Dawn of Steam: First Light, by Jeffrey Cook and Sarah Symonds. 2014 “Dawn of Steam: First Light” is the first of a series of books set in an alternate past. The Napoleonic Wars have been won by England (with help from the USA and others). Dirigibles already exist; some were used in the war. The USA is still largely unexplored by Europeans, as are ( Read more... )

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, by Natasha Pulley. Bloomsbury, 2015 Thaniel Steepleton is a telegrapher at the home office, spending his working hours in a former broom closet, listening to the machines that have their wire tentacles all over Westminster. It’s a boring life. Then one night a bomb threat comes through, set for May. When he goes ‘ ( Read more... )

The Book of Esther, by Emily Barton. Tim Duggan Books, 2016 “The Book of Esther” is an alternative history, fantasy, kind of steampunk (except the motive technology is gasoline driven instead of steam- petrolpunk?), Jewish Joan of Arc, gender bending, coming of age story. And I’m sure there are some bits I’m forgetting there. Oh, yes, there is a ( Read more... )

The Invisible Library, by Genevieve Cogman. New American Library, 2016 ( Read more... )

The Mammoth Book of Steampunk: 30 Extraordinary Tales, edited by Sean Wallace. Running Press, 2012 I find myself torn, as I so frequently am with anthologies, between great enthusiasm and complete boredom concerning this book. Some of the stories I found excellent; some were little more than scenes or prose poems. Most are not what I’ve come to ( Read more... )

The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man, by Mark Hodder. Pyr, 2011 This is the second book in the alternate history/fantasy/steampunk series featuring Sir Richard Francis Burton and his sidekick, poet Algernon Swinburne. In the first book, a time traveler altered time. Queen Victoria was assassinated and Prince Albert was made king. Steam mechanisms ( Read more... )

The Doctor and the Rough Rider, by Mike Resnick. Pyr, 2012 I’m not sure if this novel was meant to be for young adults (it was shelved in the adult section at the library) but it reads more YA than it does adult. It’s a steampunk western (think Wild, Wild West) using several historic figures- Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Edison, Doc Holliday, Ned ( Read more... )

Fiddlehead, by Cherie Priest. Tor Books, 2013 ‘Fiddlehead’- a computing machine bright enough to ‘fiddle with a man’s head’- brings the story arc started in ‘Boneshaker’(still my favorite of the series, especially now that there is a huge digging machine stuck under Seattle)to a close; hopefully it’s not the end of Priest’s steampunk, alternative ( Read more... )

Steampunk Voyages, by Irene Radford. Book View Café, 2013 Radford presents five short steampunk stories and an excerpt from her upcoming novel in ebook format. In Radford’s steampunk world of alt history, air ships were invented and came into wide use early in the 19th century; Lord Byron was working on immortality before he died; automatons are no ( Read more... )

Gideon Smith and the Mechanical Girl, by David Barnett. Tor, 2013 The first volume in a projected trilogy, Gideon Smith and the Mechanical Girl is set in a fairy typical steampunk world: Victorian era, airships, wild inventions, paranormal beings, historical characters mixed in with fictional ones ( Read more... )