I've just read three of Stephen Hunt's steampunk Jackelian series (The Kingdom Beyond the Waves, Secrets of the Fire Sea, Jack Cloudie) and they've been the best steampunk adventure reads I've found so far. Lots of airships, submarines, steammen, transaction engines, and altered creatures, all wrapped up in great rollicking screeds of adventure. - Highly recommended fun.
FYI, the books in the series are only loosely connected, so it's fine to read them out of order (as I've been doing) - just start with whichever one catches your attention and dive right in. Six books in the series so far:
- The Court of the Air
- The Kingdom Beyond the Waves
- The Rise of the Iron Moon
- Secrets of the Fire Sea
- Jack Cloudie
- From The Deep of the Dark

What does anyone else recommend for a great steampunk read?

I picked up a copy of 'The Bookman' by Lavie Tidhar on several recommendations but haven't cracked it yet.

In another format (audio), I can refer you to a couple great Podcastle episodes:
and

On a lighter, fluffier, note is the Alexia Tarabotti series by Gail Carriger. Ms. Carriger was involved in the steampunk scene well before becoming a published author.

More steam fantasy than SF, vampires, werewolves, and ghosts are not only up and about, but a part of society. Mad science is making its mark, with airships leaving London daily.

Of the Americas let us not speak, as those lands are inhabited by intolerant barbarians, that know neither the wisdom of the undead, nor the virtue of a decent cup of tea.... The first book is Soulless, the main character was born without the encumbrance of a soul, and has such a lack of spiritual power that her touch can render werewolf and vampire alike mortal.

On a more serious note is the writing of K. W. Jetter, who's themes are tighter, and much darker. His characters, by and large, are unsympathetic, a trifle paranoid, and often not very nice people. Infernal Devices concerns the ungifted son of a brilliant watchmaker, who is unaware that his father's abilities were far beyond that of merely clockwork....

Predating the term 'steampunk' is James Blaylock's Homunculous, a tale of alchemy, vivisection, and dark magics in the late Victorian era. Last reprinted in 2000 it is well worth looking for.

For film, Fritz Lang's Metropolis may predate the term 'steampunk' by half of a century or more, but it has all the ingredients, from a dystopian industrial society, to prosthetic limbs, to soulless machinery passing itself off as humanity....

The Auld Grump

Well, Girl Genius fits the bill.

This is an interesting thread...

I haven't read any Steampunk before, but definitely will add some of this to my reading list.

Pitched at a younger (12+) audience, Scott Westerfield's Leviathan series (Leviathan, Behemoth, and now Goliath) is great.

(Start a thread and then think of all the other things I could have added. Hope I'm not the only one this happens to!)

I also have to add a + for Girl Genius, great web comic
I need to check out some of those listed above...they sound interesting too

+2 for Girl Genius. Thoroughly entertaining!

Loving this thread. Keep 'em coming for us SP-fiction newbies!

I see this thread is a month old, I hope there's still interest.
I recommend Mark Hodder's Burton & Swinburne series. I've read the first one,Spring Heeled Jack, and I enjoyed it. I'll be reading the next one, the Clockwork Man, pretty soon.

Well thanks guys for adding around another dozen or so titles to my nearly infinite list of 'must reads'...
Chiming in on Foglio's "Girl Genius" to which I was directed by a friend just before you all pitched for it here. +2 to Phil who I've been a fan of his art and wit since c.1980 and TSR's "The Dragon" Magazine.

this is a good thread for me too. I'm keen to try steampunk and pointers to some good stuff will stop me being put off the genre by accidentally picking some turkeys.

Keep em coming please.

Are there any Steampunk genre books that my wife would enjoy? Think Twilight and Hunger Games...

The Scar (I haven't read any other China Mieville books)

The Hunchback assignments by Arthur Slade (though we probably have all seen the best part of the plot before, it is well constructed and detailed)

The Hungry Cities Chronicles (or Mortal Engines Quartet) by Philip Reeve and the prequels, though I haven't read enough of those to tell if it starts to pick up after Fever Crumb.

The Deadlands dime novels are being rereleased as pure fiction without the gaming stuff. Though, Talae, if you're talking Twilight


Edit: why does the spoiler do that now....?

Is it just me, or are the trailers for steampunk novels... silly?







The Auld Grump

Perhaps they are - but doesn't that simply reflect the implicit bit of silliness at the root of the whole steampunk theme? (Not knocking it - I think it's cool... so would the Doctor, I think.)