Dieselpunk ePulp Showcase

I stumbled onto this anthology by happy accident. The four adventures in this tome cover what is a Dantesque reading of the genre of Dieselpunk. Each story will get its own section here. I also know that The Divine Comedy only has three parts, but let me explain this as I go. 1) That Sort of World -- A good solid introduction to the world of dieselpunk fiction. It all begins and ends with a hat or lack of one. A story builds up around this premise that embodies the essence of what the future holds. This would be the outside of the world, before moving into the Inferno, a land of guns and philosophy. 2) Pandora Driver -- The momentum continues as Pandora Driver motors into a city run by crime lords that is attacking the average Joe. It weaves between the past and present, revealing the noises and sparks of the super heroine and the Fate of the ones she conquers. There is even a reference to the Inferno at the end of this one, keep your eyes peeled! This one is all action, action, action, kids! 3) The Troubleshooter -- The Purgatory of the Showcase, The Troubleshooter, storms about town with a mix of cleverness and noir. This is where my favorite line, "Serious as a sin sandwich" is from, but there are many other lines I enjoy. It features Elvira, as a non-typical moll, which I liked, and it seamlessly brings in a dollop of sci-fi to the party. 4) The World of Mañana -- At last, we get to Paradise, or so we think. Even I, at the mere mention of the word "parrotpunk" wanted to sigh. This is no Cheeseburger in Paradise, my friends. No hearty Casablanca. This is a world of spirits and eating of the God's Eye. I valued this one as taking Dieselpunk into a native spiritual realm. Overall, these stories blended well. A few had old-timey type adverts that appealed to my serial side. Two of them had logos as well, making me want to seek out the origin books. It is a great place to start if you are curious about Dieselpunk fiction.

The Diesel Punk e-Book showcase is a fantastical collection of four stories rooted in the gritty reality of the pulp tradition. Drawing inspiration from the hard-boiled suspense tales of that era, these sagas mix a retro flavor with depictions of dystopian societies mirroring our own turbulent present. As art imitates life, and as history repeats itself, so does pulp rise again to titillate our darker natures with graphic depictions of vice and graft, not from the dime novels of yesteryear, but from the depths of the internet. In the first offering in the showcase, "Tales of the Aether Age", the USA has disintegrated into rival factions, the Union is broken, Prohibition is fueling gangsterism, and wise guys everywhere are looking to score. Jaded and world-weary, but looking to make a name for themselves, two crooks take on a big job. They are guarded street toughs, and constantly challenged to think three steps ahead of the game to sift through the layered hierarchies of allegiances and machinations of power. "Pandora Driver" harkens back to a pre-WW2 America populated by colorful immigrants chasing the American dream. One unlucky shopkeep draws the attention of a ruthless gangster looking to muscle his way into some prime real-estate, only to draw the ire of a idealistic vigilante bent on protecting the powerless from exploitation. With her strange car, stunning physical prowess and commitment to dispensing street justice as she sees fit, Pandora Driver is a pulp heroine with a dark side of her own. The waters of justice are further muddied in the third offering, "The Troubleshooter". Neo-feudalism produces a brand of slippery characters known as "Troubleshooters" after the disintegration of society in a great Cataclysm. Operating outside the law, the torch from one to the next is about to be passed, but not without some twists and ambiguity. Gritty noir and futuristic technology drive the tale of Mick Trubble through this tale of shaky allegiances and pliable morality. In the "World of Manana" stark power play and spiritual psychedelics are just part of the amalgam of swirling archetypes and juxtaposed cultural constructs. Part Aurthurian grandeur, part Castenadian psycho-spiritual intrigue, this genre bending tale pans the landscape of human experience. Yearning for a purpose higher than himself, a young man searches for his place in dystopia. From the subjectivity of family to the intertwined yin-yang of good and evil, "Manana" has something to scratch every pulp itch.

This e-pulp re-imagines the popular pulp anthologies of the 1930 and 1940s like Black Mask, Dime Detective, Detective Story, Famous Fantastic Mysteries, or even Argosy. It updates the genre for a modern audience but still delivers the goods for people who enjoy the past. There is a complex subtext in this diverse collection of tales. They are clever, compelling, socially relevant, atmospheric and nostalgic. In the 1st story we sneak around an alternative take on a Chicago of the 1920s. It's a town under siege where a happy go lucky revolutionary and a renegade try and eek out an enjoyable existence while dodging spotlights cast into the underground. In the 2nd is a pedal-to-metal race back to the 1940s with Pandora Driver. She continues to speak truth to power as she steps into a David vs Goliath style of class war clash for control of the streets of Citadel City. This tale is all action from start to finish. 3rd is post-apocalyptic detective mystery from the future where an amnesiac and his sage struggle to discover a man's identity. It's bullets, booze and broads woven in the language and atmosphere of the hardboiled detective tale. The 4th is a retro-future tale in which natives outmaneuver aristocrats in a colonial island city. It's a game of sabotage where spiritualism tangles with a mechanized society in a fight to the finish. There is a common antiauthoritarian, antiestablishment thread woven throughout these four tales that iconoclasts and independent thinkers may enjoy. If you are a fan of Boardwalk Empire, The Dark Knight, Bladerunner, or Tarzan in the big city types of tales, there is something in this e-pulp for you.

From the first trench coat pocket packed with dynamite, to the last draw off a spent gasper, this ePulp collection cuts a wide, interesting swath across the Dieselpunk genre: 'That Sort of World' wanders the dirty back alleys of prohibition Chicago like a Tarantino nod to the Mobster genre, while 'Pandora Driver' cracks heads as a gas-powered, Frank Miller-penned, New Deal avenging angel. 'The Wise Man Says' channels Raymond Chandler through a high-tech, heist filter, as 'A Friend of Spirits' falls like a sunset over Hemingway's pre-Castro Cuba. This ePulp Showcase goes a long way to demonstrating the solid thematic foundations of the dieselpunk genre and raises the bar for the sub-sub-genre at least a few notches closer to the mainstream.