# Steampunk/Gaslamp Fantasy--titles requested **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 28, 2006, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steampunk-gaslamp-fantasy-titles-requested/366418 "2006-07-28T16:07:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steampunk-gaslamp-fantasy-titles-requested/366418/1 "2006-07-28T16:07:49Z")
Well the titles says most of it. I’d prefer more light-hearted material. Titles, please? ---
**Author:** ![Future\_Londonite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9dc877/32.png) [@Future\_Londonite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Future_Londonite)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steampunk-gaslamp-fantasy-titles-requested/366418/2 "2006-07-28T16:22:30Z")
**The Difference Engine** by Gibson/sterling **The Anubis gate** by Tim Powers ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steampunk-gaslamp-fantasy-titles-requested/366418/3 "2006-07-28T16:40:04Z")
James Blaylock: [ul] [li]The Digging Leviathan[/li][li]Homunculus[/li][li]Lord Kelvin’s Machine[/li][/ul] The Digging Leviathan Mark Frost: [ul] [li]The List of Seven[/li][li]The Six Messiahs[/li][/ul] Esther Friesner [ul] [li]Druid’s Blood[/li][/ul] K. W. Jeter [ul] [li]Morlock Night[/li][li]Infernal Devices[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steampunk-gaslamp-fantasy-titles-requested/366418/4 "2006-07-28T17:25:48Z")
China Mieville (that’s his name)– [ul]\* [li]Perdido Street Station[/li][li]The Scar[/li][li]The Iron Council\*[/li][/ul] All edge into Steampunk (magic does more of the cool things, but there are steam engines galore). Not particularly light-hearted, though. Fair amount of exploration of the grittier parts of a Victorian society. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steampunk-gaslamp-fantasy-titles-requested/366418/5 "2006-07-28T18:11:45Z")
From movies… Check out **Howl’s Moving Castle** , it had a beautifully visioned Steam/Victorian flavor to the fantasy world. There is a great sci-fi comics series taking place in an alternative-timeline 19th century England, **The Adventures of Luther Arkwright** , but I don’t know if copies or trades are still in print. ---
**Author:** ![Clockwork\_And\_Candy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b782af/32.png) [@Clockwork\_And\_Candy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clockwork_And_Candy)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steampunk-gaslamp-fantasy-titles-requested/366418/6 "2006-07-28T18:52:49Z")
Well, I’m sure that some would argue, but I think that the _Gormenghast_ books by **Mervyn Peake** , _Mairelon the Magician_ and _Magician’s Ward_ by Patricia C. Wrede count as steampunk-ish. As would _Sorcery and Cecelia_ and _The Grand Tour_ by **Patricia C. Wrede** / **Caroline Stevermer**. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steampunk-gaslamp-fantasy-titles-requested/366418/7 "2006-07-28T20:04:24Z")
_Anno Dracula_ by Kim Newman. Witty, but not exactly lighthearted. For the truly hardcore, look into the Wold Newton Universe; but don’t read the Anno Dracula page before you read the book. [The Wold Newton Universe](http://www.pjfarmer.com/woldnewton/Pulp.htm) _That Darn Squid God_ by Andrew Pollotta & James Clay is a lighthearted look at the Chthulu (sp?) Mythos. Very silly. If you like it, there appear to be more by the same guys. _Shadows Over Baker Street: New Tales of Terror!_ is an anthology of The Great Detective investigating eldrich matters. _A Night in the Lonesome October_ by Richard Zelazny–with illustrations by Gahan Wilson. The Usual Suspects rounded up once again. (A personal favorite.) And let me recommend, as I have before, _To Say Nothing of the Dog_ by Connie Willis. Time travelers from the near future search the past for a Mysterious Object. Mostly, they search in a very silly Victorian England. Quite hilarious–to make up for the grim horrors depicted in some of my other recommendations. And I’ll second _The Anubis Gates_ by Tim Powers. His \*On Stranger Tides \* & _The Stress of Her Regard_ might meet your needs. If not–he’s a fine author, anyway. I’ll also second the ripping yarns of Mark Frost. Finally, _Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell: A Novel_ is a bit weighty, but I found it worth the effort. ---
