Title: The Difference Engine

Author: William Gibson and Bruce Sterling

Genre: Science Fiction / Steampunk

Publisher: Spectra (US) / Gollancz (UK)
Publication Date: 1992 / 1996 (First published: 1990)
Paperback: 448 pages / 384 pages

The computer age has arrived a century ahead of time with Charles Babbage’s perfection of his Analytical Engine. The Industrial Revolution, supercharged by the development of steam-driven cybernetic Engines, is in full and drastic swing. Great Britain, with her calculating-cannons, steam dreamnoughts, machine-guns and information technology, prepares to better the world’s lot . . .

Stand alone or series: Stand alone

Why did I read the book: It appears in every single Steampunk Essentials lists and one of the best examples of Steampunk. I just had to read it.

How did I get the book: Bought

Review:

The Difference Engine seems to be universally praised as one of the core Steampunk titles and it makes pretty much every single list I came across whilst reading about the genre in preparation for this week. Since this is hailed as required reading for anyone interested in Steampunk, I obediently added it to my reading list.

Thus, here I stand after reading a seminal work of Steampunk, completely conflicted about the novel.

The novel is set in 1855 but an alternate 1855 where British inventor Charles Babbage actually succeeded with his idea of a Difference Engine – an early computer. This alternate world is mostly a consequence of this invention with all of its political, economical and sociological implications and the authors use real life figures as well as literary characters to inhabit their world and to live their story. Thus, Britain is a much more powerful potency who is at peace with France (and Manhattan is a communist island led by Karl Marx) ; Lord Byron (perhaps the alternate bit that was harder for me to believe in) is the Prime Minister of an England led by the Radical Party (or Rads) , with computers being mass-produced and there are even hackers or “clankers” in this world.

But this is only the setting and it is obliquely referred to in the course of the novel. There is hardly any info dump about what happened before 1855 and how things came to be – the reader must catch up as the story proceeds. And no, the book is not about the Difference Engine per se – at all.

Centre stage is a story divided in three parts with three main characters: Sybil Gerard, a prostitute and daughter of an infamous Lud leader ; Edward Mallory, a “savant” , a palaeontologist; and Laurence Oliphant, travel writer to cover his work as spy – the three of them are linked by a set of computer Punch Cards which change hands throughout the book and almost makes it a mystery novel – what are they? What are they for? Who do they really belong to?

Almost because, it is clear that the punch cards are not the point of the novel – just like the Difference Engine.

Rather, the novel it is a tour de force about the possible consequences of engine’s creation and as such it is an interesting, even fascinating read. However, this is mostly done subtly in the background, submerged in threads, in the recounting of the day-to-day life as the characters walk around sometimes talking to themselves as the narrator describes their surroundings. Mallory, for example who often muses about how the dinosaurs were extinct , but also about his role in dealing with political problems in America and his economical situation. He is caught in the middle of the overarching plot that brings together everything in the book, including the Great Stink and the last of Luddites rebels resurfacing in London but perhaps not as tightly as many would certainly prefer.

My conflict about the novel stems from two points. One, the fact that if one goes into the book blind, ie without any knowledge about its setting or any historical knowledge about England and France circa 19th century chances are, one will be inevitably lost or reaching for Wikipedia every two pages or so (as was my case).

The second point is that even though, intellectually I can certainly appreciate the genius of the idea and the premise, as well as the mind-blowing effort of bringing together that many characters and events together in an interesting and certainly fascinating manner, I will just be honest and admit that I was bored out of my mind for most part of novel and I had zero emotional connection with any of the characters. The most interesting ones were Sybil and Oliphant and their chapters were the best ones, however they were also, the shortest part of the novel and the Mallory chapters dragged and dragged and dragged. I never read anything else by either author but I am almost sure that one wrote the Sybil/Oliphant parts and the other wrote the Mallory one – I just can’t pinpoint which.

To conclude, I am happy to have read the novel, I think it was a worthwhile experience which I hope never to experience again. Even if the ending was superb : a one letter word. One word and I was like, OMFG, genius. But then I remembered the Mallory parts.

BUT IS IT STEAMPUNK? Oh yes. It is the most quintessential Steampunk I read this week. It is the perfect balance of all its classic elements, but is not an easy ride.

Notable Quotes/ Parts: The moment it really hit home to me, that this was indeed an alternate history more than anything else in the book:

Up Knightsbridge and past Hyde Park Corner to the Napoleon Arch, a gift from Louis Napoleon to commemorate the Anglo-French Entente.

The fact that there the famous Wellington Arch is NOT there because Wellington was considered a tyrant in this England made me jump out of my pants.

Additional Thoughts: It is impossible to read this book without checking some facts online – at least it was for me. The most fascinating of those to me: the computer punch cards that were mentioned several times.

According to Wikipedia, punched cards

is a piece of stiff paper that contains digital information represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions. Now almost an obsolete recording medium, punched cards were widely used throughout the 19th century for controlling textile looms and in the late 19th and early 20th century for operating fairground organs and related instruments. They were used through the 20th century in unit record machines for input, processing, and data storage. Early digital computers used punched cards as the primary medium for input of both computer programs and data, with offline data entry on key punch machines

But that is not what makes it fascinating to me. It is the process of discovery.

For example: Joseph Marie Jacquard invented the Jacquard Loom. This loom is controlled by those punched cards with punched holes , each row corresponding to a row in the design – this simplifies the process of manufacturing textiles.

Now, here is the deal:

The Jacquard loom was the first machine to use punch cards to control a sequence of operations. Although it did no computation based on them, it is considered an important step in the history of computing hardware. The ability to change the pattern of the loom’s weave by simply changing cards was an important conceptual precursor to the development of computer programming. Specifically, Charles Babbage planned to use cards to store programs in his Analytical engine.

How amazing. Don’t you just love science?

Verdict: This epitome of Steampunk is a difficult read with some very rewarding parts if you stick to it – I recommend it – with reservations – for fans of the genre.

Rating: /strong> This is a most difficult question. I will have to be conflicted about this as well.

8 – Excellent : For its undeniable contribution to the genre and the sheer genius of the Big Idea behind it. The plotting and the amount of history that goes into this is mind-blowing.

6 – Good : Because in spite of all the above, the book can drag and only a couple of the characters are really minimally interesting and moving (although one can argue that this is not a book about characters – to which I will reply, ergo why I didn’t really care for it) .

Reading next: Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

Title: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Graphic Novel (Vol. 1) by Alan Moore (writer) and Kevin O’Neill (illustrator) . Published in 1999.

TV Movie directed by Stephen Norrington; Starring Sean Connery, Naseeruddin Shah, Peta Wilson, Tony Curran, Stuart Townsend, Shane West, Jason Flemyng and Richard Roxburgh. Released in 2003.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is set in an alternate version of Victorian Britain where technology is very advanced, the supernatural coexists with the natural and characters from famous literary works are real people.

Miss Mina Murray has been recruited by the British Secret Service to bring together a group of individuals to work for a mysterious Mr M. With the help of an already recruited Captain Nemo (who had faked his death years ago and now is in search of new adventures ), her first stop is Egypt, where in an opium den, they find former intrepid hero Allan Quartermain now a hopeless, sick addict. Without much of a choice (especially when Mina is nearly raped and they have to fight to fight their way out) Allan is dragged to the Nautilus ship where so rehab is in order before they go to Paris to meet the next in their list. There, they must capture a man-beast who have been terrorizing prostitutes and who turn out to be Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde – once captured and turned over to their boss, the League moves in to the next target and visit a girl’s school whose pupils have been rumoured to have being impregnated by the “Holy Spirit” – in reality, The Invisible Man, who had been raping the girls.

They arrest the felon and return to London where they are informed of the purpose of bringing such a group together: Britain has been secretly planning a trip to the Moon using a key component called Cavorite which has been stolen – possibly by Britain’s enemies – and their mission is to recover the Cavorite, but for that they must learn to work together first under the leadership of gasp, a woman. In their path, they have to learn to trust each other, to let go of their pasts (is that even possible?) while dealing with plots twists and double crossings.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a ingenious work of fiction – Alan Moore doesn’t merely appropriate himself of known characters of fiction, he gives them new lives, playing the sensibilities of the time period whilst at the same time adding new flavourings – it is Steampunk after all, so the alternate universe serve the story by allowing for example a woman to be leader of the group, or the technological advances to be used by the characters in their pursuit of the villains.

I have to admit though at being completely surprised with some of the reviews I read which compare this League with say, the League of Justice and call this bunch of folks super-heroes.I think this is an utterly inapt description. There is nothing super about any of these folks (except perhaps Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, but that is hardly a superpower to talk about) and hardly anything heroic about most of them, considering that we have at least a rapist and a murderer in their midst. A much more apt comparison in fact, would be with Alan Moore’s own Watchmen , that group of flawed vigilantes who in the end, can do something good. But still having some bad apples in the group (an easy comparison is between The Invisible Man and The Comedian or between Night Owl and Quatermain) .

They get together for pure lack of choice not heroics. Mina is now a ruined woman, after the scandalous incidents with that Dracula chap, incidents that are only alluded to in the course of the story, but which have resulted in her divorce from Jonathan Harker and to always wearing a scarf around the neck and that ruination is thoroughly exploited by M. As is Quartermain’s opium addiction and former glory for example. Similarly The Invisible Man and Dr Jekyll are in it because they are criminals and they need to be pardoned.

In the end, something might have changed for some of them and to follow each character arc is what it is all about – and THEN, they might become Extraordinary. Plus, you know, the fun of it all – the trying to see if you can get all the literary references (OMG the Invisible Man is raping POLLYANA when they get to the school) and to get to the bottom of the mystery. Who is this M? Who is the real villain of the piece?

As for the art, I don’t find it especially spectacular but it is certainly effective in conveying the gloominess and darkness of both characters and setting. It is also very graphic – torture, attempted rape, murders are all explicitly detailed.

Now, for the movie.

It is safe to say that whereas The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen the graphic novel, is a great work of fiction that I really enjoyed and can highly recommend, The League of the Extraordinary Gentlemen, the movie, is a veritable Masterpiece.

Of suckage.

Oh, the wrongness of it all. Let me count the ways.

For starters: Allan Quatermain is the one chosen to their leader. Of course, GOD FORBID , the ladyfolk be allowed to lead anything especially not this league of extraordinary gentlemen. The ladyfolk is there to be hot, speak with a raw, sultry voice and kiss the hot dude.

Speaking of Mina – there is nothing more unrefined than to have this scene right in the beginning? Yes, let’s make the character a blood-sucking fiend and forget all about the trauma and horror and the fact that it is never even revealed to the reader what happened to her in the book.

Since we are on the subject of subtlety , could this movie be any more obvious and crass? Starting with the addition of two new characters which do not exist in the comics: Dorian Gray and Tom Sawyer. Let me just say something before I go any further.

