Carnal Machines by D.L. King

Carnal Machines Reviews

• 
  Lisabet Sarai

  This is a wry, delightfully naughty collection that blends the exotic technology and pseudo-Victorian manners of steam punk with red-hot erotic fantasy. In Teresa Noelle Roberts' "Human Powered" a female professor of "arcane engineering" from Wellesley College designs a mechanism to capture sexual energy in order to replace dirty, polluting coal - then tests it with the help of an old friend and colleague from MIT. "The Servant Question" by Janine Ashbless gives us domestic robots, Victorian-style, hand-crafted and subject to a wide range of useful - um - customizations. Elizabeth Schechter's dark, exquisite tale "The Succubus" presents an artifact with the intelligence and insight to not only satisfy a man's perverse desires, but to intuit what they might be. And I guess I should mention my own story "Her Own Devices", a battle of wits between the Chinese slave of a Hong Kong whoremaster and a renowned adventurer, inventor and rake. These were just the high points. Overall, the collection offers original, artful - dare I say steamy - tales, many with a hearty dose of humor. Recommended!
• 
  Nigia Stephens

  It was fun but not fabulous. The last story was a nice ending to the book and a touch spooky. I wish there was far more of that one and of about seven others. "Her Own Devices" rocked! I enjoyed it even though the last line stank. I'd love to have seen this one as the first story. "Lair of The Red Countess" was perfect! Both of these were worth the price of the book. Those stories felt like true Steampunk Erotica.
  I think if Carnal Machines had fewer stories of simple smut with devices thrown in and more of the sensual and mysterious kind of erotic story, it would have blasted this book to fab level reading for me. Yet, because of this, I'm considering finding all of Anne Rice's old erotic works starting with rereading "The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty" to see how they measure up to what I just read.
• 
  Erin O'Riordan

  What is it about the Victorian era that we modern readers/writers find so compelling? For me, some of its allure is that it wasn't so long ago that it seems inaccessible. Victorians lived essentially as we do, with more restrictive social customs and a less evolved understanding of technological possibilities. They had some knowledge of electricity, but homes were still lit with gaslights. They rode in horse-drawn carriages, wore crinolines and waistcoats and had to hold perfectly still for long stretches to be photographed. Still, the inkling that there were brave new worlds to be explored using technology inspired the great early speculative fiction writers, from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to H.G. Wells, and that newly uncovered mindset of being on the cusp of innovation seems to drive the steampunk writers of today.
  
  The writers in this collection are also inspired by Victorian society's collective sexual repression, a great reserve of innocence, shame and untapped energies that had yet to produce Sigmund Freud to explain it. The juxtaposition of innocence and experience, of caution and desire, of social mores versus human needs create most of the tension in these tales.
  
  Honestly, this isn't my favorite Cleis Press anthology. In any anthology, there are bound to be some short stories the reader responds to better than others. In the other 5-6 Cleis titles I've read, I've been delighted by almost everything. I actually thought a few of these stories were ho-hum. You wouldn't think a story about a steam-powered vibrator could be uninteresting, but once you read a few of them, you realize there are ways to write acceptable steampunk erotica, and then there are ways to write exceptional steampunk erotica.
  
  The opener, Teresa Noelle Roberts' "Human Powered," is a rousing start, with a sympathetic heroine and sex that arises organically from the story. "Mutiny on the Danika Blue" by Poe Von Page, the only story in the anthology that takes its characters into space, is a wonderful meditation on power play. "Deviant Devices" by Kannan Feng has a rather nice male-female dynamic as well. Lisabet Sarai's "Her Own Devices," with its Chinese setting, is one of the nicest, and most sensually detailed, of the bunch. The other bookend, Elizabeth Schechter's "The Succubus," closes nicely by flipping the typical point of view on its head.
  
  My true favorite is the collection's lone m/m piece, "Infernal Machine" by Elias A. St. James. Its begoggled tinkerer is Elijah Saloman, the son of a French rabbi. The young inventor's lover is Sasha, a Russian noble. At the exact moment Sasha is called away to perform the duties of his station, Elijah is entrapped by one of his machines, a helpless prisoner to exquisitely pleasurable mechanical torture. Pleasurable mechanical torture is the theme of many of these stories, but this one manages a certain stylish romance and charm among the clockwork and steam engines. It's like red velvet marred, or rather decorated, with Elijah's greasy thumbprints.
  
