Steampunk Literature

[Cavallier]

I recently read Boneshaker by Cherie Priest and Court of the Air by Stephen Hunt. They were my first steampunk genre novels and I loved them!

Does anybody have any steampunk recommendations?

 

[Anthile]

Steampunk as a genre is dead. In fact, it was never alive to begin with. When Gibson and Sterling wrote The Difference Engine back in 1990 with steampunk aesthetic, drawing influence from the earliest days of sci-fi, it was to put cyberpunk tropes out of context and to show they're not new at all and since then we have post-cyberpunk. It was a joke that not a lot of people understood and in the end only the aesthetics of steampunk survived. Sadly, that seems to be enough nowadays.


Also, read China Miélville.

 

[Cavallier]

Okay. Want to delete the thread then?

 

[Anthile]

Huh? No. I just pointed out why it is surprising that steampunk made it so far because it was making fun of its predecessors.

China Miélville is an excellent writer and he makes stuff on Stephenson level of awesomeness.

 

[Cavallier]

Oh, I thought that because of what you'd said there wasn't much worth reading out there. I figured that since steampunk is only an aesthetic approach as apposed to an actual full blown genre there would not be any point in continuing the discussion.

I've not read any of China Miélville. I read Stephenson's Anathem a year ago and it was fascinating. I enjoy Stephenson because he writes complete thoughts and fully explores his ideas. So many authors in the genre arena completely fail to explore their concepts.

 

[Jaico]

Mortal Engines by Philip Reeves is a pretty good read, too...in short, it's a steampunk future where cities move and eat each other for more scrap, so they can keep moving/eating (it's better than it sounds).

 

[Keary]

How can anyone look past War of the Worlds and The Time Machine, both were written in the late 19th century (the time Steampunk is based off) and written by H. G. Wells, in my opinion that equals badassery.
The aesthetics of Steampunk is the main drawing card to my fascination with it; the clothes they wear, the machinery and the weapons all look olds school that could pwn some of the newer stuff today. All my opinion of course.

 

[Cavallier]

How can anyone look past War of the Worlds and The Time Machine, both were written in the late 19th century (the time Steampunk is based off) and written by H. G. Wells, in my opinion that equals badassery.
The aesthetics of Steampunk is the main drawing card to my fascination with it; the clothes they wear, the machinery and the weapons all look olds school that could pwn some of the newer stuff today. All my opinion of course.

I read those back in Junior High. They are really good but I think of them as part of the beginning of science fiction.

 

[The Frood]

Airborne by kenneth oppel isn't bad.

 

[Yogi]

Anthile was a bit harsh here. So I'd like to take the liberty of posting this vid for Cava as a statement from her to the powers that be:www.blip.tv/file/2869013

 

[The Frood]

Fitzpatrik's War is an extremely good novel, couldn't put it down.

 

[Cogwulf]

I would like steampunk more if the aesthetics included any other colour than shades of brown. There's no reason they couldn't use steel instead of copper, or use black clothes dye on coats.