I can’t stand Stuart Townsend’s acting and any character he plays I will hate on principle

Thank you. Back to the matter at the hand – it is so obvious that these two characters have been added in an attempt to add “young” blood to the cast is not even funny – since most of the of original literary figures are former heroes in their later years, I guess Hollywood needed more commercial faces and I understand that, I do. But I also missed the great bickering and chemistry between Quatermain and Mina.

Moving on, moving on. Where was I? The godawful lines and dialogue: a mixture of overt clichés and dumb lines. Like for example, when they see Nautilus for the first time. In a scene that could have been good – because the visual effects here were rather cool, I like Nautilus, but the dialogue ruined it for me.

Tom Sawyer: Oh.

Nemo: Behold Nautilus, the sword of the ocean

Yeah, mind numbing.

Beyond that, the fact that the writers sucked all the fun and good things out of the original and made a complete mess of it all. None of the complicate issues exist any longer, Quatermain has no Opium issues, Mina is a bad-ass vampire, Invisible Man is just comic relief and so and so forth. I understand that adaptations do not have to follow the originals word by word but if you are not going to get the GOOD things out of it, then WHAT IS THE POINT???

In the end, an extraordinary disappointment. It is a horrible adaptation which does not stand on its own two feet. Not even the awesomeness of Sean Connery can save this one.

BUT IS IT STEAMPUNK? YES! Alternate history with advanced techonology which shapes and influences the world causing tension between nations, for example. Plus, cool gadgets!

Verdict :

Book: 8 Excellent. Recommended to fans of Steampunk, and of comics in general especially of the more darkish variety. If you liked Moore’s Watchmen you will probably like this one although it is nowhere near as good.

Movie: 1 One of the worst movie adaptations I have ever seen. and that’s about all I have to say on the subject.

Title: Airborn

Author: Kenneth Oppel

Genre: Young Adult, Steampunk, Fantasy

Publisher: Harper Collins
Publication Date: May 2005
Paperback: 544 pages

Sailing toward dawn, and I was perched atop the crow’s nest, being the ship’s eyes. We were two nights out of Sydney, and there’d been no weather to speak of so far. I was keeping watch on a dark stack of nimbus clouds off to the northwest, but we were leaving it far behind, and it looked to be smooth going all the way back to Lionsgate City. Like riding a cloud. . . .

Matt Cruse is a cabin boy on the Aurora, a huge airship that sails hundreds of feet above the ocean, ferrying wealthy passengers from city to city. It is the life Matt’s always wanted; convinced he’s lighter than air, he imagines himself as buoyant as the hydrium gas that powers his ship. One night he meets a dying balloonist who speaks of beautiful creatures drifting through the skies. It is only after Matt meets the balloonist’s granddaughter that he realizes that the man’s ravings may, in fact, have been true, and that the creatures are completely real and utterly mysterious.

In a swashbuckling adventure reminiscent of Jules Verne and Robert Louis Stevenson, Kenneth Oppel, author of the best-selling Silverwing trilogy, creates an imagined world in which the air is populated by transcontinental voyagers, pirates, and beings never before dreamed of by the humans who sail the skies.

Stand alone or series: Book 1 in the Matt Cruse trilogy

How did I get this book: Bought

Why did I read this book: I’ve heard nothing but praise for the works of Kenneth Oppel, and when looking for a new YA novel to read for Steampunk Week, Airborn was the clear choice.

Review:

Matt Cruse was born in the sky.

The son of a dedicated airman, Matt has always longed to fly like his father. And, after his father’s death, Matt finally gets to live out his wish, serving on his father’s old ship, the Aurora, as a cabin boy. Two years in service, the luxury airship comes across a marooned balloon in their path – and young Matt helps to bring the balloon’s sole inhabitant on board to safety. This old adventurer asks Matt if he had seen “them” – beautiful, flying creatures in the sky – just before he dies. One year later, Matt is still hard at work on the Aurora as a cabin boy, having lost out on his opportunity to advance to a junior sailmaker position (to a well-connected, rich young man). Though his hopes are temporarily dashed, Matt is always happiest in the air, and relishes his time aboard the magnificent ship. Then, he meets a girl named Kate de Vries – sassy, intelligent, and adventurous…as well as rich, pretty, and spoiled. As it turns out, Kate is the granddaughter of the man Matt rescued a year prior, and she is travelling on the Aurora with a very specific mission to discover exactly what her grandfather saw. Matt and Kate, despite their difference in class, become fast friends and work together to find answers, and elusive proof of Kate’s grandfather’s magnificent, winged creatures. Of course, things are never so easily accomplished and a number obstacles present themselves – namely pirates, a shipwreck, more pirates, and wild, unfettered danger.

Airborn is a rollicking adventure novel, blending aeronautics with compelling characters, stunning images, and a swashbuckling plot. It’s kind of like Titanic the The Swiss Family Robinson meets Up meets Treasure Island meets Die Hard in the sky. Sounds like an unlikely, unappetizing mix? Let me assure you, gentle readers, I mean this multi-genre/film/book mishmash comparison in the best possible way. I LOVE ALL OF THESE THINGS.

Ergo, I love Airborn.

At 500 pages, Airborn is a swift, unputdownable read. Narrated by Matt Cruse in a clear, level-headed, youthfully honest voice, this book managers to tread familiar waters – or rather, fly familiar skies, a more apropos metaphor – with pirates, young love across class differences, shipwrecks, and mythical bird creatures, and yet still feel fresh and exhilarating. This is the kind of adventure story I want to pass on to younger, reluctant readers, to get them excited about books, about the escapist, fun experience reading can be.

And fun Airborn truly is. Matt Cruse’s world is familiar in its Victorian-type era and aesthetic (impressive, dominant airships, strong class-dividing lines, era-specific wardrobes, etiquette and mannerisms), but Mr. Oppel manages to put a new, steampunk worthy spin on his technology, inventing an entirely new element called “hydrium,” lighter than hydrogen (enabling massive airships to fly to great altitudes without the need for gas or steam power) that smells, strangely, of mangoes. Throughout the book, it is little touches like this that make the setting seem completely natural, and the world plausible (for example, as Matt guides Kate on a tour of the Aurora he points out the many “Depressionist” paintings on display in the cigar room).

In addition to the swashbucking, altogether wondrous plot and worldbuilding, the characters are what make Airborn soar. Kate, as the headstrong and adventurous (dare I say young Amelia Peabody-esque – minus the parasol and ample…well, you know) young heroine is feisty and winsome, more so because she is not without her flaws. In addition to having the usual YA fantasy heroine traits (smart, driven, restless with the constraints of her class and family expectations), she also is uppity, spoiled, and careless – and it’s cool to see that. She’s not perfect, but that’s ok – she’s all the more real and endearing for it. But the true showstealer in Airborn is young Matt Cruse – Cabin Boy, narrator, and heart-wrenchingly honest young man. Matt’s voice is pure and resonant; he shares his fears and emotions without reserve, allowing readers to truly get a feel for this remarkable young protagonist. He’s (obviously) smitten with Kate, but infuriated by her manner at times too, and the interactions between these two characters is alternately tender and hilarious. They make quite the duo on their adventures together, and I cannot wait for more.

If you couldn’t tell, I truly loved Airborn. It’s a feast for the Young Adult, but also for the older, more world-weary reader, looking for pirate-story adventures to sweep them away on a current of mango scented Hydrium.

Plus, Airborn ends with the best closing line ever.

BUT IS IT STEAMPUNK? Hell freakin’ yeah it is. Ok, it’s light on the “punk” component. It doesn’t really challenge or critique society in any way – but the imaginative (yet still relatively simple) technology is central to the story, and it is set in a very Steampunk appropriate world. The book basically takes place on an airship, which isn’t just for show – we readers learn how it works, how the world looks, and what dangers accompany this strange technology. There’s also an almost a “Darwin goes to Galapagos” feel to the book so far as Kate and Matt’s excursions to discover the mysterious Cloud Cats and – very era and sub-genre appropriate.

Notable Quotes/Parts: From the official excerpt:

“Sir, there’s a ship headed towards us!”

The airship was small, and I could now see why I’d not picked her out earlier. Her skin was painted black, and she carried no running beacons anywhere. No light emanated from the Control Car either. Her side bore no markings, no name or number. It was only her dark sheen from the moon’s light that made her visible at all.

“She’s at ten o’clock and sailing straight for us, half a mile.”

“Bear away,” I heard the first office tell his rudder-man. “Elevator up six degrees. Summon the captain.”

That meant we were going into a climb. The Aurora was as responsive as a falcon. Stars streamed to my left as the ship began her turn, angling heavenward. High in the crowsnest, I swivelled in my chair so I could watch the smaller vessel. As we turned and climbed, she turned and climbed with us, keeping herself on a collision course. This was no mistake. She was chasing us. She was smaller and faster than the Aurora, and I could feel the vibration of our engines at full capacity. We would not be able to outrun her.

“Where is she, Mr. Cruse?”
“She’s changed course, but still coming right at us. Closing, at eight o’clock.”
“Raise her on the radio!” I heard the first officer shouting out to the wireless officer.
“She’s not responding.”

A collision seemed sure now, but for what purpose?

“Distance, Cruse!”
“Some two hundred yards, sir.”
“Send out a distress call,” I heard Mr. Rideau instruct the wireless operator.
“We’re too far out, sir,” Mr. Bayard’s voice replied.

It was clear there was no shaking her, this sleek black raptor shadowing us through the night sky.

“She’s angling up, sir,” I said into the speaking tube, “as though she means to overshoot us.”

“Take us down, Mr. Riddihoff, take us down five degrees, with haste!”

I felt the Aurora pivot and her bow dip. My ears popped and heaviness rose through me. I swirled in my seat, peering up and almost over the ship’s stern as the airship pulled closer, altering course as seamlessly as if she’d anticipated our moves.
“Fifty yards off our stern!” I shouted into the speaking tube. “Forty, thirty . . . she’s pulling up over our tail.”

And so she was, this predatory airship, skimming over our tail fins and gradually overtaking us, only a few dozen feet overhead.

“She’s directly overhead, sir, matching us.”

We were levelling out now and so was the other airship. Less than half our size, she was like some agile black shark hounding a whale.

“Hard about, please.”

Through the speaking tube it was the captain’s voice I heard now, and I felt a surge of confidence to know he was on the bridge. He would see us through this. Again the Aurora swivelled, trying to throw off her predator, but once more the smaller ship matched our movements, slinking over us like a shadow. A spotlight flared from its underside, and I saw ropes springing from open bay doors and unfurling towards the Aurora.

“She’s dropping lines on us!” I shouted into the speaking tube.

Pirates! That was all they could be.

“They’re trying to board,” the captain said. “Dive and roll to starboard, please.”

The lines were weighted, for they hit the ship and didn’t slide off. I saw six men already dropping down towards me. But then the Aurora banked sharply, dipped, and the lines slewed off the Aurora’s back, leaving the men dangling in mid-air.

“Ha! You’ll not have us!” I shouted, shaking my fist.

