I would have given it one star, but The Hollow Hounds; The Mechanical Wings; and, to a lesser extent, Fair Vasyl were actually good stories (and based on some of my favorite fairy tales). Most of the stories were predictable, and poorly thought out. Most were somewhat racist, many did not actually have anything to do with clockwork, a couple were not actually retellings of the fairy tales that "inspired" them, and one featured the main character lusting after and bathing nude with a girl who is cannoncally a child. Gross. I do not recommend this book ( )

I think this anthology is definitely worth a read, more good than bad. With anthologies I usually just post my notes from each story (and my rating on a 10-point scale) and they usually have spoilers to remind me of what he story was about. So beware: SPOILERS

K.W. Jeter - La Valse (7.0) Rich people are a-holes and they die horribly in the clockwork dance machine - just like they should.

Jay Lake - You Will Attend Until Beauty Awakens (7.0) Liked the writing, setting and characters but the ending wasn't really a surprise. Also not sure why everyone in the castle fell asleep instead of just her.

Kat Richardsons - The Hollow Hounds (7.5) This was fun with all the mechanical contraptions. I still don't understand where the music box originally came from. Liked the period and the scar where he had to wind himself up.

Paul Di Filippo - The King of the Golden Mountain (8.0) Great writing, cool idea. Invention puts souls into other bodies. Takes over Ulysses Grant to become president.

G.K. Hayes - The Clockwork Suit (6.0) Good story but the ending is pretty lame. No big surprise and not much closure.

Gregory Nicoll - The Steampiper, the Stovepiper, and the Pied Piper of New Hamelin, Texas (6.5) This works as a pulpy adventure story but the ending is kind of disturbing just to make a joke. The girl needed to be older.

Pip Ballantine - The Mechanical Wings (8.0) Cool floating cities, "countries" named after birds, cool magic/clockwork mix. Very fairy tale feel but not too lite.

Nancy A. Collins - Mose and the Automatic Fireman (7.0) Very cool setting. He's basically a superhero and a legend. Fun.

Steven Harper - Fair Vasyl (6.0) Not bad but seemed kinda light. Steampunk elements seemed kinda forced. Broom was too powerful solved all problems. ( )

Our Review, by LITERAL ADDICTION's GuestvReviewer - Michelle M:
*ARC received from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review

This book is a collection of Steampunk Fables based on fairy tales. These stories take you back to a time long ago but with a twist. I loved them. My favorite would be You Will Attend Until Beauty Awakens. This one is based on Sleeping Beauty and I just loved the story. Each of the Fables in this book stick to your mind and you will always remember them and I love that about a book that I read. So many times you can forget what the books were about but this one will always stick.

The technology in these makes a person like me, 'a tech nerd', happy and learning about Steampunk was a great experience for me. You had gears, laboratories, mechanical dogs and treasure. You get a little and a lot all at the same time. Short stories but great on detail and Steampunk goodness. This was my first book on Steampunk and I will definitely be checking out more of this genre now that I got to get into the worlds in each of these Fables.

LITERAL ADDICTION's Guest Reviewergives Clockwork Fairy Tales 4 Skulls. ( )