The SEA Is Ours

The Sea Is Ours, Editors Jaymee Goh and Joyce Chng- This Asian Steampunk anthology offers stories from authors you'll be reading in the near future I'm sure. At first I was uncertain as to the nature of Asian Steampunk. Not like your Victorian bustles and gears(well, maybe a few gears!)fiction at all, but more of a magical world of strange powers and veiled conspiracies. One person's magic is another's science. Timothy Dimacali begins with "On The Consequence of Sound", a slight story that reminds one of Paolo Bacigalupi in its gentle persistent nature and tone. "Chasing Volcanoes" by Marilag Angway follows and is so enjoyable I wished to see it in novel form. Alessa Hinlo's "The last Aswang" delivers a powerful story about power and its use and abuse. The remaining stories all have equal success in providing enjoyable and thought-provoking tales that rely on South Asian folk lore and backgrounds to present a different form of Steampunk than what you might be used to. Don't be afraid. There's a wonderfully colorful world for you to explore.

An early copy of the book was sent to me via NetGalley. It won't be released until November 1st 2015.

The Sea Is Ours is a refreshing steampunk anthology. The settings are fascinating, from cramped cities to rural villages to airborne whales, and the voices were most profound at all. So much steampunk is from an English or American vantage point, and even if it doesn't glorify the imperial perspective, it can still become a stale setting. I loved reading stories that drew from the Philippines, Malaysia, and other locations across such a wide swath of the world that is too ignored in the genre. Some focused on the industrial side of steampunk, such as the mechanized fighting spiders in Robert Low's "Spider Here," while others drew on mythology such as Alessa Hinlo's "The Last Aswang." There is fabulous representation here--hooray for strong, independent women!

I really hope this anthology inspires more diversity in steampunk anthologies--more from southeast Asia, and so many other places (Hawaii? South America? Australia? Please!). Kudos to Jaymee Goh and Joyce Chng for assembling such a fun book!

Southeast Asia is a region rich with legends and myths which hasn't been explored enough by writers, even those residing here. But this is probably partly because we don't have that many venues in which to share these stories.

It goes without saying then that The SEA Is Ours, a steampunk anthology featuring writers from all over Southeast Asia, is a timely anthology that fills the need to showcase stories from authors we don't normally hear from.

The two editors, Jaymee Goh and Joyce Chng, have made great choices in selecting the stories that went into this anthology. There were only a couple of stories that didn't really grab my attention, but that's par for the course for any collection of stories. It's rare that I find myself liking all the stories in an anthology.

The ones that did really stood out for me were Timothy Dimacali's On The Consequence of Sound, which, rightly, is the opening story and features humongous giant whale catfish sweeping through the skies; Marilag Angway's Chasing Volcanoes which featured airships (my primary reason for loving the steampunk genre) and a fun, rollicking adventure worthy of the era of pulps and adventure serials; as well as Paolo Chikiamco's Between Severed Souls, a really fun steampunk twist on a Filipino legend.

You may have noticed that all the stories I mentioned above were written by Filipinos. They really turned in great stuff and this anthology has piqued my interest in looking for more SFF written by them.

Lots of other cool stories from writers from Southeast Asian countries worthy of your attention as well such as Olivia Ho's Working Woman and ZM Quynh's Chamber of Souls. All in all though, a fun book to read and a great addition to the canon that is world SFF. Truly worthy of your attention if you're a fan of well-written speculative fiction, steampunk or otherwise.

I love the stories in this collection although there are quite a few formatting issues. It's a great collection of stories you just don't get to read in most mainstream SFF. The formatting problems are a real distraction though.

The SEA is Ours is a set of short stories by authors from re-imagining steampunk in a Southeast Asian setting and from a Southeast Asian perspective. "Steampunk," write editors Jaymee Goh and Joyce Chng, "in our anthology, is an aesthetic that combines retrofuturism, alternate history, and technofantasy, so we wanted to know, what do these elements look like from a Southeast Asia perspective?" The resulting stories are rich, unexpected, and outstanding.

These are stories of technology in that many feature new angles on steampunk creations: Armor for fighting spiders in Robert Liow's "Spider Here," flying ships with unexpected power sources in Marilag Angway's "Chasing Volcanoes," for example, and Ivanna Mendel's "Petrified," or cyborg development in "Working Woman." Over and around this, though, many of the stories focus on relationships. "Chasing Volcanoes" involves an unexpected, cross-class friendship. "Working Woman" ends up with a strange set of alliances, in part because one of the women is far more competent than anyone has given her credit for.