But the pirate airship was already adjusting its course, keeping pace, and as it forced us closer to the waves, we would have less space to manoeuvre. There was a great flash from the pirate ship’s underbelly and a thunderous volley of cannon fire scorched the night sky across our bow.

A voice carried by bullhorn shuddered the air.
“Put your nose to the wind and cut speed.”

There was no need for me to repeat this into the speaking tube for I knew they had heard it in the Control Car. There was a moment of silence, and I could imagine them all down there, standing very straight and still, the elevator men and rudder-men watching the captain, awaiting his command. He had no choice. That cannon could sink us in an instant.

“Level off and put her into the wind, please,” said Captain Walken. “Throttle back the engines to one-quarter. Thank you.”

You can read the full excerpt online HERE.

Additional Thoughts: Airborn is actually the first book in a trilogy following the adventures of Matt and Kate – the next two books are Skybreaker and Starclimber:

Former cabin boy Matt Cruse, now a student at the prestigious Airship Academy, is first to identify the Hyperion, the private airship of a reclusive and fabulously wealthy inventor that disappeared forty years ago with its owner. Armed with the Hyperion’s coordinates, which only he possesses, Matt, heiress Kate de Vries, and a mysterious young gypsy board the Sagarmatha, an airship fitted with the new skybreaker engines that will allow them to reach the Hyperion, 20,000 feet above the earth’s surface. Pursued by others who want the Hyperion and will stop at nothing to get it, and surrounded by dangerous high-altitude life forms, Matt and his companions are soon fighting not only for the Hyperion but for their very lives.

In this thrilling sequel to Airborn, a Michael L. Printz Honor Book, Kenneth Oppel evokes the classic storytelling of Robert Louis Stevenson and Jules Verne, creating a world in which a new discovery can have unimagined consequences — on earth and miles above it.

“Mr. Cruse, how high would you like to fly?”

A smile soared across my face.

“As high as I possibly can.”

Pilot-in-training Matt Cruse and Kate de Vries, expert on high-altitude life-forms, are invited aboard the Starclimber, a vessel that literally climbs its way into the cosmos. Before they even set foot aboard the ship, catastrophe strikes:

Kate announces she is engaged – and not to Matt.

Despite this bombshell, Matt and Kate embark on their journey into space, but soon the ship is surrounded by strange and unsettling life-forms, and the crew is forced to combat devastating mechanical failure. For Matt, Kate, and the entire crew of the Starclimber, what began as an exciting race to the stars has now turned into a battle to save their lives.

Award-winning and bestselling author Kenneth Oppel brings us back to a rich world of flight and fantasy in this breathtaking new sequel to Airborn and Skybreaker.

The series has an awesome interactive website, chock full of great extras. I highly recommend you go forth and check it out.

Rating: 8 – Excellent, and I cannot wait to pick up the next two books in the series!

Reading Next: Arcadia Snips and the Steamwork Consortium by Robert C. Rodgers

Title: The Windup Girl

Author: Paolo Bacigalupi

Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopia

Publisher: Night Shade Books
Publication Date: September 2009
Hardcover: 300 pages

What Happens when bio-terrorism becomes a tool for corporate profits? And what happens when said bio-terrorism forces humanity to the cusp of post-human evolution? In The Windup Girl, award-winning author Paolo Bacigalupi returns to the world of “The Calorie Man”( Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award-winner, Hugo Award nominee, 2006) and “Yellow Card Man” (Hugo Award nominee, 2007) in order to address these questions.

Stand alone or series: Can be read as a stand alone novel, although it is set in the world of two of Bacigalupi’s short stories – “The Calorie Man” (Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award-winner, Hugo Award nominee, 2006) and “Yellow Card Man” (Hugo Award nominee, 2007).

How did I get this book: Bought

Why did I read this book: Ever since I heard of The Windup Girl and saw it on numerous Best of 2009 lists, I have been dying to read this book.

Review:

First things first – I had seen this book praised to the high heavens after its late 2009 release, and have been looking forward to reading it ever since. Then, when I started to see it pop up on “Steampunk Essential Reading” lists, I was even more excited, and I set a firm date to read and review this highly anticipated release for Steampunk Week.

Well folks, I’m a little chagrined to report: The Windup Girl really is not Steampunk.

At least, it doesn’t fit in with my conceptualization of steampunk. That’s not to say that it isn’t a good book – because it is. But as a feature for this week, it falls a little short. But more on that later.

The Windup Girl is a futuristic dystopia, set in a shocking incarnation of Thailand. The world as we know it has changed drastically – genetically engineered crops have fallen to strengthened, bio-engineered pests; food is controlled by corporations; fossil fuels are all but exhausted; sea levels have risen and reclaimed incredible surface areas…Bacigalupi’s is a dying world. In this version of Thailand, tensions tear the nation from without and within – the government corrupt, the locals resentful of “yellow card” refugees and the encroaching farang (or foreigners), their factories, and their attempts to steal . And, embroiled in this volatile world are four important characters: Anderson Lake – a “Calorie Man” farang intent on discovering gene-ripping secrets for The Company. Hock Seng – a “Yellow Card” Chinese-Malay refugee, foreman of Anderson’s factory, and with a business agenda of his own. Jaidee – a vigilante-type local “hero,” set on sticking it to those in command and fighting corruption with his own glory-seeking style of mayhem. And finally, there’s Emiko – a “New Person,” a “herky-jerky” Japanese genetically engineered woman made to be a sexual companion and personal secretary, left behind by her keeper, left to a world of degradation and abuse each night at a Thai flophouse.

Nuanced and darkly grim, The Windup Girl is an original, memorable debut novel from the undeniably talented Paolo Bacigalupi. In many ways, this novel is an environmentally-conscious, precautionary tale and all the more terrifying because of its plausibility; we very well could engineer our own food and environmental demise intentionally (i.e. biological terrorism) or unintentionally (resistant, super strains of pests and diseases). The Windup Girl’s worldbuilding as well is solid. As a Southeast Asian from the Philippines and Indonesia, I can definitely see that Mr. Bacigalupi has done his homework, down to the fruit of the region (for example, rambutan, which translates from Indonesian as “hair fruit”) and the tensions between natives and their hatred for Chinese immigrants.

But it is thematically that The Windup Girl is at its finest. The overwhelming, unifying theme of the book is that of greed: corporate greed that caused the world’s death, human greed that dominates the Thai government, personal greed that motivates any number of characters in the book. The ugliness of humanity is prevalent throughout, painting a grimy, unflinching picture of the world.

So far as characters go, however, Mr. Bacigalupi left me feeling a little cold. While an equal amount of time is spent on each main character, they all felt a little bare-boned. Interestingly, the only character I felt any sort of connection with was the NON-”human” character Emiko, the titled Windup Girl. Her struggles, her alienation and sustained abuse is horrifying stuff, and her determination to live despite it all is a bright spot in a a decidedly grim novel. The reaction of humans towards “New People” is discrimination on an epic scale, and the kicker is, with the world so disintegrated, only the New People may survive as the next step in human evolution.

While I enjoyed The Windup Girl, I did find that it faltered in a few vital categories. As a novel of science fiction, the actual science element of The Windup Girl isn’t very strong – the concept of biologically engineered New People, made so that their motions are “herky-jerky” but also simultaneously lightning quick, and the genetic breeding of character traits like “obedience” rings as a little bit silly. Furthermore, the idea of using springs to store and generate energy is also not very believable – surely there were other power options available to this world (wind, solar, hydro, biodiesel, nuclear, etc)? Also, I found myself asking, is this story actually effective? The answer is both yes and no. There was a LOT of repetition in this book where there needn’t have been – there’s little advancement of any truly engaging plot. The actual point of the story, its atmospheric strengths and green-conscious warning for the future are made easily within the first 50 pages or so. Ultimately, I found it abundantly clear that Mr. Bacigalupi is a short fiction writer, as The Windup Girl felt like an unnecessarily protracted novella.

These failings in mind, however, I still ended up enjoying The Windup Girl, and look forward to seeing what else Paolo Bacigalupi has up his sleeve in the future.

BUT IS IT STEAMPUNK? Nope. The Windup Girl is not by any stretch of the imagination Steampunk. Using my own bizarre criteria of what constitutes Steampunk, The Windup Girl just doesn’t quite cut it. Other than a single scene involving dirigibles, there is absolutely no steam-technology in this book. None. Zilch. Nada. Though there is a significant amount of radical social and political critique in this book, there is basically nothing on the steam-technological or aesthetic end of the spectrum – and a couple of dirigibles does not a steampunk make. Sorry folks that have this on their Steampunk Essentials list – The WIndup GIrl doesn’t make it on mine. (Though it is a good example of a green-conscious dystopian novel!)

Notable Quotes/Parts: From the first chapter:

“No! I don’t want the mangosteen.” Anderson Lake leans forward, pointing. “I want that one, there. Kaw pollamai nee khap. The one with the red skin and the green hairs.”

The peasant woman smiles, showing teeth blackened from chewing betel nut, and points to a pyramid of fruits stacked beside her. “Un nee chai mai kha?”

“Right. Those. Khap.” Anderson nods and makes himself smile. “What are they called?”

“Ngaw.” She pronounces the word carefully for his foreign ear, and hands across a sample.

Anderson takes the fruit, frowning. “It’s new?”

“Kha.” She nods an affirmative.

Anderson turns the fruit in his hand, studying it. It’s more like a gaudy sea anemone or a furry puffer fish than a fruit. Coarse green tendrils protrude from all sides, tickling his palm. The skin has the rust-red tinge of blister rust, but when he sniffs he doesn’t get any stink of decay. It seems perfectly healthy, despite its appearance.

“Ngaw,” the peasant woman says again, and then, as if reading his mind. “New. No blister rust.”

Anderson nods absently. Around him, the market soi bustles with Bangkok’s morning shoppers. Mounds of durians fill the alley in reeking piles and water tubs splash with snakehead fish and red-fin plaa. Overhead, palm-oil polymer tarps sag under the blast furnace heat of the tropic sun, shading the market with hand-painted images of clipper ship trading companies and the face of the revered Child Queen. A man jostles past, holding vermilion-combed chickens high as they flap and squawk outrage on their way to slaughter, and women in brightly colored pha sin bargain and smile with the vendors, driving down the price of pirated U-Tex rice and new-variant tomatoes.

None of it touches Anderson.

“Ngaw,” the woman says again, seeking connection.

The fruit’s long hairs tickle his palm, challenging him to recognize its origin. Another Thai genehacking success, just like the tomatoes and eggplants and chiles that abound in the neighboring stalls. It’s as if the Grahamite Bible’s prophecies are coming to pass. As if Saint Francis himself stirs in his grave, restless, preparing to stride forth onto the land, bearing with him the bounty of history’s lost calories.

“And he shall come with trumpets, and Eden shall return. . .”

Anderson turns the strange hairy fruit in his hand. It carries no stink of cibiscosis. No scab of blister rust. No graffiti of genehack weevil engraves its skin. The world’s flowers and vegetables and trees and fruits make up the geography of Anderson Lake’s mind, and yet nowhere does he find a helpful signpost that leads him to identification.

