Carnal Machines - erotic fiction by Cleis Press Inc. - review by KrissyNovacaine

This is an anthology with multiple authors. Each author has a very different style and set of interests. As the "About the Authors" section informs me, most of them are award winning authors. There are 15 stories in this collection with 15 unique authors. Some authors' pieces were more engaging for me than others, but I think that was more a taste issue than a difference in talent.

This book has 199 pages of erotica after the author and editor bios and the introduction. As I mentioned before, there are 15 authors and they are all very different.

Each author has a very different style and approach to steampunk. In some ways I suppose this could be a perk, but for me it was distracting. I would move from one story to the next and encounter a kink that I am not into, and then there goes my arousal. I would finish a hot story only to move on to a pretty boring one for me. The writing wasn't the problem, it was the varied kinks written about.

A fair number of the stories in this piece are queer friendly, including a full on gay male scene. Most of them are hetero, but a lot of them have bdsm overtones.

The thing that each of these stories has in common is a steampunk overtone that requires some kind of device or machine. Which, now that I think about it, is a strong point as many erotica anthologies I have read, do not stick with the theme.

I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the paperback I received. The covers are stiff and resilient. The pages are printed very nicely.

The book is not in anyway discreet, but honestly I don't think it could be with this title. Other than the title it is discreet, but with Carnal all over it, it looses the ability to blend in.

Others may have better luck with this book, but for me it just didn't do that much for me.

I firmly believe that this book will be perfect for some people. It just wasn't my speed.

I purchased this book because I love erotica, especially fantasy. I figured that, while steampunk isn't totally my thing, I would enjoy this book because of the level of fantasy involved.

In reality, I had a hard time getting into this book. The stories I really liked seemed to end abruptly and the ones I didn't had way too many details for me.

I never knew if I would have a steamy bdsm scene or some kind of bizarre contraption that was over explained. I feel like this book could have been better edited to have a better flow. It seemed very disconnected and awkward.