Calling all Steampunk book recommendations.

The genre looks like something I’d enjoy, got any recommendations?

Start with H G Wells and Jules Verne. Once you know the basis of the genre, try The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers, Perdido Street Station and The Scar by China Miéville, many works by K W Jeter (I started with Morlock Night, but that was thirty years ago), The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson, and The Difference Engine.

Many of Moorcock’s stories fit the genre such as his Nomad of the Time Streams series, and I know I am forgetting some very obvious titles.

Then read all of Girl Genius online. It’s free.

Also the Langdon St. Ives stories by Blaylock.

And don’t get me started on graphic novels, although you MUST read The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, at least volume one.

I just started Boneshaker by Cherie Priest and even though I’m only 5 chapters in, I think I’m on solid ground when I say that it totally rocks (and rolls).

If you’re prepared to add computer games to the list, then you can’t go past Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura. The graphics aren’t great by modern standards and there’s a few bugs (mostly fixed by fan patches as the company that made the game went belly-up) but it’s got a really good story and an immersive world in it. If you liked the first two Fallout games you’ll like Arcanum, I think. (They were made by more or less the same people, FWIW).

William Gibson.

If Neuromancer grabs you, then probably all of his others will as well.

(Some would say he is cyberpunk and not steampunk but definately a good read. His co-authored the Difference Engine is definately steampunk)

**China Miéville **- start with Perdido Street Station.
There are several good YA steampunkish series, it seems to be a popular subgenre:
I recommend the Riddell/StewartEdge Chronicles highly. There’s also their Barnaby Grimes series, but I’m not as familiar with it.
There’s also Philip Reeve’s Mortal Engines and Larklight series.

Blaylock, definitely.

K.W. Jeter

Tim Powers (not really steampunk, but his The Anubis Gates is something of a bellwether for the genre).

The Steampunk Trilogy by **Paul Di Filippo ** has bad reviews on Amazon because it is a really good book but has a humorous feel that obviously put off some serious science fiction fans.

You can’t beat “Boilerplate”.

The Peshawar Lancers by S. M. Sterling.

The Light Ages by Ian Macleod
The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling
Newton’s Cannon by J. Geegory Keyes
The Iron Dragon’s Daughter by Michael Swanick

The Difference Engine, for sure.

And I rather enjoyed “Victoria” from “The Steampunk Trilogy,” although I have absolutely no memory of the other stories in that collection. 'Must’ve been really gripping.

Just so everyone knows, this thread is a steam-powered zombie from 2010.

Zombie or no, it can’t hurt to have more recommended reads in case someone does another drive-by.

All the above are enthusiastically re-recommended.

Steampunk Graphic Novel: **Rapunzel’s Revenge **(sequel, Calamity Jack) by Shannon Hale and Nathan Hale (no relation to each other)

Steampunk Fantasy: Trilogy of books; Clockwork Heart, Clockwork Lies: Iron Wind, Clockwork Secrets: Heavy Fire. All by Dru Pagliassotti

(repeat mention) Online “Gaslamp Fantasy” (steampunk) comic: Girl Genius, Phil and Kaja Foglio
(also available compiled into volumes, and with a novelization of the first part of the storyline)

Comedy of Manners/Shakespeare Farce: All Men of Genius, Lev A. C. Rosen

The His Dark Materials trilogy from Phillip Pullman, and the movie that was based on Book 1, The Golden Compass. Keep in mind that the author here intended to use these books to advance an ideology in a manner inspired by C. S. Lewis.

If you like Japanese Anime, there are a lot of good steampunk works that are not too heady. Start with Hayao Miyazaki’s works, specifically:

Castle in the Sky (Tenkuu no Shiro Raputa): A child of destiny, battling airships, “clank” robots, a lost civilization, and weird-ass helicopter contraptions with insect-inspired flapping wings.
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (Kaze no Tani no Naushika): A thousand years after the “seven days of fire”, a dying civilization fights over control of recently-rediscovered ancient weapons technology. No, don’t power that thing on! You’ll kill us all! The world is too small for WMD’s!

The Leviathan trilogy by Scott Westerfeld. It is an alternate WWI where one side (Clangers) have traditional Steampunk weapons and the other (Darwinists) have genetically modified animals as weapons. It is technically young adult fiction but it was a good read.

For Steampunk Graphic Novel, you have to look at Phil Foglio’s Girl Genius.
I’ve argued before on this board that Harper Goff’s design for the Nautilus from Disney’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is the genesis of our ideas of “steampunk”. But that over-ornate Victorian puffery steampunk vision is actually absent from Verne’s book – his Nautilus is a sleek and featureless shuttle shape. Goff wanted something that would be visually interesting, not practical.
Verne occasionally did go “steampink” – his The Steam House practically has it in the title (the two-part novel also goes by “The Demon of Cawnpore”/“Tigers and Traitors”), with its ornate Victorian RV-in-the-shape-of-a-steam-powered-robotic-elephant. But more often than not, Verne is surprisingly modern and practical, not steampunk.

Case in point – despite that fact that Robur the Conqueror’s “aeronef” the “Albatross” is basically a super-helicopter (with multiple vertical blades without “Jesus pins”, so even Stranger on a Train would feel safe aboard), it isn’t made of cast iron or copper or bronze or even of aluminum. Verne had it made of composites (!) in the 19th century!! And for exactly the right reasons – light weight and high structural strength.