Nathan Bransford - The Forums

What the hell is Steampunk?

Never heard of this until last week.

A friend recommended K.W. Jeter's INFERNAL DEVICES and told me it was the first Steampunk novel. It didn't sell and is out of print but I'll find it.

Any other good Steampunk books?

Did you ever see the movie "Wild Wild West" with Will Smith and Kevin Kline? That's kind of steampunk. Think Victorian England with mechanical gizmos and machines that are way too advanced for the time, but are explained using watch parts and other common era items. Hmm, I guess "The Time Machine" could almost be steampunk, with the time machine and all...

Jeter is the man who coined the term steampunk and is generally considered one of three or four writers who really pioneered the subgenre. I read recently that Angry Robot is going to reprint some of the classics, including Jeter, if I recall correctly.

Steampunk is a subgenre of speculative fiction, basically an era (historical - 19th century) or world (alternate history) in which steam power is still dominant. Steampunk tends to be associated with Victorian styles and mannerisms. More recently, there's also been Western and kind of Cyberpunk spins on it, from what I understand. It's been labeled the "next big thing" in fantasy so you'll probably be seeing more of it in the next few years.

The Bonesaker by Cherie Priest is one of the first steampunk novels I read where I thought it was done exceptionally well.

His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman is not steampunk in the strictest sense, but has so many of the same elements that it feels like steampunk without beating you over the head with the genre.

It's something I'm dabbling in with my writing. It's using mechanicals in a time where that simply wasn't done. :3

Basically, this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk

But everyone puts their own spin on it. It's one of those things you can't perfectly define because it can be so twisted based on a persons view it seems. And people who are strict steampunks can be so tense about it. Some think TRUE steampunk is only Victorian Steampunk and nothing else.

Yet there are so many offshoots of that. Asian Steampunk. Cyberpunk. Edwardian Steampunk. The list goes on.

I want this: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... eamtop.jpg XD

Look at my icon. He's a little Steampunk character. He's got goggles and works on computers and steambikes. But he's more modern Steampunk because he's in a modern time, using steam. Which is sorta...ironic, I guess.

Most traditional Steampunk is set in a post apoctalyptical time, when the world is being reborn, and people have to learn to start again. That's how it was described to me. But as it's become more popular, people are fraying off from that and getting much more creative.

With those goggles of yours, Steve, I would have sworn you were into steampunk already.

That's what I thought, too! XD

I will probably classify my series as Steampunk, though it is set on an extra-solar planet hundreds of years in the future. The planet's human inhabitants have modeled their societies and technologies on 1920s and 1930s Earth, which is more Dieselpunk than Steampunk, strictly speaking. But Dieselpunk is a less well known classification at the moment, and often considered a subsection of Steampunk.

Scott Westerfeld's LEVIATHAN series and Kenneth Oppel's AIRBORN trilogy are good examples of Steampunk/Dieselpunk. I may cite them as comparisons in my query.

Goggles? My series has THE BIGGEST GOGGLES IN STEAMPUNK! I'm not exaggerrating. Just you wait and see...

J. T. SHEA wrote:Goggles? My series has THE BIGGEST GOGGLES IN STEAMPUNK! I'm not exaggerrating. Just you wait and see...

Bigger than these?

Yes, Down the well! MUCH bigger!

Question the size of a man's goggles, would you? People were shot for less in the Wild West.

Mind you, mine are not actually worn by humans...

Down the well wrote:With those goggles of yours, Steve, I would have sworn you were into steampunk already.

Ha!

My goggles come from La Jetee, and they're French!

Thanks for all the recommendations so far.

Cassandra Clare's new series the Infernal Devices could be considered steampunk after a fashion. So could leviathan by Scott Westerfield.

CV

HillaryJ wrote:It's been labeled the "next big thing" in fantasy so you'll probably be seeing more of it in the next few years.

I'm horrible at predicting trends, so I don't know this will be true, but I know two authors who are getting into it after publishing in other genres for years. My ex-husband volunteered me as a beta for one of them, so I need to start learning the ways and means of steampunk.

I see Sommer already mentioned Cherie Priest. I just saw a mention of her related to the sequel to the book Sommer read, which won a Locus Award. I may check that one out myself, though it will have to go to the bottom of my already towering reading pile.

The three things I've seen talked about are:

Angels\Fallen Angels\Watchers
Steampunk
Gods\Children of Gods

Those are what's 'Trending Now', so to speak. :3