These stories take readers to new times and places, to alternate history and unexpected geographies. Often, mythological creatures roam the land, sometimes in the flesh, sometimes recreated from memory and story by talented builders. They are stories of dangers overcome and troubles faced. Most are complete and satisfying as single tales, though many leave the reader hoping that the author will write more in that world. Most will lead to hopeful exploring of library catalogs and bookstores for more reading.

The SEA is Ours is a powerful collection of tales recommended to lovers of myth, fantasy, and above all, steampunk.

The SEA is Ours comes out November 1, 2015. Look for it on Amazon; on Powell's or Barnes & Noble

I have recently been on a steampunk kick, and was most curious to see what this would be like. What I got wasn't the familiar Victorian mores, but a vivid look at other cultures and worlds I couldn't have imagined, with a touch of the mystical and the mechanical. Utterly fascinating, and it made me wonder precisely what they asked in the introduction; why isn't there more of this?

GREAT concept for an anthology - steampunk is always fun to read, and it was a real pleasure reading The Sea Is Ours since it was steampunk with a southeast Asia setting instead of the more traditional western Europe backdrop. We need more stories like this! It's fun, but it's also gutting.

As with any anthology with multiple authors, some stories stand out way more than others. "Chasing Volcanoes" was probably my favorite. Each story had something great to offer, but the technical writing was missing for me in some.

STILL. Add this to your TBR!

***e-ARC provided by NetGalley***

This is the second volume I have read edited by Joyce Chng who shows a talent, along with Jaymee Goh, for selecting quality work and writers.

The Sea is Ours – Tales of Steampunk South East Asia quite directly presents itself as Steampunk. I want to say though, that it’s a bit more than that. It’s quite easy to dismiss Steampunk in general as a sub-genre that’s been overworked.

From very early on in my reading though, it was apparent that The Sea is Ours, had greater depth. Here’s what I wrote via a Goodreads update nearly halfway through the reading:

An intriguing selection that is reminiscent of Alternative Alamat in some ways. This *is* steampunk, but where that might cause potential readers to roll eyes and think "not another clockwork collection", The Sea is Ours is much more South East Asian alternative history and is all the better for it. The steampunk is subtle in most cases and where it isn't it’s original.

Collections like the The Sea is Ours is what I think of when talking about diversity in genre. Each of the stories contained brought a new angle or a fresh perspective on some old tropes.

But ultimately what excited me was the stories and characters of South East Asia. In and age long past half my history major was on Ancient South East Asian history, so for me The Sea is Ours brings back memories and adds additional threads to the tapestry of my experience.

Steampunk can feel “bolted” on a times, a cliché, but what I found with each of these stories was a much subtler integration into both story and culture. In some stories the technology arrives from outside the narrative’s culture and it’s adapted, in others it forms an integral part.

There’s also a good balance of the mythic and fantastical, Alessa Hinlo’s, The Last Aswang, and Timothy Dimacali’s On The Consequence of Sound, immediately spring to mind. Each author brings something fresh to this work though and for a collection that has its fair mention of airships and automatons, The Sea is Ours delivers variety in the type of story as well.

This is a fresh and original collection that reworks Steampunk in interesting ways while showcasing talented authors who present us with the reworked and reimagined stories of their own cultures and traditions.

Alter your perspective.

Really intriguing set of stories. I was excited to see the Kickstarter campaign. This is an important work, and I hope to see more like it from these editors in the future.

Jaymee Goh, Joyce Chng - The Sea is Ours - Tales of Steampunk Southeast Asia

There are books you pick up because of their author. There are books you pick up because of their title (rare, these days), or because of their cover. And then there are books you pick up because they promise something new, and you look at them, go ‘nah, it cannot be’, put them down - and go back, just to check. The Sea is Ours is one of those. I’ve read some steampunk - frequently formulaic, but also frequently fun. And I’ve read some Southeast Asian SF and Horror - frequently different, and frequencly pointing out that there are some gaps in need of filling in concerning my general education/knowledge (even if I frequently only go to Wikipedia for this). I’ve not been exposed to Southeast Asian Steampunk before, though… but that’s my loss, telling from this collection assembled by Joyce Chng and Jaymee Goh!