  If you enjoy this book, you will also like the novella 'Hysteria' by Rushmore Judd, which you can find on Smashwords.
  
  My husband thinks the woman on the cover looks like Lady Gaga.
• 
  Pelingül Uçar

  Dnf at 22%
• 
  BookAddict ✒ La Crimson Femme

  Steam powered sex toys, energy sources powered by sex, human like steam powered robots, what isn’t in this book? Carnal Machines is an anthology filled with steamy hot stories. Each story increases in intensity. The cleverly written short stories are all tightly woven to deliver the maximum pleasure in the minimum amount of pages. This allows for the reader to experience fourteen wonderful stories from different writers all in one sitting. The steampunk technology used in each story clearly shows the author understands the steampunk genre. These devices used in sexual ways will blow the minds off of many a reader.
  
  What is nice about this anthology is the mix of maledom and femdom. Not all the books were males dominating the proper and meek Victorian female. Several of the stories included a strong Domme perpetrating her wicked way on submissive males. Some of the stories are m/m or f/f which further enhances an erotic readers’ delight. For a reader who enjoys it all, this book is a winner. A few of the devices used in these stories showcased author creativity and ingenuity. A couple of the stories used device to harness sexual energy for power. It’s amusing to see how they diverge. One is to harness sexual frustration which is admittedly quite abundant. Another device sucks the sexual horny frenzy from young men. The added bonus of anal penetration for normally heterosexual men in this particular story heightens the smexy content.
  
  This book can be read in one sitting. Each story flows smoothly with vivid imagery. There is a greater chance for the book to take several readings because the material is so arousing, the reader will need to stop for a little “playtime relief” before continuing to the next story. The BDSM elements are romanticized in each story. The creative ways of bondage and sexual torment are lovingly depicted. The story which contains a very hot bondage scene features a chair which renders the seated person completely immobile and then proceeds to anally and orally violate with vigor. This story alone would a cause a reader to melt into a puddle of goo. There are thirteen more stories just as sizzling erotic.
  
  Even the locales in the stories are different. One in particular is located in the Far East. The scorching sexy reveal in the Orient is a lovely surprise. Every story is different. There is no repeat. The only tying motif is the steampunk theme. This is one of the best anthologies with every story a sultry winner. The anthology ends on a passionate note with an incredible room of perverted pleasure and gratification. It’s a den of iniquity which the reader will yearn to exist for a wicked visit. While the story indicates guests only visit once, this reader believes repeated appointments will be required to fully explore every deviant tool. This burning hot book is recommended for kinky readers who enjoy every facet of BDSM.
  
  
• 
  Vanessa Wu

  In this anthology there are two stories that include smart, sexy Chinese women, and I like it for that reason alone. There are 14 stories altogether, which is quite a generous number. It's surprising, then, that they are of a consistently high quality. I did skip one of the stories, I must admit, and I suppose if I were being a conscientious reviewer I'd say which one it was, but it was no big deal, I just didn't like it. It's an anthology. It's okay to skip around.
  
  Talking of skipping around, I first saw this as a paperback in a bookshop in Charing Cross Road and I nearly bought it but I was with a male friend and I didn't want him to feel threatened by my interest in sex machines.
  
  So I bought a Kindle version. I really wish I'd bought the paperback. An anthology like this shows up the weaknesses of the Kindle. I kept wanting to flick through and dip in and out and I really couldn't.
  
  The only author I'd heard of before I bought the book was Janine Ashbless. All the others were not only new to me but have really strange names like Elias A. St. James, Essemoh Teepee and Blue Poe Von Page. Unfortunately the Kindle version doesn't give the author's name with the story title in the table of contents, so this made it really hard to get familiar with their names and remember who had written what. To make matters worse, the author biographies at the back are in a different order from the stories and don't give the story titles.
  
