If you need to have steampunk explained to you, go and read the Wikipedia entry. Seriously. By now, steampunk has become an established F&SF subgenre. Whether or not it lasts remains to be seen, but the fact is, it’s going strong for now.

And as it’s developed steampunk has shown itself to be somewhat problematic in places. It’s developed as a very white genre, a very male genre, and a very straight genre, for the most part, and a genre set at the height of British and American colonialism. Traditional steampunk heroes and heroines are usually wealthy dilettantes, able to afford the brass gears and metallurgy they indulge in, and class issues seldom seem to affect the action. Joselle Vanderhoof’s Steam Powered: Lesbian Steampunk Stories from Torquere Press, is an attempt to address some of steampunk’s issues, and it’s produced some lovely stories in the process in a collection that adventurous readers and those familiar with steampunk will find an interesting addition to the field.

Intriguingly enough, addressing the maleness and straightness has also created a number of stories challenging the whiteness as well. Most of the stories feature a protagonist of color, and one who seems true to life, rather than the coat of black-face that sometimes gets slapped on characters by clueless authors. Similarly, these stories often take place in lands outside Britain and America, or draw on cultures not usually seen in the genre, as Matthew Kressel does with “The Hands That Feed,” with his Jewish heroine, Jessica Rosen.

Some stories seem less steampunky than others; while “The Padishah Begum’s Reflections” from Shweta Narayan was lovely, the steampunk elements seemed to fall away as the story progressed. Another slightly-less-than-steampunk specimen was a story I loved, “Steel Rider,” by Rachel Manija Brown, whose premise felt only faintly steampunk, but which I will forgive everything for the nice, understated but romantic ending.

My favorite story of the lot, though, was pure steampunk, combined with a lovely, funny, and sometimes awkward romance that managed to be sweet without ever being cloying: Georgina Bruce’s “Brilliant,” which features love interest Brilliant Irving Mpofo, zeppelins, and a diamond theft.

Overall, there are no clunkers in the lot. Some stories feel as though they are meant to be pieces of larger works, such as Teresa Wymore’s “Under The Dome” or Sara M. Harvey’s “Where The Ocean Meets the Sky.” Indeed, I hope to be re-encountering many of these protagonists and settings in the years to come.

Steam Powered is not going to change steampunk as we know it, alas. It does, however, show many of the possibilities that steampunk authors might be overlooking in accepting the genre in its white straight male form.