The subtitle is programme - all stories here are steampunk (even if the definition is used fairly loosely, and some steampunk elements feel patched on), and all come from Southeast Asia, with, as the editors note, some gaps in coverage in terms of countries of origin.
But this is also a book of politics, and born of frustration - however real or perceived (and definitely not only imagined, I hasten to add!) at women, feminists, ethnic minorities, and especially Southeast Asia’s writers being overlooked by the big, bad UK/US white male dominance (I paraphrase). So far so Puppygate, of course, albeit rather towards the opposite end of the spectrum. And entirely valid as both a programme and a theme to assemble a collection of stories and writers.
And yes, the contents and especially the contributors appear to definitely have been picked and filtered, so I appreciate that a) they were very open about their thrust, and b) that the result turned out as magnificent as this!

Below is a run-through of stories, their topics, and some thought on them - I don’t think there was anything here that felt weak or unfinished, even if topics, approaches, and writing styles (and maturity) vary, as with every collection.
If such detail bothers you then stop here, and simply take away that this a splendid and unusual collection, and highly recommended for everyone who likes SF, Steampunk, or Mythology (as a number of stories take local Mythology as a jump-off point), and who do not require their reading matter to be white, male, and UK/US centric.

Ok, here goes with the capsule reviews:

On the Consequence of Sound - Timothy Dimacali A story based on the Philippine myth of the butanding, the Sky Whales, and of a girl learning the art of making objects (especially airships) float/fly through the use of music. It’s a great story, set in a fascinating world, and leaves you yearning for more!

Chasing Volcanoes - Marilag Angway The crew of an airship which syphons off volcanic gases - with both defuses the pending eruption and provides them with energy for their ship, get embroiled in the (violent) politics between feuding royal clans. This feels like a classic adventure story, and some of the technology presented put me in the mind of Jan Lars Jensen’s Shiva 3000.

Ordained - L.L. Hill A tale of two brothers, and of the tension (if not conflict) between the traditional life of a monk dedicating to live at and look after a sacred site (and creating flying mechanical marvels - something which keeps recurring in these stories!), and his European-educated, court-based brother. It’s interesting, it’s fun, but with what I found a rather weak and unsatisfactory ending.

The Last Aswang - Alessa Hinlo A country with ‘magic’ technology (also a recurring theme here), including animating mechanical animals and other beings; but also rooted in their ancestral beliefs and gods/beings - confronted with a renewal of hostilities from España (current or former colonial powers are, for obvious reasons, a frequent part of the settings here) and its priests and steam-driven machines.
A fascinating, mythical, and classically violent world. Another one which makes you feel that there will be, must be!, much much more.

Life Under Glass - Nghi Vo The narrator is on an expedition (together with her sister) to collect flora and fauna for the Vietnam Dome at the Universal Exposition in Saigon. She also is running away/hiding from a failed relationship with one of her colleagues - a lesbian relationship her family did not really approve of. The setting is exotic, the story, but its themes of family ties and failed relationships is rather run of the mill I felt.

Between Severed Souls - Paolo Chikiamco A fascinating if unfinished-feeling tale of a carpenter/wood-carver, making war machines including flying ones to strap on - like the one which killed his beloved wife.But now he’s faced with a type of wood he’s never seen before - this wood, apparently, allows only to be cared in one way, to release - something - from within. All that against the backdrop of local squabbling over ‘lost’ kingdomships as well as the conflict between the colonial powers vying for influence in the region , and shifting their local allegiances with the wind…

The Unmaking of the Cuadro Amoroso - Kate Osias Four scientific prodigies - a gastronomist, a machinist, a pianist/mathematician, and a dancer - have entered into an illicit love quadrangle. But when their greatest member, the mathematician is called upon to use this music for war he refuses, and is subsequently killed. This is the story of his lovers’ revenge. A splendid tale, set in a world you want to her more about, her more stories from. One of the highlights of the collection for me.

Working Woman - Olivia Ho The most ‘classical’ Steampunk story here - flesh/clockwork hybrid humans, steam and spring driven machinery, the British (of course), secret societies, mysterious assassins, upper/lower class society, derring-do: you ask for it, you got it! That, besides the huge entertainment value, we also get well-executed social commentary here really speaks for the skill of the writer. More, please!

Spider Here - Robert Liow A slice-of-life story, following a disabled girl who, when not in school, specialises in creating biological shells - casings - with nervous systems and sensors created from dead animals, which are manned and animated by spiders, and fight out one-on-one battles which people bet on. But there is a whole world in the background, with politics, and with a low-grade war/terror campaign. Another story with a huge potential for more - both from the protagonist as well as set in that world.

