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Steampunk

scribeswindow

scribeswindow

New Member
I was going to write this thread in Sci Fi but I've decided that this genre is too multi-faceted to be put just there. In recent weeks I've become very interested in Steampunk and I'm putting together a reading list from the genre. I've mostly got my must-reads from Amazon and had a look at various blogs on the subject.

A few years ago I bought The glass books of the dream eaters by Dahlquist and really enjoyed it, however I've only now come to the realisation that it's probably a steampunk novel. I've also got Gail Carriger's book Soulless sitting on my bedside table. I'm a huge fan of detective fiction, enjoy fantasy, some sci fi, historical fiction and even the odd chick lit book.

Anyway, the list I've compiled is too long to put every title here, so I'll list just a few. Has anyone else read Steampunk before? Or any of these novels? Let me know, I'm interested to get some other opinions.

Perdido street station Mieville
The manual of detection Berry
The somnambulist: a novel Barnes
The strangely beautiful tale of miss Percy Parker Hieber
The meaning of night Cox

I'll probably read Soulless first and I know that Glass books has sequels. At the moment I get through books at a painfully slow pace as I have two very young children and I only read at night - and that often means a few pages before falling asleep. Will keep you posted on what I think of them.

Before I go I've hesitated in describing what Steampunk is exactly. I call it a cross between Victorian detective fiction bringing in the elements of sci fi or magic realism. Often a dystopian society is depicted and it's sometimes described as urban fantasy or it could even be classed as speculative fiction. Not sure if that covers it all??? Anyway, I'm really excited about investigating this genre further. :)
 
I read a Steampunk anthology a few months ago called Steampunk by Ann VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer. I enjoyed about half of the stories and just flat disliked the other half. One thing I did like about it was that it gave a history of the genre which goes back to 19th century novels.

I noticed that The Difference Engine isn't on your list. Have you read it already?
 
Hi Sparkchaser, The difference engine is on my list - which is two A4 pages long so didn't put them all down. In hindsight maybe I should post my whole list as I'm sure I'll probably get suggestions of titles I may already have in mind. :)
 
Boneshaker Priest
The Windup Girl Bacigalupi
The monstrumologist Yancey
Flora Segunda Wilce
The glass books of the dream eaters vol. 2 Dahlquist
The dark volume Dahlquist
The manual of detection Berry
The somnambulist: a novel Barnes
The court of the air Hunt
The meaning of night Cox
The league of extraordinary Moore
Thomas Riley Valentino
Chenda and the airship Brifman Bush
Gaslight grimoire
Anti ice Baxter
The difference engine Gibson & Sterling
Perdido street station Mieville
The steampunk trilogy Di Filippo
The grand ellipse Volsky
Mairedon the magician Wrede
The strangely beautiful tale of miss percy parker Hieber
The dancers at the end of time Moorcock
Neverwhere Gaimen
Whitechapel gods Peters
 
The Meaning of Night is indeed an excellent novel, I loved it! Be warned though, it is written in a manner that may get on your nerves after a while ( I, personally, thought it was a really interesting way to write the novel...but could understand why others would find it tiresome. The author does tone it down after a while, so just keep that in mind.).

It's not steampunk, but it's still well worth the read!

I've heard very good things about Gaimen's books, but haven't read any of them yet. Plan to though, in the near-future.

Let me know how The Somnambulist is, that's one I'm interested in reading too.
 
I'll gladly second Neverwhere, but offer only half a vote for Perdido Street Station and even less than that for League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
Just not my genre I'm getting to believe. :sad:
 
I went to the library to pick up Perdido street station by Mieville. Oh my god, it is a doorstopper of a book. Over 700 pages! Now I just have to find the time to get through it. I read the blurb about his first novel King rat and that sounded like it was more interesting. Will let you know what I think.
 
I thought King Rat was written by James Clavell. Also I am confused by this steampunk style. From the description I do not see how it applies to either steam or punks.
 
chiangmaifalcon said:
I thought King Rat was written by James Clavell. Also I am confused by this steampunk style. From the description I do not see how it applies to either steam or punks.
Click to expand...

It's derived from Cyberpunk, which involved future technology, but is set in an alternative history and so has old-fashioned 'steam' technology.
 
chiangmaifalcon said:
I thought King Rat was written by James Clavell. Also I am confused by this steampunk style. From the description I do not see how it applies to either steam or punks.
Click to expand...

Basically it is just cyberpunk 200 years earlier. Instead of high tech electronics, there are steam/coal powered gadgets, clockwork gizmos, their nanotechnology equivalents, and airships. I haven't read King Rat but reviews say it to have some elements of steampunk.
 
Thank you for explaining this. Now I understand. Would Indiana Jones movies be in this category? Or movie the Wild Wild West? King Rat is about POWs in Burma in WWll, so wouldn't this be the wrong time period to be a steampunk story?
 
It is coincidence but I recently started reading Twenty Thousand leagues Under the Sea again, and also about a month ago read Journey to the Center of the Earth, so I guess I am a fan of the steampunk style. However, I must admit I never heard of any of the other books mentioned, probably because they are not available in Thailand. I did see the movie of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but I think iit was not a very good movie.
 
I get advertisements on internet from Barnes and Noble and one is about book called Clockwork Angels by Cassandra Clare and which is part of series called Infernal Devices. However, they are in young adult category, but look to me to be steampunk type stories.
 
My wife read Boneshaker and she seemed to like it. It's outside of what she normally devours, but I've heard good things generally. I may get to The Windup Girl as well as Boneshaker this summer just so I can compare them with The City & The City seeing as all three were nominated for Nebula and Hugo Awards.
 
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