**Author:** ![Scupper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Scupper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scupper)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steampunk-gaslamp-fantasy-titles-requested/366418/8 "2006-07-28T20:39:42Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > China Mieville (that’s his name)– > [ul]\* > [li]Perdido Street Station[/li][li]The Scar[/li][li]The Iron Council\*[/li][/ul] > All edge into Steampunk (magic does more of the cool things, but there are steam engines galore). > > Not particularly light-hearted, though. Fair amount of exploration of the grittier parts of a Victorian society. :eek: No. If you prefer light-hearted, these books are **absolutely** not for you. They are fantastic stories, but they are grim, grim, grim–particularly Perdido Street Staion and Iron Council. PSS is downright _mean_ to the reader at times. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steampunk-gaslamp-fantasy-titles-requested/366418/9 "2006-07-28T21:23:52Z")
Want something “lighthearted,” but at the same time really **deep** and intellectually **heavy?** Try [by [url=[Avram Davidson - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avram_Davidson)]Avram Davidson,](]_The Adventures of Doctor Eszterhazy,_[/url) acollection of short stories set in the 19th Century, in the mythical southeastern European state, the Triune Monarchy of Scythia-Pannonia-Transbalkania (modeled, clearly, on the Austro-Hungarian Empire). The hero is Dr. Engelbert Eszterhazy, a brilliant and largely autodidact polymath of the minor nobility – urbane, broad-minded, gentle, temperamentally cheerful, philosophical yet practical, endlessly resourceful. He works (when he is working at all, and not alone studying) as a kind of detective, but unlike Sherlock Holmes he has no fear that his mind is like an attic, of limited storage capacity; he studies everything. Even magic. (Many of the stories include supernatural elements; and phrenology is crucial to his solving a mystery in “The Tell-Tale Head.”) His personal motto is, “Often pause, and turn aside.” From “The Autogondola Invention”: > [@](#): > > Incomparably less large and vast than the Russian Empire, incomparably less powerful than the German Empire, incomparably less sophisticated than the Austro-Hungarian Empire – still Scythia-Pannonia-Transbalkania, its mere name a subject for risibility elsewhere, was his empire, his native land. It may not have functioned very well? so much the more was he pleased that it functioned at all. Its Secret Police was a joke? so much the more he too would enjoy the joke; no one laughed at the Secret Polices in the other empires. Its many languages rivaled Babel or Pentecost? let them: at least here no schoolboy was flogged for praying in whatsoever minor mother tongue. One empire had already, fairly recently, gone from the political map of Europe; and although the name of Bonaparte still rang like a tocsin here and there, it was uncertain that the Prince Imperial would himself ever ring it successfully. > > Day by day others asked, how fared their country’s wheat compared with Russian wheat, its butter with Danish butter, its timber with Carpathian timber, its tar with Baltic tar, its cloth with English cloth? Day by day the same spokes of the universal wheel flashed by: love, sorrow, terror, death, success, failure, hunger, joy, growth, decay, weakness, strength: the wheel turned and turned and turned: nothing stayed the same, no one bathed twice in the same flowing water for the water had flowed on and flowed away. There is no star at the pole of the universe, young Dr. Eszterhazy recollected the ancient astronomer; and if there was and long had been but blankness in the comparable area of his own country, then might there not be a space and place for him? What he hoped for, others did not even think of; what others did not think, might he not think of? > > And after thinking, do? From “Writ in Water, or the Gingerbread Man”: > [@](#): > > The Scotch had not conquered the English nor had the English conquered the Scotch in order for one sovereign to become King of England and King of Scotland and – eventually – King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain. What had brought it about was, firstly, the Scottish marriage of King Henry’s sister, and, secondly, the not-marriage of King Henry’s daughter: _The Queen of Scots hath a bonny babe and I am but a barren stock._ Neither had any wars at last united Scythia or Pannonia; the Pannonians at a certain point historical had no Crown-Prince? Well, neither had they any Salic Law; the then-Crown-Prince of Scythia was wedded to the then-Crown-Princess of Pannonia; both being tactful enough to die before their conjoint-grandchild, said grandchild became Sovereign of both Scythia and Pannonia – and what school-child anywhere did not know that the people of Scythia were (principally) Goths and that the people of Pannonia were (principally) Avars? What an occasion for the erasure of frontiers, the unification of armies, the abolition of customs and octrois! There were, however, also all those lesser, minor territories, of which the new Sovereign was Prince of one