Just got my Steampunk Tarot yesterday, after a lot of dithering and finally deciding that I have liked steampunk (or the things it derives from) all my life, dammit, so I'm bound to like this deck for longer than a week.
First impressions:
- Love it! Even though steampunk is (to quote the book) 'what happens when goths discover brown' I really appreciate the splashes of colour amidst all the muted brownish jewel tones. I'm a great fan of muted brownish jewel tones in general, so the cards feel colourful without being garish.
- Cardstock: On the thin side, warps easily (already the deck is a bit warped - the post hadn't been gentle with it. I hope it unwarps just as easily), and because the cards are a tad big for my hands I sometimes bend them while shuffling overhand if there are only a few cards left in my hand. Hope this won't pose a problem later on. I do like how it shuffles - not sticky at all and very little tendency for clumps of cards to stay together.
- Reading & symbolism: I like how the meanings of the cards are traditional but the images aren't always. There's just enough detail and symbolism on the cards for me to read a lot into them, but not so much that I get overwhelmed or feel I need to learn the Big Book of Golden Dawn symbolism by heart to even begin to understand it. Reads like a dream.
- People: Yeah, the women are way too young and pretty. Even the 5 of pents people look well-dressed, well-fed, well-made-up and well-coiffed. Poor 2 of swords girl has legs that look like stilts. Everyone's too wealthy and healthy. And everyone is a very pale shade of WHITE. Steampunk, for me, is a genre in which more diversity would very naturally fit - steam engines unlocked global trade and emigration in a major way (and steampunk definitely emphasizes that focus on exploration and travel with its zeppelins and huge airships), the Victorian era is one in which 'the sun never sets on the British Empire' (so there are people from India, China, Africa, etc), huge class differences arose and what with the beginning of factories and assembly lines and guns and airplanes you got a LOT of people who lost fingers and arms to machinery. And, as a literary genre, steampunk (like cyberpunk) often focuses on the ugly hidden underbelly of society, not the suave upper class. Of course, steampunk as a fashion trends is all about the corsets and the frock coats and the wealth, and less about the grit, so I get where that came from. But even with these drawbacks, this deck makes my heart go pitter-patter.
- Book! Love the book. As an occasional card gamer, I like the flavor texts and really enjoyed the court cards chapter. I also like that there's a bigger, black&white picture of all the cards in the book - more detail, different perspectives because of the colour. Raring to try out the 'differnce engine' spread. Drawback: I disagree with her on 'how the tarot cards work' so that's not a chapter I'm likely to re-read, although I liked the advice in it. Drawback 2: The book cover warps easily as well, and I'm very gentle on my books. Maybe it's the weird hot and sticky weather of the past day.
