Seeking recommendations for Steampunk fiction.

XX55XX

I've been re-reading A Series of Unfortunate Events recently (a childhood favorite), and I am hungry for more Steampunk fiction, be it intended for children or adults. Any suggestions?

And yes, I am aware of the works of Jules Verne, but I do seek more contemporary stuff.

Feriluce

While I haven't had a chance to read it yet, The Alloy of Law by Brian Sanderson is right up that alley. I live everything else I've read by that author so far.

Wassermelone

Most of its crap.

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest is pretty ok.

I suppose China Mieville's New Crobuzon books have steampunk elements. Regardless of what you classify those books as, they are excellent. Perdido Street Station, The Scar (my favorite), and the Iron Council (the weakest and the most obviously steampunkish).

YaYa

http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/140967/book-thread

Wassermelone

Oh

If you do take a look at China Meiville's books... don't expect much from the endings of them. Hes a great writer, and an absolutely fantastic world builder... but writing a satisfying ending is not his forte.

Quoth

Perdido street station is so damn grimdark though

Raijin Quickfoot

I liked Perdido Street Station but I found it hard to really get into. Just something about the way he writes doesn't gel well with me.

Quoth

It's like trying to eat a pound of fudge in one bite, his prose is so dark and dense

captaink

Neal Stephenson's 'The Diamond Age' is more nano-punk, but it might hit the spot. Features Victorians, China, naked Drummers, and more nanotechnology than you can shake a stick at.

Raijin Quickfoot

Quoth wrote:

It's like trying to eat a pound of fudge in one bite, his prose is so dark and dense

I can eat a pound of fudge in one bite.

Stale

I suggest looking into a genre that isn't universally terrible.

Fandyien

mortal engines by philip reeves

i read it when i was a teenager

it's about giant victorian cities on treads that wander a huge i guess postapocalyptic world looking for other cities to eat with the giant jaws on their tank-cities that traverse continents

so it's like, a story of a guy who lives on one of the larger ones and stuff about it hunting towns and shit and the whole thing was weird but good

it was steampunk i guess

Donovan Puppyfucker

Nemesis the Warlock? I read a single issue of this, so I can't speak for the quality of the whole series, but the setting was very 'steampunk', with steam-powered airships and robots and shit.

M.D.

i tried reading steampunk once, after that i will never try again

Crimson King

there isn't any

thread over

Cilla Black

All the good books I've read have had very light elements of steampunk and they've all been mentioned. Never read anything good where the steampunk was super heavy.

Anzekay

Steampunk is so good.

People who tend to write steampunk are kinda bad.

Buttlord

XX55XX wrote:

I've been re-reading A Series of Unfortunate Events recently (a childhood favorite), and I am hungry for more Steampunk fiction, be it intended for children or adults. Any suggestions?

And yes, I am aware of the works of Jules Verne, but I do seek more contemporary stuff.

Unfortunate Events wasn't really steampunk it was just weird

Druhim

Stale wrote: »

I suggest looking into a genre that isn't universally terrible.

:^:

Airking850

What about the Johannes Cabal books?

I've never read the books but I once heard they were good, and they seem like a tongue-in-cheek faustian type of deal. There's a zeppelin on one of the covers, which makes them steampunk.

Cilla Black

Really what you're probably looking for is some fiction with a good Victorian backdrop, as that seems to be the setting theme what every steampunk work relies on anyway. They just throw in some random, and I'm blanking on the word that means technology that shouldn't exist in a time period, out-of-place tech with the excuse of steam.

Airking850

The Denver Post called the third book in the series "A swashbuckling mystery set in a steampunk world.” Jackpot.

Airking850

Anachronism?

Anzekay

Sean McMullen has a fantasy series that has some steampunk elements in it, paticularly the most recent ones.

Voyage of the Shadowmoon is the first one, I think.

Cilla Black

yes anachronistic, that's the word

Buttlord

Cilla Black wrote:

Really what you're probably looking for is some fiction with a good Victorian backdrop, as that seems to be the setting theme what every steampunk work relies on anyway. They just throw in some random, and I'm blanking on the word that means technology that shouldn't exist in a time period, out-of-place tech with the excuse of steam.

