A Newbie Question

[curiousnova]

Can anyone recommend a good introduction to the steampunk genre in general? I'm intrigued by the whole subject but so new I don't know the classics. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Stevyn]

hi,

I am a huge fan of Moorcock and Harry Harrison so I was pleased to see this on wikipedia....

Michael Moorcock's 1971 Warlord of the Air [5] (the first volume of Moorcock's steampunk trilogy A Nomad of the Time Streams, continued in 1974 and completed in 1981). Harry Harrison's 1973 novel A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah! portrays a British Empire of an alternate 1973 A.D., full of atomic locomotives, coal-powered flying boats, ornate submarines and Victorian dialogue.

they go on to suggest:

William Gibson and Bruce Sterling's 1990 novel The Difference Engine[7] is often credited with bringing widespread awareness of the genre among science fiction fans. This novel applies the principles of Gibson and Sterling's cyberpunk writings to an alternate Victorian era where Charles Babbage's proposed steam-powered mechanical computer, which he called a difference engine (a later, more general-purpose version was known as an analytical engine), was actually built, and led to the dawn of the information age more than a century "ahead of schedule".

The first use of the word in a title was in Paul Di Filippo's 1995 Steampunk Trilogy, consisted of three short novels: "Victoria," "Hottentots," and "Walt and Emily," which respectively imagine the replacement of Queen Victoria by a human/newt clone, an invasion of Massachusetts by Lovecraftian monsters, and a love affair between Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson.

Alan Moore's and Kevin O'Neill's 1999 The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comic book series (and the subsequent 2003 film adaption) greatly popularized the steampunk genre and helped propel it into mainstream fiction.[8]

An anthology of steampunk fiction was released in 2008 by Tachyon Publications; edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer and appropriately entitled Steampunk, it collects stories by James Blaylock, whose "Narbondo" trilogy is typically considered steampunk; Jay Lake, author of the novel Mainspring, sometimes labeled "clockpunk";[9] the aforementioned Michael Moorcock; as well as Jess Nevins, famed for his annotations to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

While most of the original steampunk works had a historical setting, later works would often place steampunk elements in a fantasy world with little relation to any specific historical era. Historical steampunk tends to be more "science fictional": presenting an alternate history; real locales and persons from history with different technology. Fantasy-world steampunk, such as China Miéville's Perdido Street Station and Stephen Hunt's Jackelian novels, on the other hand, presents steampunk in a completely imaginary fantasy realm, often populated by legendary creatures coexisting with steam-era or anachronistic technologies.

more here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_steampunk_works

also, on amazon.com they now have a steampunk genre so some new books being released could have that as a tag.

[curiousnova]

Excellent! Thanks for all the suggestions. Good options for the holiday wish lists. I appreciate the help.