We already got quite a few recommendations so I decided to create a new subpage for the ones mentioned by challenge participants. This way we can always come back to one spot and check out what people suggested.
You will also find more suggestions on the Steampunk reviews page where participants linked us directly up to their reviews.
Since I am not familiar with the genre (yet) I have no clue how to divide suggestions into possible topics or even sub-sub-genres (which might exist). So I will just list anthologies separate from the rest.
Anthologies
| The Shadow Conspiracy | only available as e-book |
| Extraordinary Engines | Nick Gevers |
| Steampunk | edited by Ann & Jeff Vandermeer (with a sequel called "Steampunk reloaded") |
Everything else
| The Windup girl | Paolo Bacigalupi |
| Shipbreaker | Paolo Bacigalupi |
| New Amsterdam | Elizabeth Bear |
| Homunculus | James Blaylock |
| Lord Kelvin’s Machine | James Blaylock |
| The Adventures of Langdon St. Ives | James Blaylock |
| The Ebb Tide | James Blaylock |
| The Iron Duke | Meljean Brook |
| Soulless | Gail Carriger |
| Changeless | Gail Carriger |
| Blameless | Gail Carriger |
| The devil in chains (free e-book) | Adam Christopher |
| Clockwork Angel | Cassandra Clare |
| Cold Magic | Kate Elliott |
| Incarceron | Catherine Fisher |
| Sapphique | Catherine Fisher |
| The Difference Engine | William Gibson & Bruce Sterling |
| The strange affair of Spring Heeled Jack | Mark Hodder |
| The Clockwork Man | William Jablonsky |
| Infernal Devices | K. W. Jeter |
| Zeppelins West | Joe R. Lansdale |
| Flaming London | Joe R. Lansdale |
| Steamed: A steampunk romance | Katie MacAlister |
| The Affinity Bridge | George Mann |
| The Osiris Ritual | George Mann |
| Perdido Street Station | China Mieville |
| Nomad of the time streams series | Michael Moorcock |
| Airborn series | Kenneth Oppel |
| Clockwork Heart | Dru Pagliasotti |
| Whitechapel Gods | S. M. Peters von Roc |
| The Anubis Gates | Tim Powers |
| Dreadnought | Cherie Priest |
| The Boneshaker | Cherie Priest |
| Clementine | Cherie Priest |
| Larklight | Philip Reeve |
| Mortal Engines series | Philip Reeve |
| The Alchemy of stone | Ekaterina Sedia |
| The Hunchback Assignments | Arthur Slade |
| The Diamond Age | Neal Stephenson |
| Thomas Riley | Nick Valentino |
| Leviathan | Scott Westerfeld |
| Behemoth | Scott Westerfeld |
| Goliath | Scott Westerfeld |
| … | |
Graphic novels
| The League of extraordinary gentlemen | Alan Moore |
| Grandville | Bryan Talbot |
Some links
- Our love for steampunk…
- Wikipedia list of works
- Gail Carriger has an extensive steampunk website with a long list of books etc.
- Steampunk scholar
- Free the Princess
- Exhibition Hall, a steampunk fanzine
- Steampunk Magazine
- The endearing appeal of Steampunk (guest post on SFWA the The Steampunk Librarian linked to)
- Reading with Tequila Book Club has Clockwork Angel for their October 2010 read if anybody would like to discuss this book.
- Reading list on Goodreads
- Sarah, one of our participants, has written an interesting article on her LJ about what steampunk is.
- Chriss Cornish’s Steampunk reading list
- Xakara gives us a short excerpt of her Steampunk story The Clockwork Courtesan in a Thursday 13 post.
- Top 20 Steampunk books – An introduction to the genre at The Ranting Dragon
- The Founders of Steampunk – K.W. Jeter, Tim Powers, James Blaylock, John Berlyne – discuss the genre in a panel held at the 2011 World Fantasy Convention.
two more books to add:
The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
New Amsterdam by Elizabeth Bear
Haven’t read them but these are being promoted as steampunk romance:
The Iron Duke by Meljean Brooks
Cold Magic by Kate Elliott
Hi, everyone!
I discovered your site (and this challenge) through my writing partner, Philippa Ballantine. Currently, we are in edits for our own steampunk romp, Phoenix Rising: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel, slated for release in May from Harper Voyager (formerly Eos Books). We have soft launched the blog (http://www.ministryofpeculiaroccurrences.com), set our characters loose on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/BooksAndBraun) and, once the edits are done and away, will be launching a podcast anthology called “From the Archives: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Anthology” featuring voices from the podosphere. More on that to come.