Anachronistic FUCK I GOT BEATEN

Crimson King

the problem with steampunk is that it is a visual aesthetic with no ideological content

so in a visual medium, steampunk can work, because it does look rather good

but in writing, you can't see it, and there is no more to steampunk than how it looks. so it falls flat.

this is also why so many things that use steampunk have to hybridize it with something else. skyrim gives us steampunk dwarves, arkham city gives us steampunk gotham, mieville gives us steampunk socialism and steampunk body horror, pratchett gives us steampunk parables of modernization

(and that's probably the best use of steampunk, as a way to talk about technology and history and the industrial revelation)

but most steampunk literature is devoid of any real purpose other than to get robots and corsets in the same book

Cilla Black

I think it's kind of a stretch to classify most of those things as steampunk anyway. The skyrim stuff is probably closest.

Buttlord

I mean I guess the next three Mistborn books are gonna be steampunk

Snork

i've only read perdido street station, but i feel like china mieville's ideas are a lot better than his ability to structure or even his prose is. i really enjoy his aesthetic, and as was said he's a fantastic world-builder, but the writing just got incredibly repetitive about halfway through the book (and it's long, and the ending is bad). i definitely want to read embassytown and possibly the scar, but i'm not particularly motivated to do so at the moment

Crimson King

Cilla Black wrote:

I think it's kind of a stretch to classify most of those things as steampunk anyway. The skyrim stuff is probably closest.

exactly

the closer you get to pure steampunk the less interesting it is

also mieville can't plot for shit which was the one thing standing between the city and the city and book of the year

Olivaw

Crimson King wrote:

the problem with steampunk is that it is a visual aesthetic with no ideological content

so in a visual medium, steampunk can work, because it does look rather good

but in writing, you can't see it, and there is no more to steampunk than how it looks. so it falls flat.

this is also why so many things that use steampunk have to hybridize it with something else. skyrim gives us steampunk dwarves, arkham city gives us steampunk gotham, mieville gives us steampunk socialism and steampunk body horror, pratchett gives us steampunk parables of modernization

(and that's probably the best use of steampunk, as a way to talk about technology and history and the industrial revelation)

but most steampunk literature is devoid of any real purpose other than to get robots and corsets in the same book

Pretty much

Hell, a lot of steampunk stuff covers the same themes and ideas as cyberpunk, just with goggles and moustaches and top hats as opposed to burning chrome and augmentation

It's still a very striking look, though

Buttlord

If by striking you mean dumb

This is what I think of every time someone says steampunk:

Centipede Damascus

Olivaw wrote:

Crimson King wrote:

the problem with steampunk is that it is a visual aesthetic with no ideological content

so in a visual medium, steampunk can work, because it does look rather good

but in writing, you can't see it, and there is no more to steampunk than how it looks. so it falls flat.

this is also why so many things that use steampunk have to hybridize it with something else. skyrim gives us steampunk dwarves, arkham city gives us steampunk gotham, mieville gives us steampunk socialism and steampunk body horror, pratchett gives us steampunk parables of modernization

(and that's probably the best use of steampunk, as a way to talk about technology and history and the industrial revelation)

but most steampunk literature is devoid of any real purpose other than to get robots and corsets in the same book

Pretty much

Hell, a lot of steampunk stuff covers the same themes and ideas as cyberpunk, just with goggles and moustaches and top hats as opposed to burning chrome and augmentation

It's still a very striking look, though

I don't know about that, doesn't most cyberpunk deal with things like transhumanism and identity? Does steampunk even have any themes like that?

Anzekay

I've always though that this short is a good example of steampunk done well. Too bad it isn't a book.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vORsKyopHyM

Quoth

What's that terrible comic that keeps winning stuff

Girl Genius?

Goatmon

Wait, Unfortunate Events is steampunk?

I remember reading like, ten novels or so of it and I don't remember any steampunk.

Quoth

Yeah it's Girl Genius

You might like that

Doobh

Steampunk is something I'd like to see disappear for awhile

so farking overused

Depressperado

the thing about Girl Genius is that it looks awful

it's not even particularly poorly written, it's just drawn by people who apparently think everyone is as doughy and awful looking as they are.

did you just say farking

Orikaeshigitae

Airking850 wrote:

There's a zeppelin on one of the covers, which makes them steampunk.

what