and Duke of another . . . in the Scythian Line of Descent . . . Grand Hetman here and Chief Boyar there . . . in the Pannonian Line of Descent . . . and so on . . . and so on . . . > > What to do about them, these not-quite-nations already becoming obsolete in an age where every political entity was felt to require a prime minister, a general staff, a set of postage stamps, a – What was done was perhaps cleverer than students of political science realized, for all these “Hegemonies,” as they were called, from Ritchli to Little Great Dombrovia to Hyperborea, and including Vlox-Majore and Vlox-Minore, were not absorbed by either Scythia or Pannonia, but were autonomously united to form Transbalkania. > > And now the cheese of Poposhki, the smoked sturgeon of the Romanou, the brined-pork and the brawn of the Slovatchko Alps, appeared . . . untaxed! . . . on the market-stalls of Bella – Avar-Ister – Apollograd – and everywhere else in the fourth-largest empire in Europe. (The Turks were only fifth. Served them right.) Also the wheat of Scythia, and the beef and mutton of the wide Pannonian plains. And, as Dr. Engelbert Eszterhazy composed this paean in his own mind and looked at the ever-thronging streets of what, once a walled town, was now a world capital (yes, it was a small world), he considered the role which he himself would play. Which he had intended he should play and had designed (and re-designed) his own life the better to play it. You can’t catch me, said – And, my own invention from [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=302615) thread: > [@](#): > > Eszterhazy had long made a habit of keeping several enquiries in progress, in some manner or other, simultaneously, hopeful to inoculate himself against the sense of ennui and listlessness that often ensued upon the successful conclusion of an enquiry. And on this morning, while attempting to concentrate his mind on the far more pressing (indeed, to be sure a matter of national security and international tranquility) matter of the theft of the Cyprus Regalia from the Crypt of St. Sophie, he found his attention inexplicably but inexorably diverted to the mystery of the Chicken Who Crossed the Road. It would appear to the casual observer that the worms and corn were as abundant upon the Hither Side of the road as upon the Thither Side, the gravel bits as bright and appealing, the hens as plump and complaisant. Yet Eszterhazy, he more than many others, could readily empathize with the creeping restlessness that could make the near and comfortable side of the road appear stale through familiarity, the unknown far side an inviting field of discovery and possibilities. Just so, but it would be an error of sophomoric dimensions to assume, without more evidence, that a course of action appealing to Eszterhazy might be similarly appealing – or appealing for similar reasons – to a _Gallus gallus._ As he selected from his humidor, clipped, lit, drew, and meditatively puffed upon a Trichonopoly cheroot, Eszterhazy ruminated (ruminated? aviated? gallicated? _brooded?_ nay, not brooded) upon the words of the so-called Baconian Addendum to the _Malleus Maleficarum:_ “The mind of a chicken is not the same as the mind of a man.” And that, indeed, might well be the answer. But, Eszterhazy wondered, to which question? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steampunk-gaslamp-fantasy-titles-requested/366418/10 "2006-07-28T21:39:38Z")
_Girl Genius_ web/paper comic by Phil Foglio: [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com](http://www.girlgeniusonline.com) ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steampunk-gaslamp-fantasy-titles-requested/366418/11 "2006-07-28T23:36:54Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > _Girl Genius_ web/paper comic by Phil Foglio: > [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com](http://www.girlgeniusonline.com) Been there, done that, added it to my sig line. But your quite right, it’s very good. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2006, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steampunk-gaslamp-fantasy-titles-requested/366418/12 "2006-07-29T11:05:46Z")
> [@Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor](#): > > Been there, done that, added it to my sig line. > But your quite right, it’s very good. Whoops - I always skip over those. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2006, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steampunk-gaslamp-fantasy-titles-requested/366418/13 "2006-07-29T12:33:24Z")
I’d say that the Diskworld books by Terry Pratchett, especially the later ones, especially those set in Ankh-Morpork, can be classified as “Gaslamp Fantasy.” Try _The Truth_ or _Going Postal_. While there isn’t much technology, the culture involved alternates between Victorian and modern-day. ---