  I had to write my own table of contents in the end, which is really geeky, isn't it? But I suppose someone who can do that would also appreciate a steam-powered anal probe, so you could say this book and I were made for each other.
  
  Like my review, this book should not be taken too seriously. But as a piece of fun, it's really very stylish indeed.
  
  I was pleasantly impressed by the imagination and the craftsmanship that went into the stories. One story impressed me particularly. It was Lair of the Red Countess by Kathleen Bradean. The writing has a sensuous surface texture and shadowy depths that really got my attention. It isn't perfect. It is a bit rough in places. But I like its roughness and I like the deft narrative shifts that delve into the backgrounds of both main characters and flesh them out for us. It's quite a complex little story for all its playfulness, and there is a lot of flesh, as it were, packed into a very tight space.
  
  But the other stories are also very well done and the theme of Carnal Machines is carried through them all with admirable panache. Now that I have my little home-made table of contents, I will definitely use it to look up some of the other writers on my list.
• 
  Pavarti Tyler

  I received a free copy of Carnal Machines while at the Book Expo America. No promise of a review was made, let alone a positive one.
  
  As many of you know, I'm hard on erotica (hehe, I said hard). I expect it to have some literary value in addition to titillation and I'm thrilled to say that Carnal Machines didn't let me down. It is of consistently high quality, which is rare in most anthologies, and follows the standard of the steampunk genre perfectly.
  
  If you aren't familiar with steampunk I'd recommend reading something more mainstream before delving into this collection of perversion. Not because this isn't a good sampling, but because these short tales jump right in to the world, assuming a certain familiarity with steampunk's particular take on the Victorian Era.
  
  From a Russian dominatrix with a penchant for domination and Tesla to devices designed to probe and exploit the baser desires of both men and women, Carnal Machines really has it all. A surprising amount of characterization and world building went into this collection and while each piece is by a different author, the through-line of style and quality connected the pieces enough that I enjoyed reading straight through.
  
  Carnal Machines is a must have for connoisseurs of erotica, both because of its quality but also because of the innovation within the pages. The idea of an entire book about sex toys/devices, let alone ones powered via Victorian technology is as thrilling for the mind as it is the loins.
• 
  soda

  A collection of short stories that are all some form of steampunk erotica. There were some stories I liked more than others, but I guess that's to be expected in a collection of anything. What I LOVED about this is that it wasn't all about female submission (in fact very little of it was). A collection of EQUALITY Steampunk Erotica!! :D
• 
  Rose Caraway

  This is the perfect anthology for anyone curious about the "Steampunk" genre. 14 very creative authors have come together to titillate us with delightful language and contraptions geared for carnal pleasures. Loved it!
• 
  Karmen

  Love steam punk and the erotica in this anthology is dead on.
• 
  Dana

  So Far from the sample i've read from the Barnes and Nobles this may def have some promise.
• 
  Steampunk Pagan

  I have read some of the comments here at Good Reads saying this is not Steampunk. I do not think that this is true or false. Carnal Machines is just what is wrong with this genre right now. As Cyber punk/goth, goth and punk became more popular everyone got in on the act and started calling their writings that in this case throw in a time frame some gears, cogs and an air ship or two and call it Steampunk then package it and try and make some money from it. In my mind that is what we have here.
  
  I did not find Carnal Machines even erotic nor Victorian in form or style and I do like both. I was not left with that forlorn dreamy state that erotica gives you nothing dreamy maybe sleepy yes. Outside of the first story in this book Human Powered by Teresa Noelle Roberts this was one of the most disappointing books I have read in a long time.
  
  You will have to judge for yourself if it meets your needs and taste but, I found Carnal Machines to be without style, class or taste. If I could have given it -Stars I would have done so with out a problem.
• 
  Ninja

  So the first story is definitely the weakest, and left me with low expectations for this steampunk collection. It's just clunky in its exposition. But the stories get better and better, and so there's a lot to like overall, even if it's pretty much just on a theme given that it's 'steampunk erotica'.
  Probably the two best stories were Her Own Devices by Lisabet Sarai, a story of a new Hong Kong brothel operated by an Englishman, and The Succubus by Elizabeth Schechter, a story of a brothel featuring 'the most complex of all the automatons'.
• 
  Salome Verdad

  Not all the stories were my sort of thing but it's a well put-together collection with a wide range of kinks and preferences. In a world where there isn't nearly enough steampunk erotica this is a little ray of sunshine.
• 
  Natasja

  Human Powered by Teresa Noelle Roberts
  A female professor is one of the first women in America to become a professor of arcane engineering. She has developed a device that uses the energy of the human body to power itself. A little help from her dear friend Dr. Benedict Lowell will make this device work, but who would have thought sexual fulfilment and pleasure is the key.
  
