Steampunk and Empire

[pjc50]

I'd been vaguely pondering nanowrimo this year, and had got as far as the basis of an idea for some steampunk:
Miniturised mechanical technology develops, with sapphire as the crucial material playing the role of "silicon" in contemporary technology. This leads to a project to build a rail link from London to India. The story itself plays out at a

Comments

[simont]

this applies a lot more widely, to historical fiction in general

Yes. Given the choice between period (or fantasy-themed-on-a-historical-period) fiction which works basically within the moral sense of the time, and period fiction which turns out to be a thinly veiled diatribe about how awful the moral sense of the time was by our modern enlightened liberal standards, I know which I prefer to read: the latter can be as right-on as you like but that doesn't stop it being tedious.

So monarchically oriented fiction concerned with seeing the Right rather than Wrong person on the throne gets a free pass on questions like 'where do you get off saying there's a Right person anyway?' or 'exactly where did you find someone who can be handed absolute power and yet be trusted to be incorruptible and benevolent?' or 'and furthermore, what are the chances that his firstborn son turns out fit to be the next one?' or 'are you sure strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is a basis for a system of government?'; fiction set in a slave-owning

[sleeperwaking]

I'm also considering nanowrimo, but I think it'll be too much to keep up with next month. I realise this is a poor excuse (they even say on their website, if you don't have time now, you'll never have time so just DO IT!) but I'm 95% certain I'm going to miss it this year and hopefully give it a stab next time.

And yes, escapist fiction for the win! If everything I read made my brain hurt then I would be a sad, sad person. :(