Ngaw. A mystery.

You can read the full chapter, along with other sample chapters, online HERE.

Additional Thoughts: As I mentioned above, The Windup Girl is a full length novel set in the world of two of Paolo Bacigalupi’s prior, award winning short stories (the “Windup Stories”). Even cooler is, these stories are available for free download via the book’s page on Night Shade Books. You can check out the PDF version HERE.

Also, you may or may not have heard that Paolo Bacigalupi is making his first foray into the world of Young Adult novels this year! Check out his forthcoming title, Ship Breaker.

Set initially in a future shanty town in America’s Gulf Coast region, where grounded oil tankers are being dissembled for parts by a rag tag group of workers, we meet Nailer, a teenage boy working the light crew, searching for copper wiring to make quota and live another day. The harsh realities of this life, from his abusive father, to his hand to mouth existence, echo the worst poverty in the present day third world. When an accident leads Nailer to discover an exquisite clipper ship beached during a recent hurricane, and the lone survivor, a beautiful and wealthy girl, Nailer finds himself at a crossroads. Should he strip the ship and live a life of relative wealth, or rescue the girl, Nita, at great risk to himself and hope she’ll lead him to a better life. This is a novel that illuminates a world where oil has been replaced by necessity, and where the gap between the haves and have-nots is now an abyss. Yet amidst the shadows of degradation, hope lies ahead.

Verdict: A thoughtful, well-written and provocative examination of a dystopian future – the world run aground thanks to collective greed. Though it feels somewhat like a protracted short story and it certainly isn’t Steampunk, it’s an unquestionably strong debut, and I look forward to more from Mr. Bacigalupi in the near future.

Rating: 7 – Very Good

Reading Next: Airborn by Kenneth Oppel

So, here we are, two days into our Steampunk Appreciation Week. And there is one question that we feel needs to be addressed, before we go any further:

What in the world, is Steampunk after all?

For the past few weeks, we have done nothing but to prepare for this week. We have researched blogs, read article after article, several books (some of which turned out NOT to be Steampunk at all) and we reached a conclusion: there is no definite, conclusive definition of Steampunk. Books that are mentioned in some essential Steampunk lists are very firmly excluded from others, and we’ve seen some argument as to the limits and parameters of what indeed constitutes or not “Steampunk.

Yes, there are some basics with which most people agree: usually steam-power is still used, and is set mostly in a Victorian-like world. This is definitely the “Steam” part. The “Punk” part or the other parts that makes it gravitate towards one genre or the other (is it fantasy? SciFi? Both? All of the above?) seem to be up for grabs and completely open to each person’s reception or expectations.

But we have been able to form our own, basic idea of what Steampunk is, and we asked some of our blogging friends what they think Steampunk is. And wouldn’t you know – none of the answers are quite the same :

Ana:

I will be honest with you. This question? It has plagued me for weeks now. I didn’t even tell Thea the extent of my obsession (although I suppose the cat is out of the bag now) but I have been dreaming in Steampunk for days now.

I am usually not that strict in trying to define or form a coherent idea about a genre – I am usually pretty laid back about reading and very open about expanding my horizons, but I find that I haven’t been able to do the same when it comes to Steampunk. I know that trying to too hard may even suck the fun out of things but what can I say, I am one of those that need to have a more defined definition of THIS. And what’s more, I have come to learn in the past few weeks that I am a Steampunk purist, if you can put it like that.

I see ideas flying all over the place and I see enthusiasm for the genre and at first I think it is great. I see goggles and corsets and dirigibles and….then there is ALL I see as though those form a coherent picture or frame for what is Steampunk when it’s not. When I pick up a book labeled as Steampunk, I expect the setting to matter, the technology to be essential to the world if not to the story – if that society can function without those Steampunk “elements” then…well, it’s not Steampunk. If it is aesthetic more than functional, if it is more magical than scientific, then in my mind, it is not Steampunk. It is not enough to be set in the 19th century, in an alternate reality, to have time travel – all of those are usual fares of regular Fantasy and SciFi. Magic in Victorian times is very cool but more Gaslight Fantasy than really Steampunk.

As you can see, I am pretty confident I can recognize when something is NOT Steampunk.

It seems I am a stickler when it comes to Steampunk. Maybe even too much. You bet I see the irony in being so ruthless about something that has Punk in its name. After all didn’t the Punk movement embrace rebellion and free thought?

I know, what a party pooper.

Thea:

Ok, Ana, dude you’ve never formally “confessed” your Steampunkish obsession to me formally, but from the emails and conversations we’ve been having (all of which have been initiated by Ana, I might add), I was able to put two and two together!

As you have probably surmised, dear readers, Ana is more of the “purist” of the duo. I, on the other hand, have a bit looser of a definition. Let’s start with the etymology of the term “Steampunk” – we’ve got the “Steam-” part, and the “Punk” part. Where the “Steam-” is concerned, I strongly feel that the book must ecompass at least some aesthetic or some basic inclusion of steam technology. That’s not to say I think there should be some kind of locomotive or the physical presence of steam in every expression of the genre – rather, the aesthetic and the technology needs to be (or needs to have evolved from) the Victorian Era. I don’t believe that the technology must be central to the plot – but it DOES need to be more than just pretty filler. For example, in my opinion, Gail Carriger’s Soulless, with its pretty dirigibles in the background and Victorian setting is NOT enough to classify it as Steampunk.

Then, there’s the part where the “Punk” comes in.

To me, the “punk” part is far more important than the “steam” part. The punk, as Ana alludes to above, involves the societal aspect of the book. Does the novel radically challenge the established social order? Does it involve a social, economic, political or religious critique/revolution of the world it is set in? This is what I yearn for, more so than the centrality of technology to a book in order to qualify it as Steampunk. I think you’ve gotta have one or the other (or both, if you’re lucky) – we want either a “steam” (evolved from Victorian Era) technology that is central and essential to the plot, or a story that has steam elements (Victorian/Steam aesthetic) but radically challenges the social and/or political setting of the world. In this second option, the technology is less important. This is why I consider The Golden Compass (and by extension the His Dark Materials series) by Philip Pullman to be “Steampunk” – because even though it does not have the central steam technology, it does push the political/religious/fundamental envelope and contains steam-ish elements (Victorianesque setting and society, dirigibles/air balloons, alitheometers instead of computers, strange Verne-worthy projection devices, etc).

There is some argument as to whether or not magic or fantasy elements can coexist in a “Steampunk novel” – and to this I say, of course they can. Why the heck not? Steampunk is a marriage of different genres – fantasy, science fiction, historical fiction, romance, etc. I think the presence of magic is more than welcome in the mix, provided that at least ONE of the criteria above is met (either central steam-technology or steam technology elements plus a socio/politico centered and challenged plot).

And so without reaching a conclusion amongst ourselves, we reached to our fellow Bloggers and asked:

Here is what they had to say:

Katiebabs from Babbling About Books and More:

The Steampunk genre is still a very new on for me. I know the basics, where it’s a combination of science fiction and speculative fiction, set in an alternate later 19th century setting, mainly in Victorian England. Steampunk is set in a world where steam is power, but it is so much more from the fashion, to the dialogue and most importantly the technology.

Steampunk allows the reader’s imagination to run wild. It’s a world of endless possibilities and so very new and exciting.

Doug Knipe from Scifi Guy:

To me steampunk represents a reality where science took a fork in the road. Instead of scientific development proceeding to the electronic age it instead advanced through industrial/mechanical principles and better chemistry. I think of Jules Verne’s Nautilus and the mysterious Captain Nemo in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and H.G. Wells The Time Machine. There also is a degree of mysticism and forbidden knowledge attached to it as well. Steampunk fiction explores and reflects the implications and changes in society wrought from this diverging path. Modern examples of steampunk that I favour include many of the works of James Blaylock, K.W. Jeter’s Morlock Night and Infernal Devices, The Difference Engine by Gibson & Sterling, Clockwork Heart by Dru Pagliassotti and the most recent Boneshaker by Cherie Priest. Each embodies the spirit of Steampunk.

Mark de Jager from My Favourite Books:

It’s a concept that hearkens back to a vision of Victoriana, caught on the cusp of the industrial revolution- a more romantic, civilised time, when technology was still new, and exciting, where the world was still a big place and innovations knew no bounds; how far you could go with something wasn’t constrained by popular knowledge as it is today. It evokes a grand era of mad scientists, steam or clockwork driven contraptions, glass helmeted space explorers…. it’s the spawning ground of timeless figures like Captain Nemo, Alan Quartermain, Dr Frankenstein and their ilk. It’s an era where ideas have outpaced technology but not craftsmanship, and where cold science has taken a backseat to adventure.

Heather Massey from The Galaxy Express

Steampunk is like salt: it enhances the flavor of everything it touches.

To many people, it’s a literary subgenre. One way of defining steampunk is Victorian era science fiction that features steam-powered inventions—many of which are ahead of their time and have significant socio-political consequences. The glory of steampunk is that it pairs spectacularly well with a variety of other genres such as fantasy, romance, horror, and mystery.

But steampunk extends well beyond the written word. It’s an aesthetic echoed by art, costumes, accessories, and DIY gadgets. It is films, TV shows, and videogames.

It’s archaic. It’s modern. It’s brassy. It’s gritty.

It’s a state of mind.

Recommended reading:

STEAMPUNK, edited by Jeff and Ann VanderMeer
WHITECHAPEL GODS by S.M. Peters
MAINSPRING by Jay Lake
THE NARROWS by Alexander Irvine
THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN by Alan Moore
CLOCKWORK HEART by Dru Pagliassotti
PERDIDO STREET STATION by China Miéville
MORTAL ENGINES by Philip Reeve

Recommended viewing:

STEAMBOY
THE TIME MACHINE
THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN
THE PRESTIGE
WILD WILD WEST (endure see it for the steampunk elements only!)

Recommended playing:

BIOSHOCK
EDGE OF TWILIGHT
RESONANCE OF FATE
FINAL FANTASY VI (FF III in America)

Maili from @McVane (she is on Twitter only at the moment):

It’s basically set during the Industrial Revolution (and the Enlightenment) when ideas existed at the time that theoretically could work, but there wasn’t enough during its time to make it happen, such as limited technological knowledge, attitudes, inflexibility within the society, class prejudice, etc. Charles Babbage, for instance, came up with an idea that we came to know as ‘difference engine’, and in his time, it was considered outlandish. Impractical. Useless. He still tried, but a successful attempt was never made.

However, some time during the 1990s, a team of researchers and historians gathered to construct a machine from Babbage’s detailed plans of the difference machine, using 19th-century technology but with 21st-century knowledge and attitude, and the machine works. With this, Babbage’s idea was proven do-able.

What if Babbage could make it work in his time? What if it became part of the everyday life? Instead of imagining what the future and its technology would be, we imagine what the past would be if its technology was part of that reality. That’s one half of the core premise of Steampunk.