  The Servant Question by Janine Ashbless
  The Tulliver’s Mechanical Servants provides households of mechanic staff, the owner and designer is trying to meet his client’s wishes. But the demands of Mrs. Petherton for a new housemaid seem to be a little strange.
  
  Sleight of hand by Renee Michaels
  Cassandra Devore is an excellent thief and is about to do another job, so she can keep her family fed and housed. But she never could imagine the deal involving her husband and his “toys”.
  
  Mutiny on the Danika Blue by Poe von Page
  Jael is the leader of the mutiny on the Danika Blue and took the captain spot at once. He also declared Ailbhe, the only female on the ship to be his and his alone. But who is really the captain in their relationship?
  
  Deviant devices by Kannon Feng
  Prostitute Victoria DeClemens will be experiencing some new mechanical devices for the first time with a little help of Mercer. It will be a sexual experience she never will forget.
  
  The perfect girl by Jay Lawrence
  A professor visits Mrs. James brothel with most likely one of his students, but the lady who has been chosen by the professor will experience one of her strangest session she ever has. It seems this female student isn’t really what she appears to be.
  
  Dr. Mullaley’s cure by Delilah Devlin
  A nurse has just started her job at Dr. Mullaley office when she accidentally discovers what he actually practices. It appears a lot of women cannot find release and when their husbands won’t be able to assist, this doctor will. And nurse Percy is about to find out for herself what kind of devices this doctor uses.
  
  Her own devices by Lisabet Sarai
  Miss Chung has been sent by her master Wu to spy on Chris Burton. To learn why his brothel has been growing tremendously and Wu’s not. She is shocked to learn who Mr. Burton really is, but cannot explain the attraction.
  
  Lair of the Red Countess by Kathleen Bradean
  Archibald Fraser accidentally burst into the Spiritualist’s Club; not knowing this is actually a club, where Countess runs the place. She has just the right punishment for him.
  
  Infernal Machine by Elias A. St.James
  Elijah Moyse Salomann is an artificer and is repairing one of the Carstairs Machines, not really knowing if it will work. But his lover Aleksandr Koslov has faith in him. Elijah accidentally discovers what the chair is for and decides that he and his lover will definitely enjoy exploring it.
  
  Doctor Watson makes a house call by Essemoh Teepee
  Dr. Watson has acquired some toys from the late Lady Annabel and is quite known to demonstrate them to the ladies of the ton.
  
  The Treatment by D.L. King
  Miss Li has moved to England and has set up a treatment for young men, it seems that they have a huge amount of untapped energy that she wants to harvest. When the two friends Harold and Rufus walk thru her front door, she couldn’t image hitting the jackpot.
  
  Lucifer Einstein and the curious case of the carnal contraption by Tracey Shellito
  Luci has been ordered by her mother to come back home and find out why her friend refuse to marry. She discovers that a stranger is leaving wonderful devices behind for men and women to explore.
  
  The succubus by Elizabeth Schechter
  The House of the Sable Locks is famous among a small circle, you can find the pleasure of men, women or for a small amount of daredevils, the succubus. Nigel is about to find out how far this succubus is able to go.
  
  Carnal Machines Anthology has a theme...mechanical devices, some of them we might have heard of and some totally new. All the stories are set in the Victorian period, where women wore corsets, didn’t work and just took care of their men, or so it seems….
  
  I have to say those authors done an amazing job with these very short stories, some of them had me right from the first paragraph, and there were only three stories that I really have mixed feelings about. Maybe it’s because of the weird mechanical devices they use.
  
