# Steampunk Novel titles Requested **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 12, 2003, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steampunk-novel-titles-requested/160900 "2003-03-12T18:54:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **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:** [March 12, 2003, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steampunk-novel-titles-requested/160900/1 "2003-03-12T18:54:53Z")
Your Unca **Bosda** is _really, really_ bored. And, my intrest in _The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen_ has piqued my intrest in Steampunk–science fantasy set in the Victorian/Edwardian Era. I know that the Teeming Millions have absolutely _wonderful_ taste–they all read the works of the Perfect Master **Cecil Adams** , after all. So fill me in. Give me some good Steampunk titles. Or actual Victorian Fantasy/SF, if you’ve found something good. ---
**Author:** ![Ferrous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Ferrous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferrous)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2003, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steampunk-novel-titles-requested/160900/2 "2003-03-12T19:04:35Z")
I quite enjoyed _The Difference Engine_ by Bruce Sterling and William Gibson. It’s set in a world where Charles Babbage’s calculator actually worked, and the “Information Age” started in the 19th century. ---
**Author:** ![Legomancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/779978/32.png) [@Legomancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Legomancer)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2003, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steampunk-novel-titles-requested/160900/3 "2003-03-12T19:10:37Z")
I have been reading roughly Victorian stuff lately. H. G. Wells, Jules Verne, and such. I also expanded my range to include Robert Lousi Tevenson, Lovecraft, and E. R. Burroughs. I highly recommend going to the actual sources. I’ve had a blast reading them. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Matthew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e480ec/32.png) [@Mr.Matthew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Matthew)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2003, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steampunk-novel-titles-requested/160900/4 "2003-03-12T19:44:01Z")
Try The Peshawar Lancers by S.M. Stirling. It’s on the border of Steampunk and alternative history. Quite a good read. ---
**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:** [March 12, 2003, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steampunk-novel-titles-requested/160900/5 "2003-03-12T19:45:50Z")
James Blaylock: **The Digging Leviathan, Homunculus** and **Lord Kelvin’s Machine**. I’d add that “Homunculus” was probably the best of the genre. (I believe Blaylock may even have coined the term “Steampunk”). K.W. Jeter: **Infernal Devices**. Also highly recommended. Probably the next best after “Homunculus.” Tim Powers **The Annubis Gates** is technically not steampunk (it’s set pre-Victorian), but shares similarities, including the fact that he is a friend of Blaylock and an William Ashbless scholar ;). You can also try his **The Stress of Her Regard**. Heck, read just about anything by Powers, one of our best writers. Esther Friesner **Druid’s Blood** Mark Frost **The List of Seven** and **The Six Messiahs** Michael Swanwick’s **The Iron Dragon’s Daughter** has much in common with Steam punk. **The Difference Engine** is one of the genre’s better-known works, but is inferior to all listed above. Gibson and Sterling came late to the genre and didn’t seem to understand that the point of it was having fun. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2003, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steampunk-novel-titles-requested/160900/6 "2003-03-12T19:50:51Z")
Although it’s not exactly steampunk, _His Dark Materials_, by Phillip Pullman (a trilogy beginning with _The Golden Compass_) has a very steampunk feel to it, for me. I’ve just started reading _Perdido Street Station_, and a blurb on the back cover calls it steampunk. If you’ve not read _Frankenstein_, of course, you need to remedy that right away. More as I think of them. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Fiat\_Lux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ea666f/32.png) [@Fiat\_Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiat_Lux)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2003, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steampunk-novel-titles-requested/160900/7 "2003-03-12T20:23:39Z")
I’d recommend: _Rats and Gargoyles_, by Mary Gentle. It’s an odd kind of book, with universities of thieves and lashings of hermetic magic, but it is great fun. The steampunk elements are fairly subdued, but they’re there. _Perdido Street Station_, by China Mieville. Bizzare steampunk world and city. It’s good, although the whole is somewhat less than the sum of its parts; the actual plot doesn’t match up to the coolness and strangeness of the city itself. I often wish there was a genre of fictional atlases and tour-guide books for authors, like Mieville, Gibson and Vance, whose imaginations are great, but whose plots are often weak 🙂 _Deathscent_, by Robin Jarvis. It’s a YA book, but still readable. It’s somewhat strange ( I’ve just realised I’ve said something like that about every book so far. I guess steampunk is just a strange genre); about Elizabethan England… in space 😕 Not Victorian, but I’d still define it as steampunk. ---
**Author:** ![Skip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@Skip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skip)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2003, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steampunk-novel-titles-requested/160900/8 "2003-03-12T21:23:53Z")
I recommend _Anti-Ice_ by Stephen Baxter. It’s set at the turn of the century where the Brits have total control of Europe thanks to their possession of the volatile and powerful Anti-Ice. ---
**Author:** ![Legomancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/779978/32.png) [@Legomancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Legomancer)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2003, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steampunk-novel-titles-requested/160900/9 "2003-03-12T21:43:53Z")
Here are some threads of mine that might be helpful: [Stempunk](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=93835&highlight=victorian+verne) [Victorian Sci-Fi](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=136079&highlight=victorian+verne) ---
**Author:** ![burundi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@burundi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burundi)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steampunk-novel-titles-requested/160900/10 "2003-03-13T01:52:33Z")
I’m not sure if it’s strictly steampunk, but _The Diamond Age_ by Neal Stephenson is science fiction set in a neo-Victorian future. The plot isn’t the greatest, but it’s a fascinating setting and a good read. Like **RealityChuck** , I also enjoyed _The Iron Dragon’s Daughter_. It’s kind of a grim take on what happens when Faerie meets the Industrial Age. But much less twee than I just made it sound. ---
**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:** [March 13, 2003, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steampunk-novel-titles-requested/160900/11 "2003-03-13T02:15:12Z")
There’s a new novel coming April or May “The Light Ages” by Ian MacLeod. “Newton’s Cannon” by J. Gregory Keyes. Sort of unique in that it is set during the American colonial period. Instead of discovering Newtonian Physics, Newton uncovers the secrets of the aether and the harmonics of the universe. Benjamin Franklin stars as a young adventurer/inventor. Of course the movie “Wild Wild West” is definitely steampunkish, although its not very good. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Badtz\_Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steampunk-novel-titles-requested/160900/12 "2003-03-13T02:45:39Z")
Correction: Steampunk does not always have fantasy elements. The above-mentioned The Difference Engine does not have any, and there is another really good book in the genre I read that was simply alternate history, but I can’t recall it’s name. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steampunk-novel-titles-requested/160900/13 "2003-03-13T05:08:46Z")
What would you call this kind of thing set in the era _just before_ steam power? Clockworkpunk? Regencypunk? Luddpunk? How about Gothicpunk? I know… **Frankenpunk!**