The steampunk trilogy

by Paul Di Filippo

Inside the wide realm of science fiction or out, there is nothing like the three short novels in The Steampunk Trilogy. Set in a very alternative 19th Century, they feature a mix of historical and imaginary figures. In Victoria, a young and lissome Queen Victoria disappears from her throne and is replaced by a sexy human/newt clone. The race is on to find the original Victoria and hide the terrible secret from the nation. In Hottentots, Massachusetts is threatened by H.P. Lovecraft-style monsters from the deep and, of course, Hottentots; in Walt and Emily, Emily Dickinson hooks up with a robust and lusty Walt Whitman, loses her virginity, and travels to a dimension beyond time where she and her companions meet the future Allen Ginsberg.