Thinking about Steampunk
Years ago I read William Gibson & Bruce Sterling's The Difference Engine and immediately loved the steampunk milieu. It's a work that divides fandom into those who feel that The Difference Engine is a fractured novel, and the others, like myself, who enjoyed the narrative even toward the gimmicky end. It is worth a read, twenty years later, if you've never experienced it. Since then, there have been numerous other authors who have grown the subgenre. I'm not saying that Gibson and Sterling where the first, that honor should probably go to James Blaylock, but The Difference Engine was the first steampunk novel I had ever read. And since it was written by two well-know authors at the time, it could very well be the initiator of the steampunk zeitgeist we are experiencing today.
This month, near its end, marked science fiction & fantasy publisher TOR's "Steampunk Month." They have a few titles available for sale at a discount and I'd like to offer my brief thoughts on the ones that I have read:
Freak Angels by Warren Ellis & Paul Duffield: They're a loose band of superheroes, or something akin to being more than mere mortals, and they live in an England after the world ended. It's been a free web comic for quite a while, and has recently be collected into two volumes. Well worth a read. Try out the web comic if you're hesitant or not deep into steampunk.
Girl Genius by Kaja and Phil Foglio: A fun-filled comic filled with mad scientists, steam mecha and a heroine not to be missed. This is a great comic. Don't miss it now that it's being collected into omnibus editions.
Perdido Street Station by China Mieville: A rich, atmospheric novel where the mere setting breathes with life grander and more haunting then the residents. I recommend this and all of Mieville's work.
The Adventures of Luther Arkwright by Bryan Talbot: Experience Victorian sensibilities in the hands of comics artist and writer Bryan Talbot and the hero Luther Arkwright in a multiverse of secret agents and villians. I love it.
The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers: Powers is one of my favorite authors and I don't miss any of his writings, and neither should you. Start with this one, you won't be disappointed.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore: Moore's work is simply profound. You shouldn't pass this one up. It includes a group of fictional characters who band together to fight forces of evil and fully captures Victorian attitudes while telling a great yarn.
The Steampunk Trilogy by Paul Di Filippo: After I devoured The Difference Engine during my college's exam week (it was a great stress reliever), I immediately went on a search for more steampunk. The Steampunk Trilogy was what I encountered next. It's collection of three novellas and blurs the lines between fantasy and steampunk scifi. I was hooked and didn't look back.
Then there's also the others, the early stuff, that could be called the early-works, though great works none-the-less, like H.G. Wells' The Time Machine, and Jules Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea ("20,000 leaguessss! That's pretty deep, Captain!"). These books are to modern era steampunk as the New York Dolls and The Velvet Underground are to late 70s punk rock: they set the stage for the punkers like The Clash and Sex Pistols, Stiff Little Fingers and The Buzzcocks.
Well, enough brief reviews for now. Next time, Steampunk Games.
