Bookshelf

[D. Wm. Palmer Esq.]

May I make a request?
Could we please start a thread, tied to the top of the board, called perhaps library or bookshelf, on which we might post reading suggestions?

In addition to, Wells, Verne, Gibson and Stirling, Pullman etc. There must be many lesser known volumes of relevance or interest.

I'm reading a novel at the moment, which others may find interesting:

Swiftly, by Adam Roberts.

From Amazon.com:
"A Wellsian sequel to Gulliver's Travels and a unique piece of SF literature all of its own.

"It is 1848 and the British Empire has grown rich exploiting Lilliputian slaves - the finesse of their working allowing unheard of feats of minature (sic) engineering; even Babbage's computing device has been made to work. But now the French have formed a regiment of previously peaceful Brobdingnagian giants and invasion looms. In a world where humanity is both smaller and larger than it once was, love and hate loom large. Mankind discovers itself at the centre of scale. Lilliptians are twelve times smaller than us but there are those twelve times smaller than them, and twelve times smaller again and so on. And the scale of being goes up from Swift's giants also ...Adam Roberts has written both a rip roaring 19th century adventure, a love story and a thought-provoking pre-atomic SF novel about our place in the universe.

"Adam Roberts is 42 and Professor of Nineteenth Century Literature at Royal Hollaway College, London University (sic). His novels, Salt and Gradisil were shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award. He has also published a number of academic works on both 19th century poetry and SF."


Thank you.

D. Wm. Palmer esq.

[Dax]

Something like this, perhaps?

http://etheremporium.pbwiki.com/Steampunk%20Essentials

This gets updated from time to time, All suggestions are welcomed.

[D. Wm. Palmer Esq.]

Yes.

The Steampunk essentials list does have a few obvious ommissions, The Diamond Age by Stirling for example.
I bethought to myself however, that, as a colaborative effort, this board might be a good place to generate content for a list such as the one on Aetheremporium. When a few titles had been generated, we could then propose them to the editor to be added as a whole, thereby creating less work.
If no-one else agrees I will of course abandon my campaign.

D. Wm. Palmer esq.

[OldProfessorBear]

How "Orthodox" SP a list do you have in mind?

[Dax]

Actually, we went through an exercise like that last summer -  generated the content that made up the essentials list.  If you look back in Textual to the July/August timeframe, you'll come across the threads.  I think the most recent one was called Steampunk Syllabus.

I sort of took it upon myself to put the list together, and went back a couple of months ago to make some additions.  And at Andy's suggestion, we also put together the ISBN references, and links to ebook sites and IMDB.  However, the essentials list was always intended to be a living document, and subject to modification.

Why don't you resurrect the previous thread, and share your own recommended reading?  That may generate a whole slew of new material for the forum.

 

Yes.

The Steampunk essentials list does have a few obvious ommissions, The Diamond Age by Stirling for example.
I bethought to myself however, that, as a colaborative effort, this board might be a good place to generate content for a list such as the one on Aetheremporium. When a few titles had been generated, we could then propose them to the editor to be added as a whole, thereby creating less work.
If no-one else agrees I will of course abandon my campaign.

D. Wm. Palmer esq.

[Chrononaut]

Several Familiar and Lesser known Gems can be found here

http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/Catalog/ProductSearch.aspx?filter=&search=&ExtendedSearch=True&cid=0&sort=Name&itemsperpage=100&view=List&currentpage=0&pf=&sf=&sj=261

[D. Wm. Palmer Esq.]

Well that suggestion went down like a lead airship didn't it?

Quickly glancing at my small bookshelf, were any of the following included on the list?

The Vesuvius Club and The Devil in Amber by Mark Gattiss - 0743257057 & 074325709x
Journey Through the Impossible (a play) by Jules Verne - 1591020794
The Book of the Damned and it's sequels by Charles Fort -1870870530
Hiding the Elephant by Jim Steinmeyer -0099476649
The Mechanical Turk by Tom Standage - 014029919x
The Thinking Machine by Jaques Futrelle - 0812970144
The End of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas - 9781841959573 (this is not a standard ISBN)

I'll try to add some more when I've got my whole library nearby.
I think the obvious Wells, Lovecraft etc. were already covered in the list.
I'm sure there wil be some debate about the relevance of some of these titles, but isn't that the fun?

D. Wm. Palmer esq.

[Dax]

Well that suggestion went down like a lead airship didn't it?

Not really.  In all honesty I really doing my best to invite you to contribute.  Sorry if I didn't convey that in my response.

And no, I don't recall posting any of those titles.  Let's let this percolate a while, and see if there's any additional input or discussion.

[Zastrozzi]

How "Orthodox" SP a list do you have in mind?

Orthodox Steampunk?  Is there such a thing?

Just to add in the 'Hungry Cities' quartet by Philip Reeve.

[OldProfessorBear]

How "Orthodox" SP a list do you have in mind?

Orthodox Steampunk?  Is there such a thing?

Just to add in the 'Hungry Cities' quartet by Philip Reeve.

Well.

There are quite a number of books I might suggest that are I suppose really on the very borders of Steampunk one way or another. They have the right "feel" to me, but probably lack one or more "essential ingredients".

Now, I know the subject of what "is" or "isn't" has been debated to death all over the place, and have no desire to fall into that quagmire. Thus I am hesitant to put them forth for consideration, lest yet another endless round of dispute should ensue.

For my own part, I feel that if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck and looks like a duck, it's either a duck or a near-enough approximation that it makes no never-mind. But others have different standards, so ... I figured I'd ask first.

[DrEllaNunn]

My suggestion is in no way directly steampunk - but because there is much reference and usage of military rank/duties/shipboard life (albeit air and steam driven), I cannot help but suggest the Patrick O'Brian novels, the 20-books series known as the Aubreyiad.  Nothing will break you more into life aboard a naval ship (and by extension, perhaps an air-ship) than these novels, as the reader is totally immersed into the life of the Regency period.  Jack Aubrey is a Royal Navy captain who probably would only find steam-driven technology useful if the cannons were steam driven and gave him distinct advantage over other ships in speed and power.  Stephen Maturin is the 'innocent' when it comes to naval life and terminology but one learns so much through him because he interacts in a non-naval capacity, to the point of being constantly confounded by terminology that Aubrey and other sailors take for granted.  In fact, my signature is one of his attempts (a facetious one) to mimic naval-speak.

Anyway, I can easily see how the POB series can inspire the same type of story-telling in the steampunk universe.

[Cheery Rayne]

I think it's always a good idea to have information in more than one place. What would it really hurt to have another booklist? Go for it and I suggest a series I'm currently reading of childrens books, which I think can sometimes be more imaginative, called Foundling and Lamplighter by D.M. Cornish. The first book came out in 2006 and the pictures alone are quite nice. Good luck!

[thintin]

I know it is very uncool to blow my own trumpet, but...my new novel, GOLGOATH, has a quarter of the book set in 1864 around a mythical faux Welsh castle called Treve. The building has marvelous rooms which use illusional engineering and design to produce magical effects like moving perspectives in wall-sized pictures, rooms that appear to be forrests, rooms powered by steam engines etc. There is also a hidden chamber of magic that the story centres around called 'Renaissance en Vie' which has 1950's style electrical machinery constructed from Victorian materials with typically fine craftsmanship.

I think it's fab but then again I wrote it!

If you're interested, and the mods don't object, I could post a link to the site I've created for the book which also has a steampunk theme?

Phil.