The other half — what if the technology of that reality becomes so controlling that people of its time couldn’t move with freedom? How about the automata becomes an army and storms Victorian London? This is where the ‘punk’ of ’steampunk’ comes in: Hero or Heroine is usually part or a leader of a rebellion against that. It doesn’t have to be about technology. They could rebel against dictatorship, ‘Big Brother’-style government, secret conspiracy, or an underground society that meddles with people’s lives. It’s about control, power and freedom. During this struggle, technology can be our friend or foe, or both.

There have been quite a few novels labelled as ’steampunk’ when they weren’t. I have been asked what was the real difference between a Gaslight Fantasy and a Steampunk. In my opinion, it’s the setting that defines the difference. If a story *can* live without its steampunk element, e.g. the steampunk element is there for appearance’s sake, then it’s a Gaslight Fantasy. If it can’t live without it, then it’s a
Steampunk.

Steampunk doesn’t have to restrict itself to Victorian-era England. It could take place anywhere in the world and in any time period — as long as technological ideas of its time are reasonably plausible and utterly faithful to its appearance.

Let’s take Leonardo da Vinci – an amazing innovator – and his ‘flying machine’ idea (Codex on the Flight of Birds) as an example. While living in 16th-century Italy and France, he couldn’t make his flying machine work even once during his lifetime, but in a story, it works. He could make it fly. What if his flying machine became part of a reality during his time? The idea of people going about in their everyday lives while the sky above them is filled with these winged machines flying? It’d be such an amazing sight. I think Steampunk is possibly the greatest tribute to innovators and engineers of our global past. I really love the idea we’re making their visions and dreams a reality through these Steampunk stories.

John Ottinger III from Grasping for the Wind:

To me, steampunk is a subgenre of alternate history in which technological progress diverged and developed along mechanized lines rather than digital. In steampunk, computers are vast machines capable of many of the same feats, but silicon chips were never invented and so they consist of cogs and wheels, more like a typewriter than our modern conception. Airships exist, but rather than planes, blimps rule the skies. In many cases, steampunk tales take place in a Victorian setting or uses that era as its point of divergence from true history, but any story with a focus on a mechanized society that also lives by a rigid social code like that of the Victorians could potentially be steampunk. Even a secondary world fantasy, so long as it takes as its model the Victorian Age – such as The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman, The Affinity Bridge by George Mann, or The Court of the Air by Stephen Hunt – fits into this category.

Steampunk tales have the tone and structure of a Conan Doyle story, often being mysteries or adventure tales similar to those popularized during the Industrial Revolution. For a tale to be steampunk it needs to be married to the idea that technology is solely mechanical, unable to progress without winches, gears, nuts and bolts. There is no computer age, at least as we know it, in the worlds of steampunk.

Steampunk also believes in the inherent domination of the earth by humankind, driven by our will and ability to make tools. Sometimes this takes the story into dark places, places where Jack the Ripper dwelt. At other times, it celebrates human achievement, a World’s Fair of literature. Always, there is a focus on the mechanical, the visible and concrete, that thrills the reader or viewer with a sense of adventure, of the wild unknown, and is filled with the both the capability and the desire to go Around The World in 80 Days.

Kenda from Lurv a La Mode

Steampunk to me is a fantasy or science fiction story set in an alternate reality (one that would be recognizable to us yet with some details obviously changed, hence creating said alternate reality) that has steampunk elements: machinery/technology that runs on steam and looks like something along the lines of the time machine in H.G. Wells’s book/movie, The Time Machine; clockwork/machinery gears and lots of things made from metal such as iron; old fashioned aviator or industrial safety goggles; animals that have been fashioned into pseudo machines, yet retain animal attributes (see Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan); a dirty, grimy smudge over everything – industry is prominant, such as the atmosphere in the Industrial Revolution; has a Victorian, England background, though is in no way strictly limited to this time period; old fashioned clothing that has been subtly altered with steampunk elements, such as the goggles, or strange glasses made from gears and patch worked metals…I imagine there are a lot more such details that could be cited, but we’ll leave off with those for the moment.

I think it’s important to give adequate detail for the above elements. It’s not necessarily steampunk enough if a dirigible is cited in the background – after all, we have them today a well in our own everyday reality. Maybe not with tentacles jutting from them, but you get what I mean. Steampunk is fantasy or scifi – it needs adequate attention given to worldbuilding details. The technology is fictional, it needs to be fleshed out and well-realized by the author. A story needs its own brand of fantastical to be deemed steampunk, just as any other kind of fantasy or science fiction would.

Erika from Jawas Read Too

I like thinking of Steampunk as being rooted to its namesake, not in any one particular country like the Victorian England we all associate with the Industrial Revolution. It’s very much the Industrial Revolution meets Science Fiction where the mechanics, fuel, and aesthetic of an age powered by steam meet the futuristic elements we’ve become familiar with in the Computer Age. Steampunk is machine- and gear-heavy; pistons, oil, and steam churn the cogs of technology much like we think of electronics doing for us today. There are gadgets and innovations boosted by steam-power; dirigibles, wooden limbs, everything you can think of related to the era suddenly has the chance to be enhanced with steam (and why not take advantage?). Then it gets interesting when you consider the magical possibilities that blur the lines between Science Fiction and Fantasy: the mysterious aether emanating between oil-greased machinery or delicate brass tick-tock devices that’s inexplicable but eerily similar, in its way, to the electronic signals of cyberspace.

Technology isn’t stunted so much as it’s deviated from its actual course of history; the advancements made are steam-based rather than electronic-based. This is why we can have marvelous books like Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan. Alternate history is what Steampunk is all about! If we imagine a world built around steam, we can imagine WWII exactly as Westerfeld projected: different enough from what actually happened to make it a curious, exotic mixture of something similar and something archaic and foreign.

And then, one of the best parts: the lifestyle. I don’t mean lifestyle like fans dressing up to go to conventions (although, that’s one interpretation of the subgenre!). I mean the inspiration derived from the time period (whether that’s war-torn Europe, pirate-infested Caribbean waters, the American frontier, or Victorian England) that goes to creating practical (if whimsical) articulations of individual expression: clothing, furniture, housing, the way our steam-powered devices look.

Steampunk is an atmosphere, an aesthetic, an alternate history, and let’s face it: it’s really cool.

It’s a subgenre that moves across subgenres–Paranormal Romances like Gail Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate books can have Steampunk elements while the thumping and grotesque weirdness of China Miéville’s Perdido Street Stationcan explode with enough odd devices that fit the definition despite not even taking place on Earth.

There are so many things to consider with Steampunk, but it is, more than anything, inclusive and varied in the ways it reaches to us across literature.

TDF Pamela from The Discriminating Fangirl

Steampunk has become a buzzword in the publishing industry, and honestly, it seems like the most visible books that get the steampunk label really aren’t steampunk at all. So, what is steampunk? Maybe it’ll be better to first say what steampunk is not.

Steampunk is not any old book set in the Victorian era with a couple of brass gears and some goggles slapped on. If you’ve got a generic romance and you toss in an airship, that doesn’t make your book steampunk. Steampunk sells, and as long as readers are interested in it, publishers will push everything vaguely Victorian in the hope that people who want to get into the genre will buy it.

So… again, what is steampunk? It’s a glorious mishmash of Victoriana and science fiction and romance and steam-powered technology. Steampunk is what would have happened if nineteenth century scientists had been able to create all of the crazy things they had dreamed of. Steampunk is an aesthetic that toes the line between Victorian and Goth. Some of my favorite costumes at conventions are the elaborate steampunk getups: corsets and high-necked dresses; bustles and brass goggles; waistcoats, top hats, and strange contraptions.

I keep thinking that I need to read more steampunk, but being a poor graduate student, I’m stuck combing used bookstores, and unfortunately for me, steampunk doesn’t show up all that often. I have a few steampunk books sitting on my shelf, waiting for me to have time to read them. I’ve been dying to read The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, a book that is often credited with bringing steampunk more firmly into the public eye.

I’m excited to see more steampunk fiction being published, but what I really want to see is real steampunk, not just attempts to cash in on the popularity of the genre. I’ll have to keep up my usual discriminating reader habits, I suppose, and separate the wheat from the chaff.

Stacy B from The Discriminating Fangirl; Steampunk: Blossoming Historical Subculture

I was a fan before I knew it had a definition. I thought it was olde-fashioned with a technological twist. I thought it was a revitalization of something that already existed. These are both true, but when I try to explain it to someone, the first thing I say is “have you ever read 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea”? Jules Verne was steampunk before steampunk existed – he put technology and Victorian values together and made them mix like they were born for it. Verne in general wrote fiction upon fiction detailing technologies that didn’t exist yet – the true science fiction without changing the human component and taking it out of an environment it was comfortable in. It was this blend that I think was largely responsible for making steampunk possible over a century later.

Today, steampunk takes Verne one step further – we’ve added our modern ideas of femininity (women no longer have to be silent, we can be loud and boisterous…so long as we observe our manners at tea) and a touch of the supernatural. The late 19th century fascination with the supernatural (spirits, mediums, creatures of the night) fit perfectly into modern steampunk, and it’s become a genre of books, music, culture, and costume that absorbs more than it excludes. Steampunk can be strictly historical, it can have elements of the supernatural (both modern and historical), and it can play on the both modern ideas of gothic and the Victorian fascination with the macabre that birthed Gothic literature.

As a rule, the technological element is one that developed on an entirely different track than one we are historically familiar with. Instead of Edison, steampunk generally prays at the altars of Nikolai Tesla and Philo Farnsworth; to me, the differences are visible in style, but if you want the particulars, you’re going to have to speak to an engineer who can draw you circuit and current diagrams. Think cathode and vacuum tubes (I’m told the precursor to LCD is called the nixie tube, but again, you’d have to talk to someone who knows this better) a la Warehouse 13’s technology. While philosophical thought is more forward-oriented, costuming, like the technology, clings to older themes. Corsets, cravats, short pants and skirts are the norm, but occasionally there is a humdinger thrown in – women in pants are treated with mild shock, but not completely ostracized as they would have been in the reigns of Victoria & Edward. Manners are imperative, tea is necessary, and both fashion and good breeding are ranked highly in social circles.

Steampunk exists in reenactments, but is also prevalent in literature; spawned by the imagination, literature is, arguably, primarily responsible for the rise of steampunk – putting it on the road to subculture status. Two of my favorite steampunk series also straddle other genres (just like the entire phenomenon) – Gail Carriger’s “Parasol Protectorate” series (which begins with Soulless), is supernatural and Victorian with a touch of technology and more modern cultural acceptance of the odd with werewolves and vampires living alongside the aristocrats (werewolves are beastly men and occasionally vampires are lushes). On the opposite side, straddling technology and the supernatural on a flip-flop basis is Ilona Andrews’ “Magic” series starring Kate Daniels (beginning with Magic Bites) – where atmospheric damage prohibits technology from working all the time and when magic is “up”, everyone abandons cars and hops up on their horses and lights their gas lamps.

