Books: Request for Recommendations

[coraa]

Here I am again, asking for book recs!

Specifically, I have a jones on lately for steampunk or gaslamp fantasy (or clockpunk, or neo-Victoriana, or steampulp, or Voyages Extraordinares, or whatever you like to call it). You may at this point be asking me what I consider to be steampunk; unfortunately, I'm pretty lassiez-faire about genre definitions, so usually what I mean is 'the things I point to when I say steampunk.' So you can do the same -- if you think it's steampunk, that's totally cool. (I'm also a tagger, not a sorter, which means I'm perfectly happy calling something science fiction and fantasy, or whatever.) So if you think it maybe could be steampunk, go ahead and suggest it. (If you want a vague stab at a definition, I'd say that steampunk is science fiction with an archaic sensibility and aesthetic -- usually but not always Victorian, and which may or may not actually be set during the historical time period in question -- which may or may not also have significant fantasy elements. I actually think that one of the appealing things about steampunk is that it doesn't so much blur the line between science fiction and fantasy as considers the distinction irrelevant altogether, but maybe that's just me.)

Things I have read that I consider steampunk/gaslamp fantasy:

• Girl Genius, by Phil Foglio
  
• The Grand Ellipse, by Paula Volsky
  
• Perdido Street Station and sequels, by China Mieville
  
• His Dark Materials, by Philip Pullman
  
• A Series of Unfortunate Events, by Lemony Snicket
  
• Fullmetal Alchemist, by Hiromu Arakawa
  
• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, by Alan Moore
  
• The Diamond Age, by Neal Stephenson

Any suggestions? I'm looking mostly for books and comics/manga, though if you have any movie (or TV or music) recs, go ahead and mention them too.

Comments

[donaithnen.livejournal.com]

Ooohhh! Another cool icon!!! :)

You've already hit most of the big ones i know about, but i'd definitely recommend Martha Wells' "The Death of the Necromancer" and the "Fall of Ile-Rien" trilogy that follows it (which starts with "The Wizard Hunters.")

Checking through http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_steampunk_works as a reminder, i'd give a tentative recommendation for Stephen Baxter's Anti-Ice and S. M. Stirling's The Peshawar Lancers.

Also, the anime remake of Metropolis is cool. Speaking of which did i ever get my copy of that back from your old apartment? Or did it wander off with you or ceph?

And although the claim to "steampunk" is almost non-existent, for some reason the query brought to mind Mary Gentle's Ash series, which is an alternate history of 15th century Burgundy where there are golems wandering about.

[ceph.livejournal.com]

I still have it. Sorry about that. I'll try to remember to bring it to work...

[donaithnen.livejournal.com]

Well have you had the chance to watch it yet? It's not like i have a desperate need to get it back right now, it's just nice to know where it is :)

[zalena.livejournal.com]

This is more Victoriana than steampunk, but Phillip Pullman's Sally Lockhart series is fabulous and might address your yearning. Like His Dark Materials it was marketed to young people, but is really more appropriate for grown up readers.

Also Madeleine Robins' Sarah Tolerance series about a Regency 'agent of inquiry' is pretty satisfying, particularly the first book, Point of Honor.

A long time ago I liked a series called My Name is Paris about a teen sleuth in fin-de-siecle Paris. Houdini makes an appearence, how could you not like that? The author's name is Elizabeth Howard, but they are largely OOP.

[zalena.livejournal.com]

Also, Last Exile is definitely steampunk anime and I largely liked the whole series. (The ending was a little off, but it should not put you off the series as a whole.)

[jmpava.livejournal.com]

Check out The Steampunk Workshop.

Just looks neat, doesn't actually help at all.

For example. 'Steampunked' LCD monitor: http://steampunkworkshop.com/lcd.shtml

[cwendy41.livejournal.com]

That's pretty cool (the LCD monitor). Bet that would work on a cheap CRT too.

[clairebaxter.livejournal.com]

Sun of Suns by Karl Schroeder was fun. But don't read anything about it before you read it, because the best part is discovering the world in bits and pieces. The characters aren't that well written.

Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve, more or less the same. Not that much to discover about the world really, just that it was a fun romp.

Better, but not my style, was New Amsterdam. Well written, exciting, also happens to be murder mystery in the many case style. I read two cases and then realized I'd rather be able to sleep at night. You may not be as much of a wuss.

Not as steam punk, but fun fantasy or scifi set in the Victorian era: Sorcery & Cecelia by Patricia Wrede & Caroline Stevermer (sequels are also reasonably good, and both their separate series are good as well, starting with, Mairelon the Magician /Wrede, and A College of Magic /Stevermer). To say nothing of the dog by Connie Willis is also awesome.

[profgreg.livejournal.com]

If you're a fan of "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen", a brand new volume (hard cover) just came out last week:
http://www.amazon.com/League-Extraordinary-Gentlemen-Black-Dossier/dp/140120306X/

[thegreatgonz.livejournal.com]

If you haven't already read it, you might check out the Temeraire series (starting with "His Majesty's Dragon"). It's not really science fiction, so I don't know if you could justify calling it "steampunk", but it's fantasy in a much more historical setting than I'm used to (the setting is the Napoleonic Wars, but fought with dragons in addition to ships and cannons and such).