On September 5th, I was thrilled to learn that Science Magazine, the peer-reviewed academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), carried a review of CLOCKWORK FUTURES. David Kahler of the Center for Environmental Research and Education, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, provided a thoughtful account of the book’s twin mission: to provide a social history of technology and also to recast some of science’s greatest innovations in a steampunk light:

The inventions enshrined in steampunk were often ahead of their time, were sometimes misguided, and were occasionally outright catastrophic, but, as author Brandy Schillace reveals, they celebrate the ingenuity and imagination that go into scientific research, regardless of the outcome. […]

Schillace thoroughly examines the world of steampunk in the context of history and society in a way that will initiate a deeper appreciation of the genre. Her careful retelling of both well-known and obscure stories may even motivate further consumption of these works by the scientific reader.

I hope you will take a look at the rest of Kahler’s review!