EP360: Follow That Cathedral!

[Unblinking]

Yeah, the checklist criticism is spot-on.  This seemed like one of those stories that seemed like it was meant to be obviously cool because it fit the definition of coolness so exactly from a checklist, but didn't offer anything I haven't seen before, and everything it offered was just a shallow copy of better stories I've seen in the subgenre.

I'm not so much interested in seeking out steampunk because steampunk is so relentlessly awesome, but rather to read any kind of story that doesn't just do what everyone else is doing.  That difference can be in setting, in character, in speculative idea, but none of that was here.

And I did get a strong Sydney Bristow vs. Anna Espinosa vibe here, though I didn't really mind that part.

[LaShawn]

I would have liked to have read this one. For some reason, I found it hard to follow Pip's narration. Maybe because I was in the middle of a project and I couldn't give it my full attention. But it did sound fun, and yeah, rife with steampunk cliches, but ::shrug::

[hardware]

I think the problem with Steampunk is that it does not really have any interesting given conflicts, instead it tends to be one awesome thing after another, but without much to drag you into storys, themes and characters. In the end, nostalgia is always a bit dusty unless you make a real effort to see it in a new way. This didn't quite achieve that.

[childoftyranny]

I often find it hard to comment on steampunk stories, I read fairly little of it, because when they hit off the list of cool things, I find myself thinking I wish it was in the Foglio's "Girl Genius" world where mad science expands outwards towards outright sillyness with their electricity, as opposed to the staid Victorian styling. This story seemed a fun romp though, trains with huge wheels and antigravity units are certainly at least a bit unique and the narration I though was superb. I think I'd enjoying hear more adventures involving these two, though perhaps something a bit more long term as this felt like the needed to jam so much adventure into a short space that everything mushed together with sky-diving, word-fighting, sword/gun-fighting, then escape!