Steampunk Me!

[Araquiel]

So I recently read my first ever steampunk novel called 'Soulless' by Gail Carriger. I must say, it was pretty delightful. She has a wonderful vocabulary, especially for humor/action based light fiction. The details were great and the characters quite funny. I'm looking forward to her second novel (it's a series- 'The Parasol Protectorate'. That's right... parasols).

But I was just wondering if anyone else had read this and/or anything like it?

[I am Jack's]

Well if you're looking for a generally extremely detailed Steampunk alternate history thing you might like to try "The Difference Engine" by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. It's basically what would have happened if The Babbage Machine (think Victorian computer) was ever successful and was taken by a Lord Byron (who survived the wars in Greece) to create a new political party based on Industry and Intellectualism and all thsy jazz. It's reads a little jarringly sometimes but the descriptions of the universe it's set in are absolutely magnificent and concepts like hacking with punchcards, clockwork androids and kinescopes which work through the use of Babbage Machines are in one word: Awesome.

Highly recommend it as one of the defining novels of the Steampunk genre.

[Araquiel]

Oh! I'll have to look into that!

Is it just me, or does steampunk kind of feel like really good fanfiction of history? You know, historical figures, ideas, and inventions, all of which have been somewhat altered, embellished, and/or fudged for the sake of awesome?

[Rallan]

Araquiel, that's because that's what steampunk is. It's a subgenre of science fiction where the basic schtick is inventing settings full of advanced gizmos based on old technologies, and one of the easiest ways of exploring that is to go with "what if" alternate histories.

You may as well ask why time travel novels or alternate history novels kind of feel like "fanfiction of history"

[Jack Elliot]

The Difference Engine is definitely a good read in the Steampunk genre. It rambles a bit, and has Gibson's meandering, verbose style. But if you like Gibson's writing (Which I do), then you should like it.

The Peshawar Lancers is really good as well. Less "steam", but it postulates an alternate history that's pretty interesting. A very Victorian / Raj feeling, with airships and a great plot and world-building. I highly suggest it. The author, S.M.Stirling does have a tendency toward "perfect" main characters who do no wrong...but it is a very entertaining read.

Glass Books of the Dream Eaters and it's sequel The Dark Volume are heavily Victorian, with a dash of weird steampunk science. The author, Gordon Dahlquist is a bit longwinded, and drags the books out a bit too long, but they are still very good.

If you like your steampunk a bit on the stranger side, with heavier social commentary, there's always the books by China Meiville, like Perdido Street Station.

Not sure if it counts as "steampunk", but if you like Gibson's The Difference Engine then check out Neal Stephenson's Baroque Saga (Quicksilver, The Confusion, and System of the World. Very dense, but very thoughtful.

[Araquiel]

So many book suggestions! Thank you! I've looked up 'The Difference Engine', 'The Peshawar Lancer', and 'Glass Books of the Dream Eaters'. I thought I'd be able to pick one of them easily enough after reading their synopsis but they all seem so exciting, I suppose I have no other choice than to seek out all of them.

Thank you so much!

[Rallan]

I'm gonna have to second Jack Elliot's recommendation of Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. It's an excellent example of the "let's slam industrial technology into an imaginary setting" fantasy side of steampunk (instead of the alternate history SF side that most folks have recommended so far), and Mieville's arguably the best thing to happen to fantasy in a couple of decades.