Bronal Posted August 18, 2013 Posted August 18, 2013 I've recently become interested in this genre of speculative fiction. Can anyone recommend a few books to start me off?
mrdave Posted August 18, 2013 Posted August 18, 2013 I've recently become interested in this genre of speculative fiction. Can anyone recommend a few books to start me off? How about Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age ?
Janjuggler Posted August 18, 2013 Posted August 18, 2013 (edited) Hi Here are some lists from various places, maybe some repeats: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_steampunk_works http://www.goodreads.com/genres/steampunk http://www.rantingdragon.com/top-20-steampunk-books-an-introduction-to-the-genre/ JJ Edited August 18, 2013 by Janjuc
Ando Posted August 18, 2013 Posted August 18, 2013 Sorry cant help with Steampunk books but if you havent seen the Antipodean Steampunk Show and it comes to a venue near you it is well worth a visit. Heres a picture , previously poted in another thread, of a working CD player from the exhibition . Cheers Mike 1
buddyev Posted August 18, 2013 Posted August 18, 2013 China Mieville is pretty good. Not all his stuff is steam punk but take a look at Perdido Street Station, The Scar & Kraken. Russ 1
GregWormald Posted August 18, 2013 Posted August 18, 2013 How about the online comic Girl Genius? http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20021104 Greg
Luc Posted August 18, 2013 Posted August 18, 2013 Steampunk eh? It's a very trendy uber cool thing these days to drop steampunk into the general conversation...and I'm all for it! Where to begin? Firstly, do your self a favour and go and grab some of the Anime classics that actually led to the term being considered a genre in the first place and then you can quickly move on to a whole heap of books firmly entrenched in the SP universe. Anime that you must see: Steamboy , Full Metal Alchemist The Brotherhood and Howl's Moving Castle and all of these need to be watched with English subtitles and the original Japanese soundtrack not the other way round with American dubbed voice actors. Ok, now for what you actually asked about: Novels. Author Bob Shaw: The Ragged Astronauts The Wooden Spaceships The Fugitive Worlds This series of three books begins with the fabulous Ragged Astronauts and the equally good Wooden Spaceships and the slightly less so conclusion to the series, Fugitive Worlds. Excellent writer absolutely stunning creations in this series as in his earlier work like Other days Other eyes or the equally good Nightwalk. Riddely Walker by Russel Hoban...Post apocalyptic steampunk and a brilliant, brilliant book. Tim Powers is an acknowledged master of speculative fiction and he's been garnered under the steampunk umberella by latecomers to his works. He has some almost seminal works under his belt so rather than give you a big list of his oeuvre I'll just give three of the best, the award winners and utterly riveting works with a creepiness and a paced suspense allied with his fertile imagination and great three dimensional characters. The Anubis Gates Dinner at Deviant's Palace The Stress of Her Regard Brilliant books. Plenty more authors come under the SP heading and many if not most of them wrote their books that are included in SP lists before SP became a 'Thing'. JanJuc up above has linked you to these writers that now write books for the SP genre. I could list many more novels that come under this heading these days but that'll do for a sunday evening from me. Movies? Quite a few actually both old and new, the new ones are obvious but the older ones are probably better as they didn't know they were doing 'Steampunk' . Rod Taylor in the classic H.G.Well's novel adapted for Hollywood, The Time Machine and listen to the narrator in this trailer and you'll hear about three more classic novels made into movies and all tagged as Steampunk now. 1
Luc Posted August 18, 2013 Posted August 18, 2013 Oh and while I'm at it...have a look at these! Go on...click this ...Steampunk Bathrooms, I kid you not. Love 'em!
ThirdDrawerDown Posted August 18, 2013 Posted August 18, 2013 Ummm.. that's Riddley Walker. Tim Powers hung around with James Blaylock and J.W. Jeter and their off-beat alternate-history Victorianism was the wellspring of steampunk. Jeter runs hot and cold, and his horror is not to my taste. Take care when selecting a Jeter. Powers is usually excellent but occasionally long-winded. His The Drawing of the Dark isn't steampunk but is excellent. Take a look at Clute and Grant's SF Encyclopaedia entry on steampunk. It's online. Michael Moorcock was writing this stuff before it was labelled. Take a look at his Oswald Bastable series. Locus also did a steampunk special in 2010 or maybe 2009. In my experience, the best is the material that was written before it became a flavour of the month publishing category. The people who jumped on the bandwagon were the writers who regretted missing the vampire gravy train. I recommend taking a look at young adult writers. The best of these writers are brief, descriptive, and fun! School librarians wil know these. I also recommend your local SF bookshop. In Melbourne and on-line, Slow Glass Books (Justin Ackroyd) who has judged this stuff for awards. In Brisbane I've forgotten the name of the shop but the proprietor also knows his stuff, and has people who mainline this stuff among his clientele.
Bronal Posted August 18, 2013 Author Posted August 18, 2013 How about Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age ? Dave, I read through the synopsis of this and it looks like a very interesting book in its own right, although it doesn't seem to tick the steampunk boxes. But I could be wrong...
Super Mustud Posted August 18, 2013 Posted August 18, 2013 Interesting. I have been reading and watching Steampunk without ever having come across that word before.
mrdave Posted August 18, 2013 Posted August 18, 2013 How about Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age ? Dave, I read through the synopsis of this and it looks like a very interesting book in its own right, although it doesn't seem to tick the steampunk boxes. But I could be wrong... Fair play Alan, it's been a while since I read it and I thought I recalled elements of anachronistic technology. Perhaps you should go straight to the biggy, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Difference_Engine
houdinifangs Posted August 19, 2013 Posted August 19, 2013 The Difference Engine - William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Seminal steampunk The Difference Engine is an alternate history novel by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. It posits a Victorian Britain in which great technological and social change has occurred after entrepreneurial inventor Charles Babbage succeeded in his ambition to build a mechanical computer (actually his analytical engine rather than the difference engine).
Recommended Posts