Thursday, April 28, 2011

WTF is Steampunk?!

I've been seeing on some other blogs peeps taking about a genre I've not heard of. Steampunk. So I had to look it up to see what all the buzz was about.

Here is what Wikipedia had to say about it:

Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. Specifically, steampunk involves an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century and often Victorian era Britain—that incorporates prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy. Works of steampunk often feature anachronistic technology or futuristic innovations as Victorians may have envisioned them; in other words, based on a Victorian perspective on fashion, culture, architectural style, art, etc. This technology may include such fictional machines as those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne or real technologies like the computer but developed earlier in an alternate history.
Other examples of steampunk contain alternate history-style presentations of "the path not taken" for such technology as dirigibles, analog computers, or such digital mechanical computers as Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace's Analytical engine.
Steampunk is often associated with cyberpunk. They have considerable influence on each other and share a similar fan base, but steampunk developed as a separate movement. Apart from time period and level of technology, the main difference is that steampunk settings tend to be less dystopian.
Various modern utilitarian objects have been modded by individual artisans into a pseudo-Victorian mechanical "steampunk" style, and a number of visual and musical artists have been described as steampunk.


So after reading that I thought of Wild Wild West with Will Smith and Sucker Punch that was released last month.


Then I looked around for some books in the genre and ran across a list on Goodreads. I saw that Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare ison the Goodreads list for Best Steampunk Books. I'll have to check this book out, it sounds interesting.

1 comment:

  1. Jennifer, there is a ton of steampunk romances out there.

    Here are two you might enjoy:

    The Iron Duke by Meljean Brook
    Love in a Time of Steam by Liz Darvill

    ReplyDelete

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