  This anthology is well-written and very entertainment. So if you are looking for some small hot sexual stories and don’t mind to read about the use of devices, then this is definitely the book for you.
  
• 
  'Nathan Burgoine

  I reviewed this for
  Erotica Revealed.
  
  To me, “steampunk” has always brought to mind Victorian idealism – and repression – blended with a lovely mix of H.G. Wells or Jules Verne. It’s often a tough combination to do well and adding erotica into the mix seems like it would be quite difficult.
  
  Happily, D. L. King gathered a group of authors up to the challenge. In the introduction, King describes this lovely contradiction of the Victorian culture – so incredibly wound up, so guarded and hidden between such lovely – and tight – clothing; and yet they give birth to some great erotica. Whether that’s despite or due to the Victorian culture of women’s hysteria and gentlemanly actions, the reality is those Victorians definitely had their thoughts about sex. Shall we add in steampunk creations and see where this takes us? Yes, please.
  
  
  The collection is aptly titled Carnal Machines. It would be easy to get lost in the devices of this ersatz era – they could so easily steal the show – but it is that the tales don’t do this that makes the collection shine. I’m a firm believer in the strength of narrative in erotica, and it’s obvious the authors in this anthology are cut from similar cloth. The devices are indeed carnal, but it’s the characters who take you there.
  
  
  Case in point, the opening story, “Human Powered.” Teresa Noelle Roberts gives us a woman inventor who believes she has found a way to store the power created by sexually frustrated women, but the device needs tweaking. Unfortunately, a woman of the times can’t go about discussing such matters, and so she brings it to the one man she feels she can trust – her late husband’s former engineering partner. The slow boil between the two characters – and our heroine’s desire – tells a story perfectly set in this time period, and has a wry smile to deliver at the end alongside the sex.
  
  
  “Sleight of Hand” by Renee Michaels, gives us a lady thief. Cassie is a character that’s wonderful to read, coming up against a style of lock that challenges her skill set, and leaves her at the clutches of a man she knows all too well – her husband. The uncovering of the reasons behind her fall to thievery and their broken marriage parallel his seduction of her with his clever inventions, and the end result is satisfying on both levels.
  
  
  I daresay my favourite of the collection was Tracey Shellito’s “Lucifer Einstein and the Curious Case of the Carnal Contraption.” Here we have a fantastic heroine in Lucifer and her silent sidekick, Earnshaw, who read as a kind of Holmes and Watson of a cheekier bent, and who come across a mystery in a series of devices designed to mete out pleasure for those most in the need – but who could be the one behind these gifts, and what could be the motive? This story was laugh-out-loud enjoyable for its banter, and the series of steampunk devices – each more tuned to the individual’s needs than the last – was teasingly delightful.
  
  
  The machines themselves, however, aren’t limited to steampunk dildoes – and here is where the cleverness of the authors D. L. King has collected is obvious. Kathleen Bradean’s “Lair of the Red Countess” leads a gentleman explorer to a device designed to bare his soul to the phenomenally wicked lady of the house. “Infernal Machine” by Elias A. St. James was somehow tender, funny, and sexy all at once, as a pair of young men try to figure out what a particularly complex chair-based machine might do. While Elijah worries that his Sasha might be leaving, he focuses his efforts on the confounding chair, to delightful – if unplanned – results. In “The Treatment” D. L. King gives us an ever so slightly darker story, where a woman has found a unique way to use the vigour of young men to her own ends, and the dialog here is witty and sharp. And in “The Succubus,” Elizabeth Schechter gives us a delicious voice – the device itself – which operates as an entire floor of a brothel and definitely yearns for company of the most erotic sort.
  