We would love to not only contribute to your steampunk challenge but also offer ourselves as resources for you and your blog in writing steampunk, commentary on the genre, and any other questions you might have for us. Stay in touch and we hope to talk to you all soon!
Tee, thanks for stopping by and for offering your support. I am sure it will come in handy especially since a lot of us are fairly new to the genre.
i like your challenge! i plan to link to it when i do my next steampunk weekly post in october.
Thanks, vvb. I really appreciate that.
Rikki, maybe a “subgenre” which is not really a subgenre but just a subdivision, is Young Adult / Adult.
Once the challenge is under way I will update the list and put it in some sort of alphabetical order and will at least add YA to the relevant books. Yes, that would be a good idea, since not everybody is interested in YA.
You should probably include:
James Blaylock: Homunculus, Lord Kelvin’s Machine, The Adventures of Langdon St. Ives (include the previous two, but also include 4 related short stories), and The Ebb Tide.
K. W. Jeter (who coined the term Steampunk): Infernal Machines and Morlock Night
Cherie Priest: Clementine (same universe and Boneshaker and Dreadnought)
Joe R. Lansdale: Flaming London, Zeppelins West, Flaming Zeppelins
Thanks, John, for your recommendations. I will add them to the list.
I found this list on goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/steampunk
I would add The Osiris Ritual (George Mann’s latest) to this list.
I added the link to the GR list and the book. Thanks Sarah and Mamalayne.
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding
The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau
Warrior by Zoe Archer
The Clockwork Three by Matthew J. Kirby
Pump Six and Other Stories by Paolo Bacigalupi
The Boneshaker by Kate Milford
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
Johannes Cabal the Necromancer
Johannes Cabal the Detective
The Somnambulist
Not a suggestion for books, but for categorization.
I split it into:
Foundational- Works written before 1917
Formative- Works written between 1972 and 2002
Self-conscious- Works written by steampunks for steampunks 2000 > present
I have a placeholder style ‘Steampulp’ – for 1918 – 1970, but haven’t found any takers yet.
Also.
The Anubis Gate, Tim Powers
The Brimstone Key, Grey Griffins
And — 10 Steampunk Novels You Ought to Read: http://www.sflare.com/archives/ten-steampunk-novels-you-ought-to-read/
Thanks everybody. I am a bit busy right now, but I will add all recommendations to the list asap.
Thanks, Jack, for the suggestions of how to categorize them…
Just a quick note on Blaylock – both Homonculus and Lord Kelvin’s Machine are included in the Adventures of Langdon St. Ives.
I’m wondering if you guys would consider the Bryant and May novels of Christopher Fowler, very steampunk in nature. After consideration, I think, in tone, they might qualify.
Also the Thursday Next, literary detective, novels of Jasper Fforde. They take place in an alternate England where air travel is consigned to dirigibles. These are literary parodies where some of the characters can enter books and become part of the story (though they are cautioned not to) and the ‘real’ world is run by an all knowing, all powerful company. The books are filled with literary puns, anachronisms, make-believe creatures, a bit of time travel and this time out, the dodo is not extinct. Fun books.
When I realized what ‘steampunk’ consists of, I immediately thought of Fforde’s books.
Yvette, maybe someone will help out here, I have no idea. I know none of the books you mentioned.
However, I have seen the Fforde books and have the first one on my wishlist, simply because the concept sounds so nice and I have heard a lot of good things about them.
It’s too late for me to do any more reading challenges for 2010, but I’m kind of hooked on all things steampunk lately! This is a wonderful resource; I’ve included it on my post of book recommendations by theme.
Thanks, Audra, I appreciate that very much.
My pleasure! Thank you for putting it together — I’m always looking for lists like this!
I have a bit of a correction on your listing for the “Steampunk” title in your Anthologies section. That anthology is in fact edited by Ann AND Jeff Vandermeer. It’s pretty important to mention the pair of them.
Chriss, thank you for the correction. I changed it in the list above. I’ll also link to your reading list, I am sure it will be helpful.
One title I haven’t seen yet is The Clockwork Man by William Jablonski. Such an incredible story that touches the heart. This is one of the few titles that I cannot recommend enough!
Thanks, Karen, I added the book to the list.