"Human Powered," by Theresa Noelle Roberts (from Carnal Machines: Steampunk Erotica)

Carnal Machines: Steampunk Erotica is a collection of erotic short stories with steampunk settings.

"Human Powered" by Theresa Noesse Roberts is the first story in the collection, and it's not very convincing. While delightfully and convincingly told from the woman's point of view, without headhopping, "Human Powered" is a fairly ordinary story about a woman "defying convention" and her lover's introducing her to the joys of the vibrator. There's a lovely MacGuffin to start the story which leads to a nice but fairly obvious closure. The writing is pedestrian, the sex scenes are merely serviceable and driven mostly by visual cues. The transition from arguing to fucking takes place at pornoverse speed, which annoys me. In the end, this is airplane quality erotica with used furniture.

Janine Ashbless, "The Servant Question" (from Carnal Machines: Steampunk Erotica)

Carnal Machines: Steampunk Erotica is a collection of erotic short stories with steampunk settings.

"The Servant Question" by Janine Ashbless is the second story in this volume, and it's much better than the first. The tale of a clockmaker who has mastered the mysteries of his mystical steampunk universe sufficiently to make mechanical maids. He has the very fine Mrs. Pemberton for a client, and she is extremely demanding about the precise movements necessary to beat rugs and polish champagne flutes. The erotica comes at a rush but is nonetheless effective, and this story has a punch and a payoff that is both charming and funny.

Renee Michaels, "Sleight of Hand" (from Carnal Machines: Steampunk Erotica)

Carnal Machines: Steampunk Erotica is a collection of erotic short stories with steampunk settings.

"Sleight of Hand" by Renee Michaels, is the third story in this collection. The story has the interesting quality of being monogamous and confrontational all at the same time, when a skilled thief and her estranged mad inventor husband have a fateful meeting. The dialog is quick, witty, and brings a smile to the face; the sex is wonderfully written and delightfully cute, and the resolution well worth the effort. The story does feature more than a hint of (initial) non-consensuality, which may be triggery, but so far this has been the best of the bunch.

Poe Von Page, "Mutiny on the Danika Blue" (from Carnal Machines: Steampunk Erotica)

Carnal Machines: Steampunk Erotica is a collection of erotic short stories with steampunk settings.

Poe Von Pages's "Mutiny on the Danika Blue" is a curious story. The setting is Space: 1889, the idea of steampunk in space, powered by philostigon or flubber or whatever. The sex is fun and unexpected, although the sensibilities of the main characters are so late 20th century it's hard to take the setting seriously, and the main conflict of the story, the reason for the "mutiny" of the title, is never very clearly explicated. This is a writer's habit story with more used furniture: the writer knows how to write this kind of story, and borrowed someone else's set.

That's been the problem of at least two of the stories so far. Steampunk is more than a setting; Victoriana has its own ways of thinking, it's own ideology of men and women. Some writers get it, some make a pass at it, and some just give up and sneak onto another's stage in the middle of the night for some illicit hanky-panky.