The stories in this collection merge technological wonder with the everyday. Children upgrade their fighting spiders with armor, and toymakers create punchcard-driven marionettes. Large fish lumber across the skies, while boat people find a new home on the edge of a different dimension. Technology and tradition meld as the people adapt to the changing forces of their world.  The Sea Is Ours  is an exciting new anthology that features stories infused with the spirits of Southeast Asia’s diverse peoples, legends, and geography. Jaymee Goh is a writer, editor, reviewer, blogger, and academic of science fiction, fantasy, and steampunk. She is the author of the steampunk blog  Silver Goggles  and has written steampunk-related nonfiction in  The WisCon Chronicles  and  Steampunk III: Steampunk Revolution .    Joyce Chng writes science fiction, steampunk, and urban fantasy, and her fiction has been published in publications including  Crossed Genres , the  Apex Book of World SF II , and  The Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic . She coedited  The Ayam Curtain , a Singaporean anthology of SFF micro fiction, and she blogs at  A Wolf’s Tale . "The standouts are the three central pieces: Kate Osias’s 'The Unmaking of the Cuadro Amoroso,' in which an enclave of prodigies takes revenge on imperial war machines; Olivia Ho’s 'Working Woman,' reexamining Frankenstein’s monster amid the multicultural power brokers of Singapore; and Robert Liow’s 'Spider Here,' a hard-SF adventure with a suicide bomber, illegal fights, and a disabled schoolgirl protagonist. Even the slighter stories have the craft, perspective, and components that merit savoring, and the finest would be worth considering for any year’s best anthology."  — Publishers Weekly (STARRED REVIEW) Jaymee Goh is a writer, editor, reviewer, blogger, and academic of science fiction, fantasy, and steampunk. She is the author of the steampunk blog Silver Goggles and has written steampunk-related nonfiction in The WisCon Chronicles and Steampunk III: Steampunk Revolution . She lives in Riverside, California. Joyce Chng writes science fiction, steampunk, and urban fantasy, and her fiction has been published in publications including Crossed Genres , the Apex Book of World SF II , and The Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic . She coedited The Ayam Curtain , a Singaporean anthology of SFF micro fiction, and she blogs at A Wolf’s Tale . The SEA is Ours Tales of Steampunk Southeast Asia By Jaymee Goh, Joyce Chng Rosarium Publishing Copyright © 2015 Rosarium Publishing All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-4956-0756-1 Contents Introduction, Timothy Dimacali On the Consequence of Sound Illustration by Shelley Low, Marilag Angway Chasing Volcanoes Illustration by Pear Nuallak, L. L. Hill Ordained Illustration by Pear Nuallak, Alessa Hinlo The Last Aswang Illustration by Trung Le, Nghi Vo Life Under Glass Illustration by Kim Miranda, Paolo Chikiamco Between Severed Souls Illustration by Borg Sinaban, Kate Osias The Unmaking of the Cuadro Amoroso Illustration by Trung Le, Olivia Ho Working Woman Illustration by Stephani Soejono, Robert Liow Spider Here Illustration by Pear Nuallak, z.m. quynh The Chamber of Souls Illustration by Borg Sinaban, Ivanna Mendels Petrified Illustration by Wina Oktavia, Pear Nuallak The Insects and Women Sing Together Illustration by Kim Miranda, About the Authors, About the Editors, CHAPTER 1 On the Consequence of Sound Timothy Dimacali ... and then there is the legend of the Bakunawa, first of all the sky whales. The Tagalog songs tell of a majestic beast as black as night, with scales that shimmered in the dark like stars, so big it could swallow the very moon itself. Most Tagalogs believe that when Bathala created the world, he made seven moons of the purest bathalani to hold up the sky. So captivated was the Bakunawa, it is said, that it rose up and consumed all of them but one. Some legends, however, take this instead to be true: that there was always but one moon; that the Bakunawa, as a creature of the sky, was a wise messenger sent by Bathala himself; and that it brought down from the heavens a piece of the solitary moon, which we know today as the floating island of Mount Taal. — Damiana Eugenio, "Philippine Folk Literature: The Legends," 1993 * * * The butanding is a curious creature, especially for a little girl who knew nothing about life outside the Walls. I thought it was just a kite dancing in the wind, floating languidly on the morning breeze. I think now that it must have been just a small juvenile, perhaps no more than 300 varas in length, but it was far bigger than any kite or bird I had ever seen before. The blue-gray skin on its catfish-like body glistened in the morning sun as it glided calmly about, its fins catching on the wind as it swam. The lone calf had probably lost its way from its herd and somehow wandered into the skies above the city. The people below didn't s