Steampunk
Steampunk is essentially a whole sub-genre based on an Alternate History which involves an era where steam power is still widely used and has a 19th century Victorian style. This Victorian perspective includes the fashion, culture and style. Much Steampunk is directly influenced by the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne.
Books Reviewed
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![The Sign of NineG. S. Denning]()
FantasyWarlock Holmes is back. No, not Sherlock, Warlock. If you think about it, what makes more sense; a man who can somehow divine everything from a few clues, or a Warlock who just uses magic to do the same? The Sign of Nine continues the premise that Sir Conan Doyle’s original stories were actually edi...
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![Affinity BridgeGeorge Mann]()
FantasyI found this book during a post Christmas hunt in my local Waterstones after receiving a number of gift vouchers. I had never read anything by the author (or indeed the publisher) but have seen the third novel in the series (the Immorality Engine) appearing around the web for a while. For me one of...
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![The Executioners HeartGeorge Mann]()
FantasyThe Executioners Heart is the fourth novel in the Newbury and Hobbes series and follows on from the events of The Immorality Engine - although you don't need to have read that or any of the previous books to enjoy The Executioners Heart. The Queen's agents Sir Maurice Newbury and Miss Veronica Hobbe...
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![Steam QueenJack Hessey]()
FantasySteam Queen is a steampunk novel by Jack Hessey. Europe is a lawless country where armed bandits prowl the vast network of railway lines in heavily armed steam trains looking for easy marks. Heavily fortified mercenary engines travel from town to town looking for work in a world where every day is a...
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![The Aylesford SkullJames P Blaylock]()
FantasyThe Aylesford Skull is the fourth novel in the Narbondo series, following the adventures of the brilliant but eccentric Professor Langdon St. Ives and written by one of the founding fathers of the Steampunk genre - James P Blaylock. Not only has Blaylock won a number of awards, he's also been recomm...
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![Anno FrankensteinJonathan Green]()
FantasyAnno Frankenstein is a novel in the Pax Britannia series featuring the intrepid adventurer Ulysses Quicksilver. In this alternative universe, Magna Britannia is the undisputed superpower of the world whereas since the second great European war, Hitler’s Nazi party has been reduced to the status of a...
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![Senlin AscendsJosiah Bancroft]()
FantasySenlin Ascends is the ground-breaking debut of Josiah Bancroft and the beginning of the Books of Babel series. Originally self published in 2013, the book was picked up by Tor / Orbit when it became clear just how special the novel really is. Since then the series has continued with Arm of the Sphin...
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![Arm of the SphinxJosiah Bancroft]()
FantasyArm of the Sphinx is the second in the Books of Babel series by Josiah Bancroft and follows on from the events of Senlin Ascends . Tom - who is now going by the name of Captain Mudd, continues his search for Marya. He has help, with the airship The Stone Cloud and it's motley crew. Since the events...
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![Infernal DevicesK W Jeter]()
Science FictionInfernal Devices is a steampunk fiction novel by K W Jeter. INFERNAL DEVICES-K.W. Jeter. Oh dear reader, the book I have just read flamed the mind with it's fancy and mystery to make the fragile bones of my pudenda quiver with delicate joy such that I have never felt afore! Goddam what a book. This...
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![Camera ObscuraLavie Tidhar]()
FantasyThis is the second book in The Bookman Histories, the first being The Bookman and I would suggest you start with that first. Although Camera Obscura would stand alone you may find a few references confusing. Once again Tidhar has constructed a masterpiece of a novel. His steampunk world where Lizard...
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![The BookmanLavie Tidhar]()
FantasyThe Bookman is a steampunk-esq novel of victorian adventure meets history, technology and erm... books, written by the talented author Lavie Tidhar. If the British Library was a living entity and, on wanting to write a book was told ‘write what you know’ then this is the book it would write. The her...
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![The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled JackMark Hodder]()
The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack won it's author the Philip K Dick award for best novel last year, what makes this acheivement even more remarkable is that it was also the authors début. The novel is a steampunk tale set in an alternative England where Queen Victoria was actually killed in t...
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![The Other Log of Phileas FoggPhilip Jose Farmer]()
Science FictionThe Other Log of Phileas Fogg is very much a "literary mashup" novel which fills in the blanks from Jules Verne's classic novel "Around the World in 80 Days". It's being given a new lease of life thanks to Titan Books, originally published almost 40 years ago. As the title suggests the novel introdu...
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![Shrouded LoyaltiesReese Hogan]()
Science FictionWhat is war good for? Not much, but it does advance some technologies faster than they might have been. Microwave technology, nuclear, plastic surgery – all have benefitted from being pushed by necessity. What about a war on a distant planet? Like here on Earth, any opposing armies will be looking f...
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![KultusRichard Ford]()
FantasyMeet Thaddeus Blaklok, mercenary, demonist and down right violent thug-for-hire who uses his fists the way most people use punctuation. He is dragged out of semi-retirement to "retreive" a very mysterious key for his equally mysterious benefactors. He isn't the only one after the artefact however an...
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![The Educated ApeRobert Rankin]()
FantasyRobert Rankin is without a doubt one of the select few funniest and sometimes strangest authors alive today. Often his novels are more than a little odd and with The Educated Ape he manages to merge these styles with a steampunk theme and some quite brilliant characterisation. This is the third nove...
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![The Bullet Catcher's DaughterRod Duncan]()
FantasyThe Bullet Catcher's Daughter is set in a world that is steeped in steampunk style. Not only full of arcane machines but with a clear nod to the Victorian society and strict sexist views. This style is perfectly captured by the series name "The Gas-Lit Empire". In this tightly controlled Empire it i...
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![Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder T A WillbergT A Willberg]()
General FictionMystery is a powerful tool. You can exude a sense of power from the shadows that may not be true if a light was shined on you. The premise of T.S. Willberg’s Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder begins thus, with a mysterious detective agency, but we soon delve deep under the streets of London to d...
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![The Wonder EngineT Kingfisher]()
FantasyA large part of fantasy novels is not really the destination, but the journey. The camaraderie that builds among a troop of characters as they travel to their destination, but what happens once they have arrived? In T Kingfisher’s Clockwork Boys four mismatched social pariahs set out to survive the...
Book of the month
