FREE FICTION | A Shweta Narayan steampunk tale + ToC to Steampunk Reloaded

Shimmer has made an excerpt of Shweta Narayan's The Mechanical Aviary of Emperor Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar available free as an MP3.  This is notable for two reasons.  Firstly, this story has been selected to be part of the anthology Steampunk Reloaded edited by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer.  Secondly, I felt this was the best story in the The Clockwork Jungle Book (reviewed here) so I'd like more people to have a chance at.  Shimmer also has Vincent Pendergast reading his Otto's Elephant, which was also quite good. Both are very fine short stories even if you're not into Steampunk.

Jeff VanderMeer has also made public the contents of Steampunk Reloaded and the tentative cover, which will be released this November.  The VanderMeer's have outdone themselves with this one as it contains original stories, great reprints, and art. It looks even more enticing than their first take on the subject.

Original stories:

Ekaterina Sedia, “Two Short Excerpts from the Russian Book of the Improbable”
Jeffrey Ford, “Dr. Lash Remembers”
Matthew Cheney, “Confessions and Complaints of a True Man”
Ramsey Shehadeh, “The Unbecoming of Virgil Smythe”
Vilhelm Bergsoe, “Flying Fish (Prometheus)”, translated by Dwight R. Decker

As well as contributions by Fabio Fernandes, Brian Stableford, Jess Nevins, and the Steampunk heretic known only as “The Mecha-Ostrich.”

Original Non-fiction:

Gail Carriger, author of Soulless (fashion and fiction)
Jake Von Slatt of the Steampunk Workshop (maker movement)
Mike Perschon, the Steampunk Scholar (the future)

Reprints:
Daniel Abraham, “Balfour and Meriwether in the Adventure of the Emperor’s Vengeance”
Stephen Baxter, “The Unblinking Eye”
Winona Cookie, “The Unlikely Career of Portia Dreadnought,” “Artemesia’s Absinthe,” and “Obadiah Theremin, MD”
G.D. Falksen, “The Strange Case of Mr. Salad Monday”
William Gibson, “The Gernsback Continuum”
Samantha Henderson, “Wild Copper”
Caitlín R. Kiernan “The Steam Dancer (1896)”
Andrew Knighton, “The Cast-Iron Kid”
Marc Laidlaw, “Great Breakthroughs in Darkness”
Margo Lanagan, “Machine Maid”
Lisa Mantchev & James Grant, “As Recorded on Brass Cylinders: Adagio for Two Dancers”
Shweta Narayan, “The Mechanical Aviary of Emperor Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar”
David Erik Nelson, “The Bold Explorer in the Place Beyond”
Cherie Priest “Tanglefoot”
Chris Roberson, “O One”
Margaret Ronald, “A Serpent in the Gears”
Catherynne M. Valente, “The Anachronist’s Cookbook”


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