  
  I have nothing but admiration for how well the authors in this anthology carried off the theme. There’s no real sense of repetition – each story is a fresh taste – characters ranging from thieves to sky-ship captains and even Dr. Watson pays a visit; settings run the gamut as well, from trains to brothels to space; and the journey is a worthy one to take.
  D. L. King has gathered stories from a world I’d love to visit. If only I could find my ornithopter...
• 
  Campbell Mcaulay

  Carnal Machines is a collection of erotic short stories with a steampunk theme. If you don't know what steampunk is, imagine science fiction as it would be written by a Victorian author (e.g. Jules Verne); it's a growing genre of popular fiction. So, given that it's erotica and given the collection's title "Carnal Machines", you'll have a fairly decent (or indecent) idea as to what the machines are that the steam-power is powering. We are presented, therefore, by a veritable cornucopia (i.e. horn of plenty, wink wink) of clockwork, hydraulic or steam powered dildoes, designed to pleasure the orifices and protruberances of various Victorian ladies, dollymops and crinolined vixens and, in a couple of instances, the quivering nether regions of some Victorian gentlemen as well.
  
  This is my first foray into written erotica (well, if you discount Razzle's Readers' Letters; "There's this really good-looking bird what lives next-door to me. You'll never guess what happened the other day when I went round to help her fix her telly aerial...") and I'm not entirely sure why I bought it. Well... I suppose I DO know why I bought it, but that's another (short) story. I suppose I was a little disappointed by the lack of good plot and original characterisation, but then, video titles such as "Debbie Does Dallas" never had much need of such ornamentation either.
  
  I was never entirely convinced by the need for pr0n videos to flesh out (pun intended) the action with any sort of a story - you watch a mucky video for one reason and one reason only (or at least one reason, several times, if you had the stamina) and having to sit through five minutes of explanation as to why the lady needs her sump cleaning or her antenna adjusting before the real action starts only prolongs the agony. The same can be said of these short stories; the mini-plots are OK, but they seem a little superfluous, simple vehicles to transport you to the climax (as it were). I think what I'm trying to say is that let's do away with the half-hearted attempt at a plot and just get down to the sweaty humping. On the other hand, these stories are (I suspect) written for ladies and some sort of contextual overlay is a requisite for kindling the interest of the fairer sex (or so the latest issue of Ball Busting Beauties would have me believe), in which case I think there should be a little more effort put into the stories - a good, rip-roaring adventure WITH some mucky bits to spice it up.
  
  Yes I know. I'm often hard to please, but then at my age, I'm pleased to be occasionally hard.
  
  Ostensibly the stories are also /authored/ by women but, and please forgive my cyncicism, I have this strange feeling that they're quite probably male and I also wonder whether there may even be only one author (M or F) writing under multiple pseudonyms. I may be wrong, but that's just how they read to me.
  
  Having said all that, the stories are quite well written - better than your average Readers' Letter, that's for sure - and also (as one would expect) rather mucky. Not your Mills & Boon throbbing corsets and passionate kisses and "And so, dear reader, I married him!" naughtiness but inventive, engorged, well-lubricated, fully penetrative, machine-assisted shagging.
  
  No pictures though. I wish there were pictures.
• 
  Nikki "The Crazie Betty" V.

  This collection was only ok. There were a few stories I liked more than others and those will be the ones I touch on below. Unfortunately, a lot of this anthology felt more smutty that steampunk. Not that I mind smutty, but it's not what I was looking for given the collection is marketed as Steampunk Erotica. I expected more steampunk elements.
  
  Human Powered by Teresa Noelle Roberts: I enjoyed this story for the true steampunk elements to it along with the utilizing a person's sexual energy to power it. We could run the world off that kind of power!
  
  Dr. Mullaley’s Cure by Delilah Devlin: There were some definite coy elements to this story and I appreciated that. The Dr. is ever the gentleman through the story and I actually really liked dry and scientifically everything was approached.
  
  Infernal Machine by Elias A. St.James: This story actually had me laughing out load a couple of times. Just because circumstances and fate can be hell of a Bitch! Exasperated with not being able to figure out the purpose of a chair, the MC unwittingly brings it to life but not till after his lover has left and unwittingly leaves him to the carnal services of said chair. Only M/M story in the collection and I really liked it!
  
  Lucifer Einstein and the Curious Case of the Carnal Contraption by Tracey Shellito: This was my favorite story in the collection. I loved the kind of sordid aristocracy issues that were played around with and I love the idea of someone breaking into rooms to show the occupants pleasure but then leave them unhurt AND with the lovely contraptions they've come to enjoy. The ending was quite a delight as well.
  
