Back to the Retro-Future

A Steampunk Starter Pack
By Kerey McKenna

“Imagine it. The Victorian Age accelerated. Starships and missiles, fueled by coal and driven by steam. Leaving history devastated in its wake.” —Doctor Who, “Tooth and Claw”

I have a special place in my heart for the Genre of Steampunk, the subgenre of Sci-fi fantasy that draws inspiration from Victorian and Edwardian era technology. Yes, for the purposes of this article, that is my definition of steampunk. Because a full piece on what is or isn’t steampunk would be its own article, an article that has been written many times, much better than I could write it, by both by steampunk outsiders and enthusiastic steampunk proponents.

Shameless Plug: I am such a fan of steampunk, I make it an annual tradition to volunteer with the Watch City Steampunk Festival of Waltham Massachusetts, a wonderful open air event that combines the cosplay of a ren faire or science fiction convention, with the community spirit and mass appeal of a street festival and town founders day. And by the way, the festival is THIS WEEKEND, Friday May 12th and Saturday May 13th. Yep, craft vendors, three stages of musical and circus performances, and no entry fee. Find out more about the event at www.watchcityfestival.com.

But with that shameless plug, I do have a point. Serving as a brand ambassador for a steampunk festival and having to explain to passers-by who are all the people with goggles, top hats and ray-guns wandering around their town, I am sometimes asked to make reading recommendations. So here, in no particular order, are some of the books and series I recommend to those who want to get a sense what steampunk is all about:

1.) Girl Genius by Phil and Kaja Foglio. This long running comic book (also available as a free webcomic, updated three days a week like steam-powered clockwork) is a madcap adventure of infectious fun. In the world of Girl Genius, prodigies known as “Sparks” drive rapid advances in steam age technology through the pursuit of SCIENCE! (note: the all caps and exclamation point). Steam-powered clockwork robots, patchwork revenant mercenaries, and massive flying air fortresses are just some of the wonderful and terrifying creations that clank, prowl, and sour about the Sparks' world. Phil Foglio’s art keeps things zipping along at a manageable pace, even as the story grows to epic proportions with a massive cast. With its exuberant art style and general audience sensibilities (I would say the humor and art can sometimes be saucy but never raunchy), it’s a great introduction to steampunk for audiences young and old.

2.) The Leviathan Series, written by Scott Westerfeld and illustrated by Keith Thompson, is marketed as young adult but should be fun for anyone who likes an adventure. In 1914, the assassination of an Austrian Archduke has Europe on the edge of war. However in this world, alliances aren’t just drawn by marriage or strategic convenience but by technology. The European continent is split between “Darwinist” nations like England that use biotechnology to create weird beasts of war and the “Clanker” nations like Germany that craft zeppelins, massive warships, tanks, and robots out of metal. Now, through happenstance, two children, a son of the German aristocracy and an English girl masquerading as a boy in the British Royal Air Corps, must attempt to thwart the conspiracy that seeks to plunge the world into war. Keith Thompson’s illustrations help flesh out a world of massive land ships and strange creatures (like an airship crafted from a genetically-altered whale). Certainly worth a look to see one of the ways steampunk sometimes serves as a sort of alternate historical fantasy.

3.) Aethers of Mars by Eric Flint and Charles Gannon. This collaboration expands the Great Game of espionage played among the powers of Europe, their colonies, industrialists, and dissidents to the red sands of Mars. The authors imagine a cosmos adhering more closely to 19th century theories of an interplanetary ether (or aether if you’re fancy) that the engine of a spaceship can churn or paddle through like a ship on a river or the ocean. Flint and Gannon do a great job of bringing the wonderfully impossible interplanetary passenger liner to life, from its steam engine heated by solar power to how proper Victorian passengers would deal with the indignities of microgravity. Into this magnificent ship, the authors place overlapping tales of the passengers, who include the family of a scientist looking for academic freedom, a soldier of fortune seeking a cure for the Martian virus eating him from within, two agents of the Tsar’s secret police, and an undercover anarchist agitator. Really more of two companion novellas than a full novel, it gives readers the idea of steampunk space travel; from there they may want to pursue other similar series or perhaps go back and read Edgar Rice Borroughs John Carter of Mars series. (For more Eric Flint, check out the Nerds who Read review of his novel 1632. It’s a sort of a West Virginia Yankee in King Gustavus Adolphus’s Court.)

4) Steamfunk! Edited By Milton Davis and Balogun Ojetade. One of my first general recommendations to people looking for steampunk reads is to snap up an anthology, see if the genre is for them, and note their favorite stories and authors for further reading. However I usually don’t mention particular anthologies because as genre sampler platters, steampunk collections are readily available and somewhat indistinguishable. The exception that proves the rule is Steamfunk!, a collection of steampunk and science fiction tales told from an African and African-American perspective. This collection focuses on a sub-genre of a sub-genre with a specific editorial mandate, but with a multitude of storytelling styles and tones so you never feel like one story is the same as the next.

5) Soulless (Parasol Protectorate Book 1) by Gail Carriger. And because the list was leaning a bit heavy towards alternate history and high adventure, I wanted to get some supernatural, horror, and romance in there. Soulless takes the conventions of a Jane Austin-period Romance novel and blends them with Victorian supernatural creatures like vampires, werewolves, and ghosts (in a way more natural than simply grafting them onto a classic text, like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies). The Soulless series plays with Victorian sensibilities and mores as vampires and werewolves are fully integrated members of English society. Proper etiquette dictates that the social-climbing Londoners not take offense when the queen of the local vampire hive declines a glass of red wine or a Scottish Member of Parliament turns down any invitation for a dinner party on the full moon. Alexia Tarbotti is a sensible young(ish) woman, quite indifferently preparing for a life of spinsterhood, who has the power to negate supernatural powers with a touch. She finds herself in the midst of a plot to destroy the peace between the mortal and supernatural citizens of the Empire. Owing allegiance to no supernatural faction, nor being under the thumb of a husband, she may be the operative the Crown needs to get to the bottom of things. Fans of period romances will probably get the biggest kick out of this one.

So that’s my list. Is it a comprehensive treatment of the “Steampunk Canon”? Certainly not. My stingy editor wouldn’t give me enough space to cover luminaries of Victorian-era science fiction like Mary Shelley, H.G. Wells, and Jules Verne, or founding pieces of steampunk literature like Sterling and Gibson’s Difference Engine. So these are just some recommendations to get you started. But I assure you there is a galaxy of not only steampunk literature, but also steampunk TV, movies, cartoons, theater, video games, RPGs, fashion, and music out there. If you take to it, I have a feeling your list of recommendations would wind up very different from mine. And that’s okay, because I am always looking for my next good steampunk read.

Kerey McKenna is a contributing reviewer to Nerds who Read and SMOF for the annual Watch City Steampunk Festival, coming to Waltham, Massachusetts this Friday and Saturday, May 12 and 13, 2017. Check it out at www.watchcityfestival.com.