughts to those.

Step One: Get some ideas.

Before you start planning your outfit, or shopping for pieces, or making anything, it's a good idea to look around for inspiring ideas.  Let's assume you are basically familiar with steampunk and what the style can look like.  But now you need to start looking at details.  What are the steampunk outfits that you admire actually made of?  Which styles do you personally like for yourself?  What basic pieces do you think you might like to have in your outfit?

This can vary from extremely general to very specific.  A guy might decide he wants/needs a vest for a steampunk outfit.  A girl might decide she wants to wear a corset, or a bustle.  Or you might decide your steampunk vision needs a certain style of coat, or some leather armor or something.  My advice is to keep your ideas open and general when you are first thinking about your outfit.  If you get too attached to a specific item or look, you may end up frustrated trying to find just the right piece.

So where should you look for these inspirations?  Well, if you've attended some cons you may have seen steampunks there and liked certain things.  But mostly, there is the internet.  I think it's important to spend a good amount of time looking at pictures of steampunk outfits on the internet. You won't be copying any of the outfits you see, but they will spark  ideas and you can always borrow certain elements.  The great thing about steampunk is that no matter what, you will end up with an outfit that is all yours.

Sites like Pinterest and Tumblr are ideal for surfing through pictures of steamy stuff.  I particularly like Pinterest because you can make yourself a costume inspiration board, save all the pictures you like there, and be able to find them easily. (I'm so addicted to Pinterest.  Can you tell?)  But whatever site you want to use, just search steampunk or "steampunk costume."  When I was first thinking about costumes, I wanted to see pictures of what people were actually wearing to cons, rather than posed professional photos, so I searched "steampunk costume" on flickr.   It's encouraging to see other "beginner" level costumes, so you don't feel like you'll never be able to match up to the professional costumers' work that you see a lot on some sites.

Step Two: Go Shopping

Unless you are already a cosplayer or have sewing experience, you will probably be looking to purchase  the majority of your first outfit.  If you already can sew and want to make an outfit from scratch, there are lots of patterns out there.  Have fun.  The rest of us start out by buying at least most of our first outfits.

There are lots of great steampunk artists out there who will be very happy to sell you part or all of a steampunk outfit.  If you are inclined and can afford it, you should support them.  Most steampunks end up purchasing at least a few things from the artists around them, since we're not all skilled at everything.   But chances are you can't afford to pay someone for a whole handmade custom outfit.  So you start where a lot of us do: thrift stores.