Aladdin and His Wonderfully Infernal Device [Kindle Edition]

Tee Morris (Author), Philippa Ballantine (Editor), Pip Ballantine (Editor)

Book Description

From the imagination behind the award-winning Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences series comes a steampunk novella to a legend from A Thousand and One Arabian Nights.

Aladdin is a street-wise thief that finds himself under the tutelage of a world-renown illusionist. He is escorted deep into the deserts in search of a treasure beyond his wildest dreams, and discovers instead something far more valuable—a destiny.

Product Details

• File Size: 187 KB
• Print Length: 40 pages
• Publisher: ImagineThat! Studios (February 19, 2012)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B007BEGGAQ
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #120,640 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic story in a steampunk world February 24, 2012

By J. Tollerton

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Generally, I'm not a fan of new updates to classic tales, but this again proves that it's not the tale that makes it worth it, it's the one that tells it. Generally these mashups put a thin veneer of updates on a strong original story, but this takes a relatively weak existing plot and turns it into something wonderful. It's also refreshing to see steampunk that's not set in England. There is a whole other world that was in existence during the rein of Victoria, after all.

This is highly recommended for any who like steampunk, any who like strong characters and rich scenes, and any fans of Tee's other works.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Retelling a Classic With a Fresh Genre March 15, 2012

By Justin Diehl

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Certain stories have the ability to slip off their old dresses and put on a new genre. It helps if they're related, if the core story can be extracted without beheading the center of what makes the story work. Tee manages to do this with a retelling of one of the classic tales from The Book of One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights), Aladdin, in his short story Aladdin and His Wonderfully Infernal Device.

I've been a fan of Tee's since listening to Billibub Baddings and the Case of the Singing Sword, and I was glad to make last year's Pheonix Rising the first steampunk novel I've read. Aladdin and His Wonderfully Infernal Device continues Tee's work into steampunk and weird tech of an age that never was. It's a wonderful retelling of the Aladdin story, slipping in steam tech in replacement of much of the magic from the story.

Despite this, the story doesn't lose any sense of wonder or the mystical nature of the hunt for the lamp. This isn't to say there isn't magic. Avoiding spoilers, but there is a certain level of high tech that crosses the border into magic to the Victorian area perspective we've read into. In another story, this would be jarring, perhaps even story breaking, but we're familiar with the ultimate cosmic power of the genie of the lamp. When the construct of the lamp has great transformative and manipulative powers we accept it and keep moving on with the story.

The story does have a sense of the Disney Aladdin feel, and that may be because of the section of the Aladdin story covered. It could easily have continued on through the story, using a modified personal rotocopter for two for a night time flight, the return of the evil magician, etc. Instead it ends at a good point before it gets too long of mimicking the original piece. There's enough of the original there to recognize but it's not a word for word scene for scene copy with added steampunk. It stands on it's own, and because of that mixed with the fun of the story it comes of as a good piece.

I recommend this short story on the grounds as a good introduction to non-London based steampunk. Steampunk is an ever growing sub-genre, but often too much of it takes place in one great city. Seeing works like this stretching the walls of what is steampunk will lead to the growth the theme needs. If you do end up enjoying this piece, I highly recommend you check out Tee's book Pheonix Rising, co-authored with his wife Philippa Ballitine, which I previously reviewed. Both are good introductions to steampunk, and combined with the tales of the ministry short story collection make for fantastic examples of the steampunk setting.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Forget what you know, Enjoy what you get April 5, 2012

By Joseph P.

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Growing up in the Disney Generation, that group of 20 to 30 year olds who were soothed by parents poping the household collection of Disney VHS into the VCR on a daily basis, I find myself always expecting something more. Even the true tales (Not Disney versions but the original writing) of classics like Beauty and the Beast, the Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Etc don't seem to hold up to what I use to consider the standard set by Disney.

I read Morris' Aladdin and His Wonderfully Infernal Device a second time just to take it in again and hopefully as it's own story to best give this work a review of itself not as a comparison to another. This tale is amazing steampunk and a great story by itself. Giles is a character that I would wish to see again in a truly original setting. I wish Morris had chosen to give this tale more time and push it out of the novella range. In short, this is a tale I was happy to buy and I would definately purchase the next steampunk fairy tale Morris chooses to write.

My reasoning for a 4 star rating is the high number of grammatical and formatting errors.

More About the Author

Tee Morris began his writing career with his 2002 historical epic fantasy, MOREVI The Chronicles of Rafe & Askana. Tee then released in 2004 The Case of The Singing Sword: A Billibub Baddings Mystery which was earned him honors from ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year Awards. It was in 2005 when his idea -- podcasting a novel -- established him as a pioneer in the Social Media movement, becoming the first author to podcast a book in its entirety. That experience led to the founding of Podiobooks.com (with Evo Terra and Chris Miller), the premier site for podcast literature.

Tee took his collaboration with Evo Terra to print in Podcasting for Dummies (featuring Chuck Tomasi in the Second Edition), and penned other social media titles including All a Twitter (Que Publishing) and Sams Teach Yourself Twitter in 10 Minutes (Pearson Education). Other non-fiction titles Tee has contributed to include BenBella Books's Farscape Forever: Sex, Drugs, and Killer Muppets, the Complete Guide to Writing fantasy series from Dragon Moon Press, and BenBella Books' So Say We All: Collected Thoughts and Opinions of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.

In 2011 Tee Morris returned to his first love -- fiction -- alongside his wife, Pip Ballantine, with Phoenix Rising: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel (Harper Voyager). This title went on to win the 2011 Airship Award for Best Steampunk Literature, and was a finalist (the only steampunk to make the final round in any category) for Goodread's Choice Awards under Best Science Fiction of 2011. He can still be heard podcasting short fiction with Tales from the Archives, and alongside Pip on The Shared Desk at theshareddesk.com.

Find out more about his work at teemorris.com and ministryofpeculiaroccurrences.com.