As an inclusive phenom instead of an exclusive one, there are plenty of aspects of steampunk I haven’t discussed, but visit wikipedia, read some books, listen to a few bands (recently, I’ve become a fan of the G-String Orchestra out of New Orleans), read some history and then pick up a good book and dive in. There are so many rights, it’s hard to go wrong when you’re learning to get into the groove.

Harry Markov from Temple Library Reviews

I have been posed one of the most difficult questions as far as genres go: What is steampunk? Ana and Thea have been loving the genre, but they want to gain better understanding of what it actually is. I am honestly not the leading authority in steampunk, but from the small amount of books in the genre I have read and the reviews I have scanned through, I have built my own humble opinion, which I am going to share with you.

Steampunk’s elusive nature stems from the fact that it has just recently stormed the scene and become mainstream and sought after in the SFF circles. Because it is a newborn in a pantheon of already established genres, steampunk explores all possibilities and has yet to settle on an identity, which will be synonymous to its name.

But let’s cut straight to the chase. People claim steampunk to be a subgenre with firm roots in science fiction, due to the central role the steam technology in the setting. However, I think that steampunk can also be a cross-genre between fantasy and science fiction, because I have encountered a few series, which incorporate fantastical elements. Prime example is Stephen Hunt, who combines the importance of technology for the world and characters as well as the epic momentum the story takes and powers beyond the grasp of science like telepathy.

Steampunk can garner many elements. It can border on horror as with Boneshaker. It can be an alternative history to what happens on Earth as with Leviathan. It can swell with a grand scale adventure as with Hunt’s novels. However, at its core steampunk has a few parameters that must be acknowledged in order for it to be true to itself. Apart from the technology that is mandatory for the series, steampunk is imbued with certain positivity, hopefulness and even a purity of heart, which contrasts to the grittiness that many genres have embraced today. By placing the stories in the Victorian era [more or less] the authors try to capture humanity in a phase, where promises and vows were unbreakable, feelings weren’t publically announced, but were intense, vibrant and not jaded, expired or wasted.

Steampunk may carry different and contradicting elements, which muddle or complicate the exact definition of the genre, but its integrity is in the spirit that comes from the world and the characters.

So there you have it folks – a variety of opinions, interpretations, and definitions of Steampunk.

What about you? What do YOU think Steampunk is?

Title: The Warlord of the Air

Author: Michael Moorcok

Genre: Sci-fi (Proto-Steampunk)

Publisher: DAW / Hunt Barnard Printing (UK)
Publication Date: 1971 / 1974
Paperback: 156 pages

Suppose that a few of our present inventions had been made earlier, and others not discovered at all? How would the last century have evolved differently? This is the story of Oswald Bastable, a Victorian captain who found himself in such alternate worlds. It is based on notes handed down to Michael Moorcock from his great-grandfather. It’s a story of a world of empires secured by airships, and a Chinese genius who invented the means of overthrowing the West’s power!

Stand alone or series: First in the A Nomad of the Time Streams trilogy but this story is self-contained (sort of) and can be read as a stand alone.

Why did I read the book: The Warlord of the Air is generally listed as one of the seminal works which inspired the Steampunk sub-genre. In my quest to learn about all things Steampunk, I had to check it out.

How did I get the book: The book is currently out of print but is easily found on Amazon marketplace. I paid £0.01 for it (plus shipping).

Review:

The Warlord of the Air begins with an editor’s note in which the author, Michael Moorcok, tells of the discovery of a manuscript said to have been written by his own grandfather. This manuscript is the basics for the book as it follows Moorcock’s grandfather’s narrative as he describes his journey in 1903, to Rowe Island, in the Indian Ocean where he goes to recover from a nervous breakdown, away from civilization. Soon he is overcome with boredom, and Moorcock finds himself taking an interest on a young man who is kicked off a boat and seems to be in need for help with his clothes in ruins, in an obvious state of confusion and possibly addicted to opium. After taking a bath and being fed, the man presents himself as Oswald Bastable, and claims to have come from the year 1973, having just returned to 1903. Returned being the key word here as Bastable is a contemporary (or is he?) of Moorcock which was temporarily dislocated in time. His narrative, told in first person to Moocock as he writes it down is the meats and bones of The “Warlord of the Air” .

Bastable’s adventures begin in 1902 when, as a member of the British Army he is part of an expedition sent to deal with Sharan Kang, a mysterious religious figure who has been causing trouble in India. He is invited to visit the mystical temple of Teku Benga, where no westerner has set foot ever; after a confrontation with Kang’s men, he gets lost until an earthquake knocks him out. When he comes to, he finds himself alone in tattered clothes in the now completely destroyed temple. In the desolate ruins, at the top of the Himalayas, Bastable can’t find an explanation to what happened nor a way to get out. Rescue comes in the form of a huge airship – a sight he has never seen in his life. He soon discovers he has somehow ended up in 1973 – but not the 1973 that we, readers know to have happened.

In this reality, the airship he boards, is a Zepellin of the Indian Air Force, part of the British Empire. Imperialism is still very much alive, the First World War never happened and the world is largely at peace. London is clean and everybody is happy and healthy and well-off. Bastable is at first enamoured with this perfect vision and embodiment of Utopia; especially when, after joining the army once more (feigning amnesia he is able to explain how he doesn’t have an identity in this timeline) he observes that all colonies live happily under the rule of a benevolent empire.

When he is kicked out of the army (after a fight with an American called Reagan – that Reagan) , he joins another air crew who unbeknownst to him are sympathetic to the political claims that the Empire oppress the nations of the world into complacence. Bastable’s patriotism is put to test and finally crumbles down as the idea of a kind, paternalistic Empire which brings health and education to its children in the less developed colonies is turned in its head as the raging racism and oppression underneath shows their ugly faces. The consequences of uniting with the rebels – amongst them an aged Lenin who never saw the Russian Revolution take place and General O.T. Shaw, a Chinese leader who is the Warlord of the Air of the title – are catastrophic and send him right back in time and to point where the story starts.

The Warlord of the Air packs a lot of story and action in its few 150 pages or so. And as an adventurous Sci-fi romp, it is undoubtedly immensely entertaining. The idea of time travel is whole appealing to me as a reader – especially in this case, of a time traveller who doesn’t go from the future to the past but from the past to the future. Except that this future is still very much rooted in the past that he knows – the political and economical ideology of the Victorians as well as the Steam-powered technology which are still very much prevalent. The assumption is that once Imperialism takes roots, there is no further evolution.

It is as though the world is stuck in the past – part of the political, economical and sociological implications of a world that did not went through its “natural” history – proof of that is that you can’t stop history and regardless of who are the culprits, certain things will inevitably, come to happen. As cryptic as this may sound (in an effort to not spoil the ending) , that is the exact reason why the book fell short for me. For the less than subtle message towards the (rushed) ending as well as the caricaturised secondary characters who are part of it.

To sum up: the premise of the story is very cool and Bastable’s arc as someone lost not only in time but ideologically lost as well is very interesting; the ideas presented and the feeling of anti-imperialism and anti-racism expressed are ideas I wholly embrace even if those issues are simplistically handled in the end.

Now: it is Steampunk? The Warlord of the Air is actually regarded as proto-Steampunk. Published before term was even coined, I can see why the book makes most of essential lists. It has the right setting, the right technology and the right ideology. It has both the Steam and the Punk. I highly recommend it if you want to learn more about the sub-genre.

Notable Quotes/ Parts: Utopia:

In this London there were no ugly billboards, no illuminated advertisements, no tasteless slogans and, as we climbed into the steam-brougham and began to move along one of the ramps, I realised that there were no seedy slums of the sort found in many parts of the London I had known in 1902. Poverty had been banished! Disease had been exiled! Misery must surely be unkown!

Additional Thoughts: Oswald Bastable’s adventures through time as he goes back and forth in different time streams continue for two other books The Land Leviathan and The Steel Tsar

The desperation of Bastable’s bizarre fate runs deep, for an unpredictable time warp thrusts him into strange worlds, all parallel to his own, and yet different. Throughout all this, Bastable can remain steadfast in his determination to reach his own time, because of his faith in one woman, inextricably bound to him in all dimensions of Time, and his belief in the existence of a secret Utopian citadel. But there is one thing that may have the power to come between Bastable and his goal — a battle of Armageddon so horrifying in its believability that it almost obliterates his ability to keep searching.

In the Russian sector of a battle-torn multiverse, Captain Oswald Bastable confronts the mythical agents of destruction and death. In his epical adventures in the alternative twentieth century, Chrononaut Bastable, member of the League of Temporal Adventurers, has crossed and re-crossed many different time-streams.. The Steel Tsar finds him travelling backwards in time from a shell-shocked Singapore to a Tsarist Empire seething with conflict, and preyed on by motley bands of rogues and adventurers. Here he meets up with fellow-time-traveller Miss Una Persson, and together they change the course of history whose mythical deeds go beyond the boundaries of everyday imagination and glitter in the exuberant land of the eternal present.

The trilogy has been collected in a one volume edition, which has finally, been given a cool cover.

Verdict: With time travel and adventure, in a neo-Victorian setting, I highly recommend this to fans of Steampunk who would like to understand the history of the genre.

Rating: 7 – Very Good

Reading Next: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore

Steampunk started out as a sub-genre of Science Fiction in the 80s, and has since expanded to include other genre elements, such as Fantasy and Romance, for example. According to the Steampunk Wikipedia entry:

The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used — usually the 19th century, and often Victorian era England — but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inventions like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or real technological developments like the computer occurring at an earlier date. Other examples of steampunk contain alternate history-style presentations of “the path not taken” of such technology as dirigibles, analog computers, or digital mechanical computers (such as Charles Babbage’s Analytical engine); these frequently are presented in an idealized light, or with a presumption of functionality.

With several now classic, widely respected and heralded novels already published in the Steampunk sub-genre, and with many more in the works from various publishing houses and well-established authors from different background (Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Romance, Adult, YA, Erotica, etc), it is impossible to deny Steampunk is a growing trend – and it is here to stay, at least in the foreseeable future.

If you are a blogger, or an internetian (someone who reads the blogs) especially of the Fantasy and Sci-Fi variety, over the past two years, chances are that you have noticed a significant increase in the number of books published under this enigmatic umbrella called “Steampunk.” You will have seen an increase in the number of articles, events, and essentials lists preoccupied with this compelling and strange sub-genre.

In fact, Steampunk has become so popular that it extends beyond the realm of fiction and film, as to have been accepted and established as a culture lifestyle via fashion, décor and music. In the UK for example, The Victorian Steampunk Society organize a whole range of events throughout the year. According to their definition, Steampunk started out as a joke:

There was a movement in science fiction to write in a genre known as “Cyberpunk”. When various writers began exploring similar concepts and ideas but setting them in a pseudo Victorian world the term steampunk was jokingly coined.

