Steampunk Tales is an iPhone reader app that is modeled on classic pulp fiction magazines. Its App Store description promises that it will deliver ‘first-run, original fiction at an unbelievable price! ‘ in a ‘gorgeous customizable reader ‘.
Although I ‘d never come across the steampunk genre before being approached about this app, I was interested to take a look at it. I ‘ve had the app for several weeks, and have some thoughts on how it stacks up amongst the many good reading choices available for the iPhone.
What Does It Do?
I am reviewing Steampunk Tales Issue 1. In line with its ‘pulp fiction magazine ‘ approach, there will be subsequent issues published around once a month. Issue 1 offers 10 ‘fantastic tales ‘ which each run between 4,300 and 11,000 words. Most of them are like short stories that run fairly long.
As mentioned above, I ‘m a rookie to this genre “ but the list of award-winning authors (Bios of each are available within the app) is very impressive. For those of you who are fans of the genre, the list includes Jay Lake, Catherynne M. Valente, SatyrPhil Brucato, and many more.
For those who have not yet discovered this genre of writing, here ‘s a good Wikipedia introduction:
Steampunk is a sub-genre of fantasy and speculative fiction that came into prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used ”usually the 19th century, and often Victorian era England ”but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inventions like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or real technological developments like the computer occurring at an earlier date. Other examples of steampunk contain alternate history-style presentations of "the path not taken" of such technology as dirigibles, analog computers, or digital mechanical computers (such as Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine); these frequently are presented in an idealized light, or with a presumption of functionality.
What Does It Do Well?
Above all, it provides superb content. It honestly had me at ‘hello ‘. Well not quite, but as soon as I got through Page 1 of the first tale in this issue “ Project Mobius-5 by K.E. Kendall “ I was hooked. And I ‘ve stayed that way. I ‘m a convert to steampunk, and I ‘ve enjoyed every ‘tale ‘ I ‘ve read so far in Issue 1.
I ‘ve had a very hectic few weeks while I ‘ve had the app (moving house etc) so I haven ‘t yet got through all the first issue ‘s content “ but I ‘ve got through more than half of the stories, and they ‘ve all been superb. They have all grabbed me and drawn me in right away, and have all given me that ‘can ‘t put it down ‘ feeling that a really good book or story always does.
The app ‘s claims to boast a ‘gorgeous customizable reader ‘ are lived up to as well. You can choose your preferred font styles (10 to choose from) and sizes, as well as whether to read in portrait or landscape mode, whether to have page turn sounds on or off, and what paper style you want to use “ from a good selection of marble-like and old parchment sort of feeling looks, all in color shades that are very easy on the eyes.
The app ‘s user interface is easy, unobtrusive, and very effective. Tap twice on any page to bring up buttons that will take you to the Index, Settings or About pages with one tap “ or to use a slider bar to move forward / back to a specific page. Swipe left to turn pages.
What ‘s Not So Good?
Very little to speak of here. Adding a few more options to the Settings page might be a good addition “ for instance it would be good to be able to choose to also be able to move through pages via swiping upwards.
The only other big qualifier for this app is whether you enjoy the steampunk genre itself.
Overall
Steampunk Tales Issue 1 is priced at $1.99, and to my mind that ‘s a very good price “ for the sheer quality of the content alone, but you also get a very generous helping of it.
John Sondericker “ the publisher of Steampunk Tales “ has shared with me the plans for additional content coming along very soon
We should be coming out with a free issue this week that will contain the first four parts of a serial by G. D. Falksen, then the week following we will be releasing the second edition which will contain 10 stories by several of the big names in fiction. Issue #2 will include original first run tales from: David Wellington, Brenda Cooper, Julian Venters and many more. Steampunk Tales #2 and all future editions will also be 10 original tales for $1.99 USD.
Again, this seems a good and reasonable pricing model to me. If each of the issues is anywhere near as good as Issue 1, then $1.99 is a great price for the huge amount of reading enjoyment you ‘ll get out of it, with many hours worth of great reading material.
For me, the bottom line is that this is great content, presented very well “ and that ‘s always a very good thing to find.
You can find Steampunk Tales Issue 1 in the App Store now, priced at $1.99.
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TAGS: iPhone book apps
