well just got into steampunk with the warmachine and I love it so I am looking for books or series set in steampunk type universe. I found a up coming book by one of our star trek writers ready for preorder but no release date: Riese: Kingdom Falling by Greg Cox and Ryan Copple
there is a series of books by Stephen Hunt you might enjoy. the first one is called The Court of the Air.
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest. It was a Hugo nominee and involves dirigibles, zombies, and secret underground passages!
I have to say: I'm not a particular fan of that book. I get it's importance to the genre, but, I was sorta bored with it. To the point that I never finished it. And I RARELY quit a book.
What separates The Difference Engine from virtually all other steampunk fiction is that it's grounded in actual history and real science (or at least the science of the day). Think Wells and Verne. What passes as steampunk today is actually "gaslamp fantasy". Steampunk shouldn't have zombies (I'm looking at you, Cherie Priest), nor should it have vampires or werewolves (and I'm looking at you too, Carrie Grainger). Given the popularity of their works though, I acknowledge that I'm in the minority with that belief.
Which I appreciated actually. But, unlike Wells and Verne, I was just never very engaged in the story and the characters. I felt like they spent more time explaining how the world worked or something... I should finish it, but it just never really grabbed me.
The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack and The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man, written by Mark Hodder. These books follow the careers of Sir Richard Burton and Charles Swinburne as secret agents for the Crown, investigating strange events. The world is very well researched version of Victorian England, without Queen Victoria. It seems her assasination set off a number of changes in the timeline that resulted in rapid advancement of steampunk high tech. All of the characters are based on well known historical figures, but who's lives have changed dramatically. Burton gives up exploration and becomes a secret agent; he is at times very Bond-like (including a hilarious Bond quip at one point) and in other ways much like Holmes. Swinburne, a decadent Victorian poet, becomes his partner, a wonderfully written character that I can't think of a comparison to (definately not Watson.) The books explore the idea of changes in the timeline, Victorian age class politics, news events current at the time, and lives and lifestyles of famous Victorian age names. I found reading the books made me want to sit in a drawing room with a cigar and a gin and tonic, definately spurred me to look up many of the character's real life histories. If you aren't from Britain you likely have never heard of Spring Heel Jack, but this was a real life news story of the bizarre, a strange creature seen in and around London periodically over the course of about a century. Hodder comes up with fabulously twisted story that explains what Jack could have been, and how this changed the course of history and created one of most wonderfully painted science fiction worlds I've come across. The series seems to be at least a trilogy, I'm eagerly awaiting the next volume. Definately don't wait, each book is self contained and an amazing story in itself.
I agree with you. While I enjoy that aspect of the fandom from time to time, it's like candy: to much will rot your teeth. And I would slot Gibson into what I tend to call "Vernian" or "Wellsian". In that he tried to write, not much in their style, but from the same mindset of logical extrapolation. "if certain things had happened, what would the outcome be". Drives me nuts when people use them as example of Steampunk. How can they be steampunk when there was no steampunk, they were authors, just that, not sci-fi, not fantasy, not steampunk, just authors. Retconning them into genres just to add legitimacy to your fandom in stupid. And I'm saying that as a huge steampunk fan. And add me to the list of people that aren't a big fan of "Difference Engine". It's a good book, I won't deny that, but it falls into a trap of being sluggish to get going and (in my experience) sluggish to make you care or be interested in the characters. I'd still recommend that anyone looking for a good "steampunk" book check it out; if for no other reason to see what "steampunk" really is versus the more commercially viable (re: fad) stuff that is dominating that culture right now.
I've read the first one and enjoyed it. I like how the first book "explains" the divergence in history from ours, and it's a part of the plot, not a preface thing. Haven't gotten to the second and the third is out... soon though.
Here's a some recommendations: Leviathan (The Leviathan Trilogy #1), , Behemoth (The Leviathan Trilogy #2), and Goliath (The Leviathan Trilogy #3) The Lies of Locke Lamora (Gentlemen Bastards #1) and Red Seas Under Red Skies (Gentlemen Bastards #2) by Scott Lynch The Looking Glass Wars (The Looking Glass Wars #1), Seeing Redd (The Looking Glass Wars #2), and ArchEnemy (The Looking Glass Wars #3) by Frank Beddor The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials #1), The Subtle Knife ( His Dark Materials #2), and The Amber Spyglass His Dark Materials #3)(by Philip Pullman A Secret History (The Book of Ash #1), Carthage Ascendent (The Book of Ash #2), Wild Machines (The Book of Ash #3), and Lost Burgandy (The Book of Ash #4) by Mary Gentle