But in spite of Steampunk’s incredible popularity, we have noticed that there is no clear definition of Steampunk as a genre. For the past few weeks, we have been searching for an established, conclusive definition of what Steampunk is – and across the blogs, forums, and websites we have visited in our quest, we’ve noticed that there exist a vast, disparate array of definitions. Books that are mentioned in some essential Steampunk lists are not mentioned in others, and we’ve some argument as to the limits and parameters of what indeed constitutes “Steampunk.” In fact, in the process of getting reading for the week, we’ve already read a couple of books published and marketed as Steampunk, but which we hardly think fit within the subgenre! But we are getting ahead of ourselves. We plan to come back to the question of “What is Steampunk?” in a special post tomorrow.

For now, the important thing is: Steampunk. We love it. We wholeheartedly embrace the idea of a sub-genre which proposes to fuse imaginative, fantastic ideas with complex social structures in a historical setting and making it fun. This was the impetus behind this two-part Appreciation Week – the we too, get to read and learn more about the genre.

With that in mind, here is a list of 10 titles that we Smugglers consider to be essential Steampunk reading (note, this list contains prose books only – we will have a separate list of comics/manga and films in our second Steampunk Week, next month!):

The computer age has arrived a century ahead of time – in the High Victorian age. The Industrial Revolution, supercharged by the development of steam-driven cybernetic engines, is in full swing. Great Britain, with the benefit of this new technology, prepares to better the world.

The Difference Engine from William Gibson and Bruce Sterling is considered as THE definitive Steampunk novel. And wouldn’t you know it, Ana has a review for this book later in the week.

It is the cusp of World War I, and all the European powers are arming up. The Austro-Hungarians and Germans have their Clankers, steam-driven iron machines loaded with guns and ammunition. The British Darwinists employ fabricated animals as their weaponry. Their Leviathan is a whale airship, and the most masterful beast in the British fleet.

Aleksandar Ferdinand, prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, is on the run. His own people have turned on him. His title is worthless. All he has is a battle-torn Stormwalker and a loyal crew of men.
Deryn Sharp is a commoner, a girl disguised as a boy in the British Air Service. She’s a brilliant airman. But her secret is in constant danger of being discovered.

With the Great War brewing, Alek’s and Deryn’s paths cross in the most unexpected way…taking them both aboard the Leviathan on a fantastical, around-the-world adventure. One that will change both their lives forever.

This is one of Ana’s favorites, which she reviewed last year, and marks YA SF/Dystopian author Scott Westerfeld’s first stab at Steampunk.

A steampunkish romantic fantasy set in Ondinium, a city that beats to the ticking of a clockwork heart. Taya, a metal-winged courier, can travel freely across the city’s sectors and mingle indiscriminately among its castes. A daring mid-air rescue leads to involvement with two scions of an upperclass family and entanglement in a web of terrorism, loyalty, murder, and secrets.

Mixing Steampunk with fantasy and romance, Clockwork Heart remains one of Thea’s absolute favorite novels of the subgenre (reviewed by her HERE). Absolutely essential!

Replete with whimsical mechanical wonders and charmingly anachronistic settings, this pioneering anthology gathers a brilliant blend of fantastical stories. Steampunk originates in the romantic elegance of the Victorian era and blends in modern scientific advances—synthesizing imaginative technologies such as steam-driven robots, analog supercomputers, and ultramodern dirigibles. The elegant allure of this popular new genre is represented in this rich collection by distinctively talented authors, including Neal Stephenson, Michael Chabon, James Blaylock, Michael Moorcock, and Joe R. Lansdale.

This is an anthology with one heckuva lineup with some of the best and brightest voices in SF/F and Steampunk.

Jacob Burn: pilot, criminal and disgraced son of one of the founding families of the ancient city of Veridon.

When an old friend delivers to him a strange artifact, Jacob’s world crashes down around him as he runs not only from the law but also from those who were once friends. But even as the array of machines and strange creatures stalk him through the streets of Veridon, something even more sinister and dangerous makes its move against him, an entity that will make Jacob question everything he thought he knew about himself and the city.

Hearts of Veridon by Tim Akers is a new book to the Steampunk consortium, published late last year – but it is already referred to as a classic work by many afficionados. Thea will be reviewing this bad boy in our second Steampunk Week, next month.

Mattie, an intelligent automaton skilled in the use of alchemy, finds herself caught in the middle of a conflict between gargoyles, the Mechanics, and the Alchemists. With the old order quickly giving way to the new, Mattie discovers powerful and dangerous secrets – secrets that can completely alter the balance of power in the city of Ayona. This doesn’t sit well with Loharri, the Mechanic who created Mattie and still has the key to her heart – literally.

Another title that both Thea & Ana will be reviewing in our second Steampunk Week, next month.

It all began when the Brown Leather Man, a mysterious being with a secret older than humankind, asked proper Victorian London gentleman George Dower to repair a weird device. How coud George have know that this was but one of the many infernal devices his genius father had build, and that he himself would soon be pursued by former clients of his father? For George had always been the unsuspecting key to his father’s incredible plans, a key that others would like to possess – from the automaton who wore George’s own face to the mad Lord Bendray, bent on using George to destroy the entire Earth. A romp through Victorian England by an author said to have “the brain-burned intensity of his mentor, Philip K. Dick.”

Another book considered as a classic – in fact, K.W. Jeter has been called the “grandfather of steampunk.” While Infernal Engines (and Morlock Night) have been out of print since the 1980s, Harper Collins imprint Angry Robot has signed K.W. Jeter and will be republishing these titles later this year!

The action follows 11-year-old protagonist Lyra Belacqua, accompanied by her daemon, from her home at Oxford University to the frozen wastes of the North, on a quest to save kidnapped children from the evil ‘Gobblers,’ who are using them as part of a sinister experiment. Lyra also must rescue her father from the Panserbjorne, a race of talking, armored, mercenary polar bears holding him captive. Joining Lyra are a vagabond troop of gyptians (gypsies), witches, an outcast bear, and a Texan in a hot air balloon.

We know, you are probably thinking – wait, The Golden Compass (actually, the entirety of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series) is Steampunk? And, if you can put the movie out of your mind, you’ll realize, just as we did, that it is. Not only is this recognized as one of the best steampunk works out there (it’s on nearly every top 10 list), but it’s one of Ana’s and Thea’s favorite series’ PERIOD.

Suppose that a few of our present inventions had been made earlier, and others not discovered at all? How would the last century have evolved differently? This is the story of Oswald Bastable, a Victorian captain who found himself in such alternate worlds. It is based on notes handed down to Michael Moorcock from his great-grandfather. It’s a story of a world of empires secured by airships, and a Chinese genius who invented the means of overthrowing the West’s power!

Another classic, and another book that Ana will be looking at and reviewing later this week!

Aboard a vast seafaring vessel, a band of prisoners and slaves, their bodies remade into grotesque biological oddities, is being transported to the fledgling colony of New Crobuzon. But the journey is not theirs alone. They are joined by a handful of travelers, each with a reason for fleeing the city. Among them is Bellis Coldwine, a renowned linguist whose services as an interpreter grant her passage—and escape from horrific punishment. For she is linked to Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin, the brilliant renegade scientist who has unwittingly unleashed a nightmare upon New Crobuzon.

For Bellis, the plan is clear: live among the new frontiersmen of the colony until it is safe to return home. But when the ship is besieged by pirates on the Swollen Ocean, the senior officers are summarily executed. The surviving passengers are brought to Armada, a city constructed from the hulls of pirated ships, a floating, landless mass ruled by the bizarre duality called the Lovers. On Armada, everyone is given work, and even Remades live as equals to humans, Cactae, and Cray. Yet no one may ever leave.

Lonely and embittered in her captivity, Bellis knows that to show dissent is a death sentence. Instead, she must furtively seek information about Armada’s agenda. The answer lies in the dark, amorphous shapes that float undetected miles below the waters—terrifying entities with a singular, chilling mission. . . .

China Mieville is a literary SF writer, and his novel The Scar will be reviewed by Thea in Steampunk Week part deux.

Further reading and articles:

The awesome articles by Dru Pagliassotti:

- Gaslamp or Steampunk?
- Does Steampunk Have Politics?
- Does Steampunk Have an Ideology?

A Great article by Joshua Pfeiffer about the Socio Political side of Steampunk .

An amazing article by Fantasy writer Catherynne M. Valente about what is NOT Steampunk: Blowing Off Steam.

The Gatehouse’s article on Steampunk Politics.

Tor.com had a whole month dedicated to Steampunk in 2009. You can read all the articles and reviews via this link.

AuthorCherie Priest’s article on Steampunk: What it is, why I came to like it, and why I think it’ll stick around

Galaxy Express’ Heather Massey’s article: The Case for Steampunk Romance.

Blogs and Websites:

Steampunk Scholar - A blog devoted to the PhD research of Mike Perschon, as he researches for his dissertation on the Steampunk as aesthetic.

Voyages Extraordinnaires – a blog which covers several genres including Steampunk. They wrote a series of articles on the History of Steampunk.

Brass Goggles – A UK Blog (and a forum – beware, you can spend HOURS here.). Devoted to the light side of all things Steampunk, with news about the genre and the scene. For their definition of Steampunk, go here.

The Gatehouse- A Blog about Dieselpunk and Steampunk. Their definition of Steampunk is here.

Steampunk Magazine – A Publication dedicated to promote Steampunk in all of its forms and free to download online. Their homepage contains links to all sort of Steampunk news and is updated regularly.

The Victorian Steampunk Society Website – With links to events, concerts, etc.

The Oxford Museum of the History of Science held the world’s first exhibition of Steampunk art in February. In their website you can find all sorts of links, including the programme, videos, photos and a blog of the event.

Weekend at the Asylum – the Website of the UK’s leading Steampunk event. This year’s event will take place in Lincoln over the weekend September 10th, 11th and 12th.

Speaking of festivals, The Steampunk’s World Fair, the first Steampunk Festival in the US is taking place this year on May 14th-16th , at the Radisson of Piscataway, New Jersey.

It’s here! It is finally here! We have talked about holding a Steampunk week ever since we started the blog, more than two years ago. For one reason or another, we always ended up postponing it until we set our feet down and said NO MORE: let’s do it! The time is now.

But as with all things Book Smugglers, it just so happens that when we came to organise the schedule, we realised we had too many things we wanted to do, too many books we wanted to read – and so, we decided we needed two weeks instead of one to fully appreciate the dirigible-laden subgenre that is Steampunk. Hence, the two separate dates for our event (and the two posters above) – we’ll have one week in March and then one week in April. This calendar is for the first week only, and here is what we have in store for you:

On Monday, we kick off the week with an intro post in which we examine the sub-genre, listing some required, essential reading, and provide links to some pretty cool Steampunk-ish sites and events (such as the coinciding The Nova Albion Steampunk Convention):

And we follow that with Ana’s review of what many consider to be a precursor of the genre: The Warlord of the Air by Michael Moorcok.

On Tuesday, we have invited a few bloggers to answer one pressing question: What Do You Think Steampunk Is? We can tell you right now that the answers have been pretty great…and diverse. (We’ll of course include our own definitions in the mix) Then, we follow the post with Thea’s review of acclaimed novel The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi.