The Chamber of Souls - ZM Quynh A boat full of Vietnamese refugees is picked up by an airship from another world/dimension - and whilst their rescuers are decidedly Vietnamese the are also clearly something else. We follow of the refugee’s path through a refugee camp to their new home - including conflict with other tribes/societies and an adventure with Ngoc, the only mechanical begin in that world. But underneath there lurks more, much more than the story in the foreground. Fascinating, if slightly cliched I felt.

Petrified - Ivanna Mendels A ship - the Sweet Water - is patrolling the sea (flying above it) around the new Republic Nusantara to guard against the Dutch returning, or other Colonial powers coming in. Now she is missing - and the only survivor tells an amazing tale. Very reminiscent of Stephen Hunt’s Jackelian books, for better or worse (the similarity is in the setting, and not the politics of the author)

The Insects and Woman Sing Together - Pear Nuallak Another story with magic-enabled technology, although it is the women who (apparently unbeknown to the men) have a huge edge in the technology department, and use it to steer events and history towards where they feel it should go - all without the men, who are formally in charge, noticing too much of this.
Interesting from a cultural point of view, and could well be the blueprint for a full novel (which I’d happily buy!)

The book closes with short biographies of all authors, as well as the editors.

Thanks to the publisher for the review copy.

More Joyce Chng More Jaymee Goh

Title: The Sea is Ours - Tales of Steampunk Southeast Asia Editor: Joyce Chng Editor: Jaymee Goh Reviewer: Markus Reviewer URL: http://thierstein.net Publisher: Rosarium Publishing Publisher URL: http://www.rosariumpublishing.com/
Publication Date: 30 Nov 2015 Review Date: 151122 ISBN:9781495607561 Pages: 267 Format: ePub Topic: Steampunk Topic: Mythology

An interesting change of setting, mixing south-eastern Asia culture and various other aspects to engineering and more “steampunkish” elements. I appreciated this nice change of pace, so different from the typical corset & goggle aesthetics: though I still love the latter, variety is always good, and the whole steam/mechanical technology shouldn't be restricted to European or American settings.

Descriptions and characters mostly felt real enough, and I had no trouble imagining what their surroundings looked like. Some stories used “foreign” words whose meaning wasn't too difficult to guess, so it added to the immersion factor while not being overly confusing. A certain dichotomy also permeated this anthology, though in a harmonious way, in that several of the stories mixed technology with traditional or supernatural aspects: the Westerners' cold, rational technology as opposed to a technology combining magic or spirits to science. As simplistic as the first may seem, it still flowed well enough for me.

What I found lacking in this anthology is something I find both very difficult to achieve as a writer, and lacking in short stories in general: it came with a lot of excellent ideas, character concepts and backgrounds, but tended to leave the reader to dry by cutting off abruptly the narratives. I kept expecting either more of a punchline at the end of stories, or to learn that those had also been developed / were to be developed into novellas or novels later. As a result, I more than once reached the end of a story thinking “am I missing a few pages here?”

Favourite stories:

“On the Consequence of Sound”: though the ending was a bit predictable, I really liked the idea of using music to make items and ships levitate.

“The Unmaking of the Cuadro Amoroso”: exploring various ideas, such as artists that are also scientists (or is it the contrary?), science versus faith, an oppressive government, revenge, and a polyamorous relationship presented in a totally natural way.

“Working women”: a bit too abrupt to my taste in how events unfurled, however I liked its weaving of three women's stories, colliding through mechanical transformations, how society perceived them, and how they acted to (re)claim their own worth and independence.

Formatting: a few typos here and there, however I read an ARC, so this was probably to be expected. I don't know about the printed book.

3.5 stars This was an interesting enough anthology compiling steampunk stories written by authors from Southeast Asia, mainly from the Philippines . And although I don’t think any of the stories was outstanding, it’s also true that there were only a couple that didn’t engage me at all. Most of them were nicely written and were original and varied enough to make this book a worthwhile read, particularly for steampunk fans looking for something different to the usual Victorian stuff.
My standouts were Kate Osias’s 'The Unmaking of the Cuadro Amoroso” and ZM Quynh’s “The Chamber of Souls”. And, being a Spaniard, I found particularly interesting the Philippine stories, because of the language and in some cases also the plot.