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jaebilitySteampunk is probably one of my favorite genres (micro-genre, maybe?). I've always been a big fan of fantasy, and magic combined with my second love of the 1800s makes me a gleeful reader. The wiliness of steampunk is another thing that makes it so enjoyable - that is, the story doesn't have to be set in the 1800s or an 1800s-inspired world. Steampunk cheerfully sits itself in almost all settings and all periods of history. It's devious like that; it's impossible to confine.
Deviant. Yeah, I think that word sums up steampunk best. It takes tropes and plays with them. Women in corsets? Hot! Now, imagine that instead of a flesh-and-blood woman, the character is an automaton, and her corset is built into her. Alchemy of Stone, where that example is from, explores intimacy and gender roles in ways that aren't possible in other genres.
coffeeandink posted about The Gaslight Dogs by Karin Lowachee, a steampunk novel whose main character is a young Inuit-esque woman. Stoked! It seems to me that steampunk novels often featured female protagonists, though maybe I have a predisposition toward finding books that fill those requisites.
At the moment I'm on a classics streak (reading The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton today), but for a while I was reading only steampunk. Once Pete finishes The Scar, I'm going to dive back in.
Damn good steampunk/ish novels
Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest (sequel in the works!)
Palimpsest by Catherynne M Valente (one of my favorite authors)
Perdita Street Station by China Mieville (he's got a new book coming out in June, too)
Soulless by Gail Carriger
Deviant. Yeah, I think that word sums up steampunk best. It takes tropes and plays with them. Women in corsets? Hot! Now, imagine that instead of a flesh-and-blood woman, the character is an automaton, and her corset is built into her. Alchemy of Stone, where that example is from, explores intimacy and gender roles in ways that aren't possible in other genres.
coffeeandink posted about The Gaslight Dogs by Karin Lowachee, a steampunk novel whose main character is a young Inuit-esque woman. Stoked! It seems to me that steampunk novels often featured female protagonists, though maybe I have a predisposition toward finding books that fill those requisites. At the moment I'm on a classics streak (reading The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton today), but for a while I was reading only steampunk. Once Pete finishes The Scar, I'm going to dive back in.
Damn good steampunk/ish novels
Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest (sequel in the works!)
Palimpsest by Catherynne M Valente (one of my favorite authors)
Perdita Street Station by China Mieville (he's got a new book coming out in June, too)
Soulless by Gail Carriger
