The Steam Man of the Prairies

Loved this!!! Originally written in the 1860's this was science fiction and adventure writing at it's best! Written as Pulp fiction,dime novels these were originally called edisonades, books that encourage interest in invention and science. The young inventor in this book is a boy with dwarfism who in his solitude has created a mechanical man powered by steam - sort of an upright locomotive. A prospector and businessman hears of the boy's invention and convinces him to take the steam man out to the prairie to prospect for gold. They meet wild Indians along the way, scaring them out of their moccasins. They have all sorts of adventures. The novel is great fun and I hope Dodo Press plans to reprint more of these tales.
Good Clean fun!!!!!

“The Steam Man of the Prairies” eBook was published in 2016 (original paper edition was published in 1868) and was written by Edward S. Ellis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_S._Ellis). He authored more than 100 “Dime Novels”.

I categorize this novel as ‘PG’ because it contains scenes of Violence. The story is set in the frontier lands west of the Mississippi in the 1870s time frame. The primary character is Johnny Brainerd, a young inventor.

Brainerd builds a steam powered ‘man’ and is enticed by an acquaintance to accompany him west from St. Louis to seek out gold. They travel into the western territories constantly battling Indians along the way. Their goal is to meet up with colleagues already mining gold, finish the dig and then head back to civilization. The four encounter one challenge after another as they avoid death from the marauding Indians.

This was an interesting 2.5 hour read of 112 pages. You can definitely tell it was written nearly 150 years ago. It reminds me of the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs or the early Tom Swift books. It was a little hard to read due to the wording of the time. It had a good pace, always finding one problem after another to be overcome. The cover art is well chosen. I give this novella a 4 out of 5.

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This is an interesting and fun vintage science fiction. My Rating 4.0.

Young Johnny Brainerd started being a tinker almost as a toddler. Once bored with standard inventions, he jumps upon his mother’s suggestion to create a mechanical man. He hides it in his garage until one day a strange looking man gets a glimpse. Tracker, frontiersman, Baldy Bicknell, is immediately fascinated by the steam man. He assures Johnny that they can test it out on the prairies where it can be very useful to help another project that he is involved with. Baldy is working with two rough miners seeking gold! But the men have been under constant threat from Indian attacks. Perhaps the appearance of a huge steam man could scare the Indians.

This story was written in 1868 which I think makes it remarkable fun. The steampunk elements are presented with good, reliable detail. The author uses rough accents to convey personalities to the characters. They are not deeply developed but there is enough portrayal to make them interesting and real to the time period. The story is creative and has action with the running steam man and dangerous confrontations with the Indians. The writing is not precise and could have benefited from a good editing. Still this is a quick, fun read. I recommend it to steampunk fans and to those interested in sci fi literature history.