Friday 9 October 2009

Steampunk Reading List

As Tor has made this Steampunk month, I figured it's a great time to post my steampunk endcap/reading list. Again, this isn't the most comprehensive list you can find. I purposely avoided books I didn't consider steampunk (the definition for steampunk seems to be broader than I've ever considered with books showing up in searches that I would call time travel or cyberpunk books). Anyway, here's my list.


Soulless - Gail Carriger
Affinity Bridge - George Mann
Clockwork Heart - Dru Pagliassotti
Whitechapel Gods - S.M. Peters
Extraordinary Engines - Nick Gevers, Ed.
Court of the Air, Kingdom Beyond the Waves, Rise of the Iron Moon - Stephen Hunt
Swiftly - Adam Roberts
Mainspring, Escapement - Jay Lake
Boneshaker - Cherie Priest
Difference Engine - William Gibson & Bruce Sterling
Steampunk - Ann & Jeff Vandermeer, Ed.
Homunculus - James Blaylock
Light Ages - Ian MacLeod

Teen:
Mortal Engines, Infernal Devices, Predator's Gold - Philip Reeve
Leviathan - Scott Westerfeld

10 comments:

Josef said...

I appreciate your list, but I'd add Infernal Devices by K. W. Jeter, Lord Kelvin's Machine by James P. Blaylock plus The List of Seven and Six Messiahs by Mark Frost. And maybe also my personal favorite - The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers. Best wishes, t.

Nuno said...

Good list. I would add an "archaeological" work: Michael Moorcock "A Nomad of the Time Streams" trilogy (Cpt. Oswald Bastable).

Unknown said...

I'd also be tempted to add the Dungeon series by Philip Jose Farmer, as well as China Mieville's Perdido Street Station and related books.

Olaf Meys

Jeff said...

I wouldn't count "SnowCrash". Its more cyberpunk.
"Airborne" and "Skybreaker" by Kenneth Oppel are cool for the Zepplins.

Jessica Strider said...

Thanks for the added titles. I'd forgotten about Infernal Devices and Perdido Street Station. Some of the others I've never heard of, so that's great. Steampunk's an interesting subgenre. I've only read a few so far, but I've liked them all.

And thanks Jeff. When we put this display up in the store we didn't have enough steampunk so we used a few cyberpunk novels to flesh it out. I guess I forgot that Snowcrash was one of the cyberpunk titles. I've removed it from the list.

ediFanoB said...

Good list. Beside the books mentioned in the other comments I would add following books:

The Osiris Ritual by George Mann

The PAX BRITANNIA series
Unnatural History by Jonathan Green
El Sombra by Al Ewing
Leviathan Rising by Jonathan Green
Human Nature by Jonathan Green
Evolution Expects by Jonathan Green

The House of Storms by Ian MacLeod

The Alchemy Stone by Ekaterian Sedia

Thunderer by Felix Gilman
Gears of the City by Felix Gilman

Flaming London by Joe R. Lansdale

Boilerplate: History's Mechanical Marvel by Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett

The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters by Gordon W Dahlquist
The Dark Volumeby Gordon W Dahlquist

Unknown said...

Teen/young List:

His Dark Materials series by Pullman. Good divergent timeline w/ zeppelin

Rob Ward said...

Diamond Age isn't Steampunk either. It's set in the same world as Snow Crash roughly 100 years in its future, making it literally post-cyberpunk.

Anonymous said...

Interesting list. Would you have any recommendations for a short list for a middle-grade or YA reader just getting into Steampunk? Thanks, E

Jessica Strider said...

Sorry, E,

I don't know many middle-grade books. For YA, Leviathan's a great book without the controversy of the Pullman books. I haven't been watching teen closely to see what other steampunk novels have come out (too busy reading the dystopian novels).