Steampunk! (Books and such)

[Pike]

Okay, we all know that steampunk has turned into goths-wearing-brown and terrible things on Etsy but it began life as a pretty fantastic literary genre. Let's talk about it!

For those who don't know, steampunk is "Victorian science fiction", and covers both actual scifi from the Victorian era, and the more modern alternate universe stuff which sprouts from "what if?" questions.

Steampunk-Before-Steampunk-Existed:

Jules Verne and H.G. Wells are the quintessential authors here. For Jules Verne, I'm a big ol' fan of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, but your mileage may vary because Verne likes to go on and on for pages about technical details or describing some random shell on the seafloor, so that may or may not be your thing.

Wells is easier to read and is, of course, full of classics: The Time Machine, War of the Worlds, and my personal favorite of his, The Island of Dr. Moreau. His books tend to be short and you can easily read them in one sitting, and they are absolutely worth it.

The Birth of Steampunk:

Steampunk as a modern genre really started with The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. It's cyberpunk but set in the 1800s, hence the tongue-in-cheek name steampunk. What if Babbage and Lovelace had actually built that mechanical computer that they came up with back in the 1850s? Victorian alternate history at its finest.

There are other books that started to show up around this time period such as the Narbondo trilogy by James Blaylock, but I haven't read those!

Modern-day Steampunk:

Steampunk has really become ubiquitous as of late, showing up as settings for books, movies, games, music, et al and spawning a DIY movement (think: "steampunking" your computer), as well as the obligatory goth-inspired fashion which involves goggles and brass laser guns and such. There is a tendency for people to throw a bunch of steam-powered machines and cogs and goggles and something and call it steampunk. I prefer to stick with tradition and keep it, well, "Victorian science fiction"!

There are supposedly a couple of gems around such as the Leviathan trilogy; I haven't read them, though! I prefer to stick with the classics, myself.

NOTE: "Steampunk" generally refers to the Victorian/Edwardian era which goes up to about World War I or so. Then you get into dieselpunk. Which is also great.

[Jinx]

Wow! I'm surprised. I really never realized Steampunk had been around that long. I've only heard of it in the last 3 or 4 years or so. Of course I've heard of the books you've listed, but I had no idea they were Steampunk.

[Mirage]

Can't we all just call it techpunk instead of dividing it up into steam/diesel/cyber/bieberpunk?


I prefer cyberpunk, though, but I can enjoy steampunkstuff too.

Come to think of it, the game Resonance of Fate might be a tiny bit steam (or maybe diesel, lol!) punk, although some elements in the game are pretty modern. It is in a sort of post apocalyptic world in the future, where the remaining human beings are living inside a giant mechanical tower which functions as a power source for everything they do, as well as purify the air around them so they don't all die from cancer. They have electricity and stuff, but they generally get it by utilizing the mechanical energy from the tower they live in to set up smaller, local electricity generators.

But that doesn't really belong in the longue, cause it's a game!

[Shorty]

Everyone should watch this and aside from the general feel and story that I would love to know more about, I absolutely love the animation.

I've been meaning to read The Island of Doctor Moreau, but I had no idea it was steampunky! I picked up a copy of Boneshaker a little while ago because it won the Hugo award but also have not read it yet.

[Miriel]

The Golden Compass is my fav steampunk novel.

I love the steampunk aesthetic. So sooo pretty.

[Jinx]

The Golden Compass is my fav steampunk novel.

I love the steampunk aesthetic. So sooo pretty.

Would that be considered steampunk????

Not being snarky, seriously just wondering!

[The Man]

China Miéville's Bas-Lag trilogy could probably be considered steampunk, even though it's set in a fantasy setting. The main town, Bas-Lag, is pretty clearly based on Victorian London though, like almost everything Miéville writes.

Apart from that I haven't really explored the genre nearly as much as I should (unless Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy counts). Will probably be taking recommendations from this thrad

[krissy]

i loved his dark materials
but i think that's more fantasy than anything

im about to start on perdido street station eventually in a few months

and my bro loves the leviathan trilogy

i also want to read some cherie priest, boneshaker etc.

[Jinx]

hey hey hey i know a great steampunk writer

her name is pike johnson :3

[Miriel]

The Golden Compass is my fav steampunk novel.

I love the steampunk aesthetic. So sooo pretty.

Would that be considered steampunk????

Not being snarky, seriously just wondering!

Yes. I don't know if it's considered hardcore steampunk, but it's set in Victorian era. There are zeppelins and various other steampunk-y devices. It's also essentially an alternate reality from our own world where history, technology, etc are slightly or sometimes vastly different from our own. Pretty sure that's the essence of steampunk.

[The Man]

Wikipedia classes the first book as steampunk, for whatever that's worth.

Definitely a great series, at any rate. Pullman's view of Christianity is a bit simplistic, but the strain of conservative Christianity he is clearly using the series to critique deserves every bit of the ire it receives in his writing. I do think I like the Bas-Lag series slightly more though.

[Jinx]

The Golden Compass is my fav steampunk novel.

I love the steampunk aesthetic. So sooo pretty.

Would that be considered steampunk????

Not being snarky, seriously just wondering!

Yes. I don't know if it's considered hardcore steampunk, but it's set in Victorian era. There are zeppelins and various other steampunk-y devices. It's also essentially an alternate reality from our own world where history, technology, etc are slightly or sometimes vastly different from our own. Pretty sure that's the essence of steampunk.

I never really pictured it in the Victorian era, honestly.

[Pike]

I'd say The Golden Compass is certainly steampunk-inspired though I don't know if I'd put it in the steampunk genre. The other two books in the trilogy not so much (one of the big reasons why I didn't like the later two books half as much as the first).

It's all rather subjective, though!

Mirage, I like your "techpunk" idea.

[Madame Adequate]

Techpunk could serve as an overarching genre I suppose, but the subgenres are actually important, both because the aesthetics vary massively (clockpunk vs. dieselpunk for instance look pretty much NOTHING alike) and because the issues in question can be dramatically different too; steampunk tends to latch onto Victorian notions of progress, enlightenment, and rationality, whilst by contrast cyberpunk is usually depressing and pessimistic if not outright dystopian. Compare a steampunk progenitor like Verne's writings - they're about exploration, pushing back the boundaries, and the amazing things we might find at the bottom of the sea. Neuromancer, the seminal cyberpunk novel, meanwhile concerns an unemployable drug-addict who has been deliberately disabled and is thus not able to access the Internet/Cyberspace.

Cyberpunk tends not to be luddite in nature but it is as a rule deeply suspicious and far more cynical about the potential applications of technology, and is by it's nature very often of a socially-conscious bent. Steampunk, being fundamentally Victorian in ethos, would lend itself pretty superbly towards that as well, but the general themes of hope and optimism therein, of freeing man from the very factory labor that characterized the era, tend to ensure it either shies away from that angle or that the technological developments are assumed to reduce these problems hugely without taking much of a look at the social and political aspects involved. That's not aimed as a criticism of steampunk by the way, I'm only trying to highlight that there really are fundamental and serious differences across these genres (or subgenres if you prefer) that would be diluted by an umbrella term like "techpunk".

Also China Miéville is a Socialist so he's a-okay in my (little red) book!

[Miriel]

I pretend that the other two books in the His Dark Materials trilogy don't exist. I think they're horrible and not worth reading at all.

Golden Compass/Northern Lights on the other hand is one of my all time favorites.