**Author:** ![Corporate\_Hippie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/65b543/32.png) [@Corporate\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corporate_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2006, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steampunk-gaslamp-fantasy-titles-requested/366418/14 "2006-07-29T12:52:18Z")
**Wild Wild West** ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2006, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steampunk-gaslamp-fantasy-titles-requested/366418/15 "2006-07-29T13:46:09Z")
**Jeffrey E. Barlough** _Dark Sleeper_ _The House in the High Woods_ _Strange Cargo_ Separate books all set in the same Dickensian/Lovecraftian world where much of civilisation has been destroyed and mastodons and other megafauna still roam. Great stuff! ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2006, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steampunk-gaslamp-fantasy-titles-requested/366418/16 "2006-07-29T16:56:39Z")
Might be difficult to get in the States, but Robert Rankin’s \*The Witches of Chiswick \*involves someone going back in time to a rather steampunk alternate Victorian history, and is not merely lighthearted; I’d go so far as to say that it’s actually quite silly. It is, however, part of the increasingly inappropriately named Brentford Trilogy, so you may find yourself hunting down more of his work… not that that’s necessarily abad thing. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2006, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steampunk-gaslamp-fantasy-titles-requested/366418/17 "2006-07-29T19:03:36Z")
> [@Meurglys](#): > > **Jeffrey E. Barlough** > > _Dark Sleeper_ > _The House in the High Woods_ > _Strange Cargo_ > > Separate books all set in the same Dickensian/Lovecraftian world where much of civilisation has been destroyed and mastodons and other megafauna still roam. > Great stuff! I’ve requested the first. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2006, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steampunk-gaslamp-fantasy-titles-requested/366418/18 "2006-07-29T19:05:03Z")
> [@Lemur Catta](#): > > Might be difficult to get in the States, but Robert Rankin’s \*The Witches of Chiswick \*involves someone going back in time to a rather steampunk alternate Victorian history, and is not merely lighthearted; I’d go so far as to say that it’s actually quite silly. It is, however, part of the increasingly inappropriately named Brentford Trilogy, so you may find yourself hunting down more of his work… not that that’s necessarily abad thing. Found it at my local library. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2006, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steampunk-gaslamp-fantasy-titles-requested/366418/19 "2006-07-29T19:18:40Z")
- The Light Ages\* by Ian MacLeod More on the gritty/depressing side though. I’ve heard good things about _Iron Dragon’s Daughter_ by Michael Moorcock but I haven’t read it myself. ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2006, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steampunk-gaslamp-fantasy-titles-requested/366418/20 "2006-07-30T21:29:44Z")
Light-hearted steampunk, eh? Neal Barrett, Jr.'s fantasy novels _The Prophecy Machine_ and _The Treachery of Kings_ are set in the kingdom of Fyxedia, site of ongoing conflict between two religious cults, the Hatters and the Hooters. The Hatters wear hats all day and try to poke people with sticks, while the Hooters spend the night hooting and setting stuff on fire. Into this unstable situation walks Finn the lizard-maker (he manufactures lizards to sell as gift items). Finn is shortly stranded in a house ruled by a family that gets more crazy with each passing generation. They have a prophecy machine in the basement–it’s powered by mice on treadmills and spits out thousands of pages of incomprehensible prophecies every minute–of course, who better to fix such a thing than a master lizard-maker? James Stoddard’s _The High House_ and _The False House_ have a Victorian setting with more of an old-fashioned story. The great house of Evenmere contains every conceivable universe within its walls. There’s a dinosaur in the attic and tigers in the basement. If the lamps on the roof aren’t lit each night, then the stars will go out. If the clocks aren’t wound, then the planets will stop moving. There’s a band of anarchists who want to break in so that they can destroy the stars and planets, and it’s up to Carter Anderson to find the magic set of keys that can stop them. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steampunk-gaslamp-fantasy-titles-requested/366418.md?page=2)