Wild Wild West?
Yes, the Big Willie movie - set after civil war, got all sorts of cool tech …well, coolish, anyway.
Any opinions?
Been done already :
Heavy WeatherBruce Sterling
Anti-Ice by Stephen Baxter - It was mentioned before but I’ll mention it again as I thought it was excellent. It is almost non stop adventure with giant land cruisers trundling around Europe, politics and a moon trip all thrown in…
It’s the flip side of cyberpunk – cyber augmentation is spiffy-keen, everybody has a good job and at least appears legit, and the dirt and grime is far away. You might think of it as the lifestyle of the top 1% in any cyberpunk world.
Steve Jackson Games’ infamous GURPS Cyberpunk (you know, the book seized by the Secret Service) included some material about cyberprep, some ten years ago.
– Bob
“Hard-boiled?” Johnny Angel, I don’t think that means what you think it means. I’ve never heard the term “hard-boiled” outside of noirish detective fiction like Dashiel Hammett or Mickey Spillane.
Can we count the Luther Arkwright comic book series or, even moreso, its sequel Heart of Empire as steampunk? Whether we do or not, should we?
And, we really shouldn’t count Wells and Verne, or Conan Doyle, I would think. Surely an essential element of steampunk should be that it’s Victoriana written from the perspective of authors who know what followed Victoria.
Chas: “Post-anachronistic” is a new one on me too, and I’ve been reading sf all my life. Heck, I was even lucky enough to go to a University that offered a science fiction literature course. I think “Alternate history” is the far more common term. BTW, when you wrote, “I guess they figured they could cash in on the now-dead cyberpunk genre by using the “punk” label,” who exactly is the “they” you refer to? The faceless, international niche-sf conglomorate? Although it seems like it at times, not everything in the world is a soulless marketing ploy. 
Manda Jo: I think you might be off on your opinion on why cyberpunk is dead. One of the standard set-pieces of cyberpunk is the idea that nation-states have given way to corporate-states. US v. Russia was almost never a theme in any cyberpunk I read. Usually, it was more like MicroSoft v. the Russian mob. As for EcoPunk, check out Zodiac by Neal Stephenson, or Slow River by Niccola Griffin.
Fiver: While the term “hard-boiled” originally refered to detective fiction in the tradition of Dashiel Hammet (Well, technically it originally refered to eggs, but that’s neither here nor there), it shouldn’t be surprising to see the term applied to other genres whose authors have been influenced by noir. I think there is more than a little Sam Spade in most cyberpunk novels, so the tag seems entirely appropriate.
As for the idea that “cyberpunk is dead,” personally, I don’t buy it. (The idea, not cyberpunk) People are still writing it, people are still reading it. The genre’s heyday may have come and passed, particularly in literature, but it’s not completely vanished.
And speaking of steampunk comics, let us not forget Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
Fiver wrote:
However you define the term, you’ll find an expert who agrees with you. Originally, I think the term referred to the detective himself, who was made tough by bitter experience. But the term has long since been stretched to cover the milieu and the unsentimental, parsimonious writing style that characterized the genre.
I don’t see it as the least bit controversial to call Cyberpunk `hard-boiled science fiction.’
Miller “Steampunk” is definitely a subgenre of alternate history.
“Cyberprep” was an elaborate joke prepared by Esther Friesner, Susan Swartz, and Judith Tarr for “tasteful” science fiction. John M. Ford was also there.
It has been suggested that the true “grandfather” of the cyberpunk genre was Hal Clement (Clement and the cyberpunks believed in a rigorous extrapolation of scientific trends).
I wasn’t looking to mix it up with you, Johnny Angel. It’s just that your usage of “hard-boiled” was novel in my experience.
Thanks for the definition. I think I’ll use it myself now.
RealityChuck: No argument, although for I would say that steampunk is also a sub-genre of cyberpunk.
Okay, I read through the Anubis Gates (look, ma, I spelled it right this time :rolleyes: ). Damn fine novel–in fact I finished it all in one go on the 4th of July. Not quite steam punk, IMO, but really great writing. Kind of reminded me of a twisted miscegenation of Clive Barker, Anne Rice and Walter Jon Williams.
Did Powers write any sequels? It has a sort of “begging for a sequel” feel to it, even though it doesn’t really seem necessary.
Chas.E writes (regarding “post-anachronism”):
> I first encountered the term back in the 1970s, IIRC it
> was in “The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.”
No, it’s not in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, nor is it in The Encyclopedia of Fantasy. In many years of reading science fiction, reading works of science fiction criticism, and talking with other s.f. fans, I’ve never encountered the word. I can’t even figure out how it could mean what you think it means.
There are no official sequels that I know of, but the other Tim Powers novels previously mentioned are great:
On Stranger Tides - Magical pirates ('nuff said)
Stress of Her Regard - Byron, Shelley, Keats and vampires.
Sadly, they’re both out of print (I spent $40 for a used copy of SoHRlast fall) but I think Powers has a wild imagination and gift for imagery that makes everything he’s written worth seeking out. For some of his modern day fantasy, check out his Fisher King trilogy: Last Call, Expiration Date, and Earthquake Weather
cheers,
Hodge
Yay Goblins, with the Lamarkian character generation system!
('Course I’m biased 'cos a friend was one of the authors). 
I can’t beleive the SteamPunk RPG list missed Castle Falkenstein – Victorian swashbuckling with elves and steam engines… and with a card based system because gentlefolk don’t play dice games.
I can’t figure out how it could mean anything…
(If it’s after the anachronism, doesn’t that mean everything’s now in the appropriate time-frame?)
A google search on ‘post-anachronism’ turned up nothing. ‘Postanachronism’ ditto. Same for ‘Exact phrase post anachronism’. ‘Steampunk’ renders 10,400 hits.
I guess we can guess which is the accepted term…
Well, as long as we’re talking about RPG’s, I can’t believe no one has mentioned Space: 1889 yet. Great setting, great writing, horrible game system. It’s still worth a read, though, if you find a copy somewhere.
Tim Powers did not write any sequels to Anubis Gates (and doesn’t like writing sequels at all, IIRC), but fans of that book might be interested to know that William Ashbless has published a book of his own–see http://www.subterraneanpress.com/html/ashbless.html . Edited and with forwards by Tim Powers and James Blaylock.
My copy arrived yesterday, and I was totally psyched to find that of the numbered, signed (by Powers&Blaylock), press run of 1000 I had received number 666. How cool is that? I hoped the SDMB would have at least one person that would envy me. I would brag to my wife, but I am afraid the eye-rolling might damage her vision.
Yes, I think both the movie and the TV series have steampunk in them, sort of. Though the genre’s heroes usually aren’t government agents.
Oh, believe me. I envy you. That’s incredibly cool.
I have never heard the phrase “post anachronism,” either, but I can guess it refers to the fact that steampunk stories tend to look at what would happen to society if a technology is anachronistically (neat word, huh?) introduced. Basically it is what happens after (post) this 20th century thing is introduced into the 19th Century (anachronism).