Review: Grease Monkeys: The Heart and Soul of Dieselpunk, edited by Danielle Ackley-McPhail and John L. French

I requested Grease Monkeys: The Heart and Soul of Dieselpunk from NetGalley on a whim, despite my towering TBR pile, firstly because of the great cover illustration (credited to Mike McPhail), secondly because because I like stories about keeping machinery and infrastructure going, thirdly because the title implied I'd be looking at stories about little folk instead of titans of industry, unlike a fair number of steampunk stories that focus on great inventors instead of having much "punk" flavor, and fourthly because an anthology is a low-commitment reading project -- if I didn't like a story, it wouldn't take much of my time. It turned out to be a quick read with several interesting stories and ideas. 

I hadn't heard of either of the editors, Danielle Ackley-McPhail or John L. French, and only a few of the authors sounded faintly familiar. The 12 stories are by the two editors and David Lee Summers, Aaron Rosenberg,  Heather E. Hutsell, Ken Schrader, Misty Massey, James Chambers, Derek Tyler Attico, Maria V. Snyder, and Bernie Mojzes. 

Summers' "The Falcon and the Goose" is about railroad mechanics vs. airship innovators in the U.S. Southwest. Rosenberg's "Nobody's Hero" is about a mechanic for a team of capes. French's "No Man's Land" is a grim story about an innovator during World War I trench warfare. Ackley-McPhail's "The Impossible Journey" is a grease monkey's coming-of-age story. Schrader's "Storm Spike" features airship warfare and sabotage. Massey's "My Mechanical Girl" is about a robot entertainer, espionage, and an unexpected guest. Hutsell's "On the Fly" is another coming-of-age story, about a farm mechanic thrilled to work on planes. Chambers' "The Maps of Our Scars" is about an aircraft competition with espionage and war machines in the wings. Attico's "The Harlem Hellfighters" is another trench warfare story, with mechas. Snyder's "Under Amber Skies" is about a girl who idolizes her absent inventor father but learns some unpleasant secrets. French's "The Return of the Diesel Kid" was about cops, crooks, capes, and a mechanic. Mojzes' "Hyena Brings Death" is about an angry eternal scavenger who wants to go to war with Heaven for allowing war to devastate the Earth. 

I really enjoyed "Nobody's Hero" and how "Lady Linkage" (the superhero team's mechanic) performed during some unexpected crises, and how her teammates and partner appreciated and supported her. "Storm Spike" was also vividly told fun. I was intrigued by "Under Amber Skies" and really liked a developing relationship in it, although Zosia's stern mother could have used more character development.  

But the story that interested me most was "Hyena Brings Death." The worldbuilding sketches felt appropriately mythic, while the cobbling together of war machines felt appropriately grounded (although Hyena's chimeric plane probably shouldn't be able to get off the ground without magic). I also really like how the British pilot she kidnapped came to believe in Hyena's cause, or at least in her, and she eventually sees him as a person rather than just an aide. I love her crazy goal too, although in this short story, we just see the beginning of her attack on Heaven, not how things turn out. It's a very rich and engaging story.

Grease Monkeys: The Heart and Soul of Dieselpunk is slated for publication on Sept. 1 from eSpec books, starting at just $3, or from Barnes&Noble currently on sale at $2.99 for the ebook or $15.95 for the paperback. I can recommend the ebook if you're in the mood to dip into some dieselpunk, but it's probably not worth the price of the paperback unless you're a collector -- and that cover really is appealing!

Diversity count: Only one or two of the authors appear to be BIPOC from their author photos that I found online, and only one protagonist was definitely Black. Despite the majority of authors having male-coded names, about half of the stories featured female protagonists.  Several stories featured same-sex or queer relationships. (There was also an apparent interspecies relationship.)

Content Warnings: War, violence, death, tangential implications of sex (none graphic).

Comparisons: The Mammoth Book of Dieselpunk (2015), which has 21 stories as opposed to this book's 12, including several well-known, award-winning authors.

Disclaimers:  ebook provided by NetGalley, with some expectation of a review in return.