  The Succubus by Elizabeth Schechter: This story made me kind of sad and melancholy. It was a great read with some good sex in it but the poor Succubus made my heart hurt for her. I finished reading the story hoping that she would finally find someone that could give her what she needed.
  
  All in all a well done anthology but not with as many steampunk elements as I would've liked. However, the few stories that I really liked in this anthology made it worth the read but maybe not necessary worth the price.
• 
  Marcus

  Steampunk Erotica is a part of Steampunk fiction I have thus far only encountered on the website SteamyPunk. I did not really enjoy what I read there back then, when the site was pointed out to me.
  Than I heard of Carnal Machines and purchased a copy.
  
  The collection starts strong. Teresa Noelle Roberts Human Powered is quite a clever little tale. It is steampunk, it is lightly erotic and there is some chemistry between the characters. Quite enjoyable. It is also the only one I consider truely steampunk among the lot. Most of the others have a token steampunk element, mostly steam- or clockwork powered sex toys, but nothing else.
  
  I do not think a porn tale with a clockwork device is steampunk erotica. As I said, the collection starts strong, after that, things get worse. Most of the other tales are hardly erotic, not steampunk at all and some are not even fun to read. Sleight of Hand is actually entertaining and not too blunt in its description of procreational action and Deviant Devices is the collections best story. A genuinely enjoyable and very erotic story. The characters actually bond.
  
  On the other side of the scale are The Servant Question, a rather slapsticky tale, full of topic-related nouns, verbs and adjectives and Mutiny on the Danika Blue is torture read, blunt and if I would not know better, I would say it was written by a masochistic male teenager. The language is just crude, painfully crude and blunt.
  
  The others are nice and entertaining reads, a bit odd sometimes but they all fail being effective, beautiful and enjoyable where it counts in context of this collection.
  
  So overall, Carnal Machines does not deliver what it promises.
• 
  Jane Emery

  So I like steampunk and erotica so this was a almost a must. I saw somewhere that said steampunk is already erotic, and i can agree with that. This was a bunch of good stories about sex but I will have to say the invention that takes your sexual frustration and turns it into energy. That cracked me up, if we only had such a device then we could power the world and more with all the sexual frustration in America alone. The only part that I felt was wrong was that invention is the true deal of Steampunk-it is actually steam that makes inventions work that's where the word steam comes in in the word Steampunk, but for the stories in this book I can forgive it I mean an electrical device supplied by sexual frustrations, I love how they just tweaked things to still fit the over all story. Had a lot of fun reading this one.
• 
  Aaron

  Nearly all of these short stories do a good job of being steampunk w/out falling on the goggle/corset sword of shallow fashion "it's steampunk 'cause there's goggles'" trope that so many mainstream novels do.
  
  That said, the stories are well written, but there's really only two types of stories in this book: mechanized vibrators and not mechanized vibrators. I would have liked to see a larger variety of plots.
  
  Overall, fun read and good steampunk.
• 
  melissa

  While generally not a fan of anthologies or steampunk, I quite enjoyed this book. There was only 1 story that was just "meh", the rest were surprisingly good. I don't think anyone will be able to look at Jude Law in the Sherlock movies without blushing after reading Doctor Watson Makes a House Call.
• 
  Michael

  Mildly to moderately interesting steampunk-type scenarios begin to develop, and then degenerate into characters having moistly but not especially imaginatively described sexual encounters. I suppose that's what erotica mostly IS, but as such it doesn't seem terribly erotic, or interesting.
• 
  David Schwan

  Many of the stories carry a consistent theme. One that surprisingly is authentic to a book of steampunk stories. As steampunk literature this was about average. as erotica about average. The stories with Chinese ladies in them were some of the better stories.
• 
  Lilla

  review to come
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  Kyle Wendy Skultety (gimmethatbook.com)

  Short stories with both steampunk and erotica elements. Started off really well, slowed down towards the last few stories...but a great idea to read a story before going to bed each night ;)
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  Lexie

  You had me at sex and steampunk. This little book is filled with lots of short stories, they all aimed to please. Perfect for the kinksters out there.