On Wednesday Ana does her own “From Page to the Screen” feature for The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen tackling both the Alan Moore classic Graphic Novel…and the (totally lamentable) Movie. Thea takes a look at Airborn by Kenneth Oppel.

On Thursday, Thea tackles an indie published, illustrated novel Arcadia Snips and the Steamwork Consortium by Robert Rodgers and illustrated by Tod Wills. Meanwhile, Ana reviews another classic with The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling.

On Friday we do a joint review of Boneshaker by Cherie Priest.

Finally, on Saturday, Kenda from Lurv a la Mode, the designer behind our awesome poster guests blogs on Steampunk Art and Design.

And we declare the week officially open! We hope you enjoy it!

~ Your friendly neighborhood book smugglers

It has recently been brought to our attention that another big Young Adult release may be pulling for a three-peat of Bloomsbury’s Liar and Magic Under Glass fiascos.

This time, the potentially whitewashed cover in question is the ARC of White Cat, the upcoming YA novel by Holly Black – and this time, the culprit is Margaret K. McElderry, a Simon and Schuster imprint.

An anonymous comment was left on our recent “Cover Matters: On Whitewashing” post. The commenter quotes directly from the ARC of White Cat that imply the protagonist, Cassel, is in fact a person of color, and that the cover is another instance of whitewashing.

Here are some of the quotes from the commenter about the book:

“Phillip’s dark skin makes his teeth look whiter when he smiles.” (ARC; pg 30).

(According to the commenter, “Many times throughout the book, we’re told that the Sharpe brother’s look a lot alike, so if Phillip has dark skin, it makes sense that Cassel does as well.”)

“I shake my head. ‘If they are, I don’t know where from. I bet mom for sure doesn’t either; although Gramps always says that his father–her grandfather– was a maharajah from India…” (ARC; page 43)

“‘Your grandfather told me that your family was descended from runaway slaves,’” she says. (ARC; page 43)

“People are always coming up to me on trains and talking to me in different languages, like it’s obvious I’ll understand them.” (ARC; page 43)

It is not a secret that we are against whitewashing. It is a racist, harmful practice. Before going off, denouncing the publisher and cover without all the facts, however, we decided to be cautious on this occasion for two reasons:

1) The quotes above seem to be indirect. They don’t describe the character that is depicted on the cover; they describe his relatives or how other people perceive him.

2) The book and cover are from Simon and Schuster, a publisher that has a good track record for publishing great, accurately depicted PoC covers.

We were outraged at the prospect of another whitewashed cover, but we also felt like we really needed to vet this ourselves. The above evidence seemed a little circumstantial and indirect – a person’s dark complexioned brother does not necessarily a PoC make (for that matter, teeth appearing whiter in contrast to skin could reflect anything from ethnicity to a good tan). So, we felt like we needed a bit more information – and luckily, we had an ARC for vetting purposes.

Here’s what we found:

The fourth quote above (about trains and different languages) isn’t in our ARC.

The second and third quotes are taken slightly out of context. Here’s the full quote from our ARC copy:

“Why did your parents call you Cassel?”

I’m defeated and amused. “Mom loved extravagant names. Dad insisted that his first son be named after him — Phillip — but after that, she got to name Barron and me whatever fanciful thing she wanted. If she’d had her way, Philip would have been Jasper.”

She rolls her eyes. “Come on. Are you sure they aren’t from her family? Traditional names?”

I shake my head. “If they are, I don’t know where from. I bet Mom doesn’t for sure either, although Gramps says that his father — her grandfather — was a maharaja of India. He sold tonics from Calcutta to the Midwest. Makes some sense that he could be Indian. His last name, Singer, could be derived from Singh.”

“Your grandfather told me that your family was descended from runaway slaves,” she says. [...] “Yeah,” I say. “I like the maharaja story better. And don’t even get me started on the one where we’re Iroquois.” (ARC 43)

We’re a little bit hesitant to say that Cassel is a PoC based on this excerpt. Although the bolded line above does speak to the angle that Cassel’s (or at least Cassel’s mother’s) appearance may imply some different (read: non-white) traditional background, it’s still all rather inconclusive (for example, the very caucasian Angelina Jolie, Megan Fox, and Farrah Fawcett all claim to be of Iroquois/Native American descent). There is no physical description of Cassel throughout the book, and there aren’t any explicit clues as to his appearance or heritage here. With only this as evidence, we weren’t exactly convinced that White Cat was another egregious example of whitewashed covers.

So, we sat down with the book, combing through the pages for a physical description, and for anything racially/culturally/ethnically explicit rather than implicit. After a few hours of reading, we finally found what we were looking for:

“My cousin just got back from India,” I say, and nod in Lila’s direction. “Her parents were living in some ashram. I was telling her about Wallingford.”

Audrey’s hands go to her hips. “She’s your cousin?”

Lila scrunches her eyebrows for a moment, then a wide grin splits her face. “Oh! Because I’m so pale, right?’

Stacey flinches. Audry looks at me like she’s trying to see if I’m offended. Wallingford’s idea of political correctness is never to mention anything about race. Ever. Tan skin and dark hair are supposed to be as invisible as red hair or blonde hair or skin so white it’s marbled with blue veins. (ARC 226)

This is the closest to explicitly stated evidence that Cassel is a PoC (even at that, we find it a very interesting choice on part of author Holly Black – Lila remarks about her “paleness” as opposed to any mention of Cassel’s appearance or his implied darker skin tone).

We want to stress that neither Cassel’s physical features nor his ethnic background are ever fully revealed in the book. It’s also worth noting that Cassel is the first-person narrator, and he doesn’t seem to know (nor does he ever explore) his own background. It’s almost as if the Wallingford’s PC non-mention of race is something Ms. Black put into practice in her novel, which is rather cool in itself. Perhaps this quote is indicative of Holly Black’s point with White Cat, and with her non-descriptions of Cassel. (This kind of reminds us of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, in which Gaiman doesn’t reveal that protagonist Shadow is actually a black man until the end of the book) Perhaps Ms. Black’s point is that race isn’t really a part of the story. Perhaps it is meant to be an affirmation of colorblindness.

But we digress.

On the matter of whitewashing, we don’t know what Cassel looks like or what his cultural or ethnic or racial background is. But there is no doubt in our minds that Cassel is at least of a darker complexion – but this could mean anything. He might be Indian, or Hispanic, or Middle Eastern, or Greek, or Nigerian, or Indonesian, etc. Though the other quotes are circumstantial and inconclusive at best, with this last explicit remark near the end of the book, we can conclude that Cassel is, at the very least, not pale-skinned in appearance.

Thus, the ARC cover of White Cat, with its pale, caucasian-looking model, is a misrepresentation of the protagonist. It is a form of whitewashing, and we definitely want to add our voices to those calling Simon & Schuster to change the cover.

Before getting up in arms about White Cat, we think that a few things should be said. First, in order to come to this conclusion about the whitewashed cover and Cassel’s appearance, it took us several hours of combing through the book with the dedicated, sole task of finding a physical description of the protagonist. We had to search long and hard for this information, only to find no explicit descriptions and yielding instead a bunch of implicit ones.

Thus, the case of White Cat isn’t exactly the same as those of Liar, Magic Under Glass, or The Mysterious Benedict Society. There was no explicit description of a black protagonist with kinky, cropped hair and no subsequent publisher decision to replace this clearly described PoC with a caucasian girl with long flowing tresses on the cover. And, considering that we spent hours looking specifically for these descriptions, we can at least see where things might have gone awry between editorial and cover art departments, and how the assumption of a caucasian protagonist in this particular book may have occurred. Considering, especially, Simon & Schuster’s excellent track record with diverse PoC book covers, we don’t think this was an intentional decision (as it clearly was in the case of Liar, MUG, & TMBS) – it certainly is nowhere near as harmful or openly racist as Bloomsbury’s decisions to use white models for clearly described PoC characters.

Thanks to a wonderful second-opinion consultation from esteemed (and wicked cool) author Sarah Rees Brennan – the only person we knew of that had read White Cat in its entirety – and some online research, we have learned that Holly Black HAS spoken out about her cover:

Cassel’s racial background is indeterminate, which makes him very hard to describe. His story is actually partially based on a fantastic true-crime book, Son of the Grifter, that I read while I was doing research for White Cat. In it, a man named Kent Walker described being brought up by his grifting mother. She often told him different stories about where his grandfather’s family came from – essentially robbing him of a clear sense of identity. In White Cat, Cassel doesn’t know his background–only the contradictory things people in his family have claimed. I’m glad the final cover shows him looking more tanned, in keeping with the way he actually looks in the book.

Also, we have learned that the ARC cover is NOT the final cover for White Cat. Holly Black has posted about this matter on her blog, in response to a concerned reader’s comment about whitewashing:

You are absolutely correct. The lighting at the shoot and the desaturation done to the photo made the model look very pale on the cover of the ARC. Cassel looks browner and more like himself on the final.

Here’s the comparison of the ARC (left) and final cover (right) (click to enlarge):

It might not be perfect, but it is (in our opinion) a marked improvement. This version of Cassel on the new cover is much closer to our mental image of him!

In response to our question about how author Sarah Rees Brennan felt about the cover, she told us the following:

I’ve read the book, and I thought it was very cool how Cassel’s family being conmen means he literally doesn’t know where he comes from – to reflect that the three models for the Sharpe brothers (the other two are on the back) are all from different racial backgrounds. But it does mean Cassel’s look was always going to be tricky to portray with a people cover, since he doesn’t actually know whether he’s a PoC or not.

And after reading the book for ourselves, we wholeheartedly agree with Sarah’s opinion.

So what about you? Any thoughts? We’d love to hear from you about this particular cover!

For more on White Cat by Holly Black, check out these links:

Holly Black’s LiveJournal in which she responds to a heartfelt, awesome comment

And we will leave you this evening by letting you all know that while we made it sound like writing this post and gathering facts was some arduous task – it actually wasn’t, because White Cat is a fantastic, awesome read! (Don’t worry, we’ll review it closer to the release date this May)…

Another Sunday, another stash!

After taking a week off of reviewing to read (OMG!), recuperate our sanity, and fortify ourselves for the weeks ahead, we are back, with a vengeance! First, a few tidbits of news.

Giveaway Winners:

We had quite a few giveaways this week – we’re shameless like that. And now we have a few winners to announce!

The winners of the Jeri Smith-Ready Giveaway, taking home a copy of Wicked Game and Bad to the Bone, are:

The winner of Shade Fright by Sean Cummings is:

And, the winners of Dark Life by Kat Falls are:

Congratulations to all the winners! You know the drill. Send us an email (contact AT the book smugglers DOT com) with your snail mail address, and we will get your goodies out to you as soon as possible. Thanks again to all that entered!

And don’t forget, our giveaway of Wherever Nina Lies by Lynn Weingarten is still open!

Patricia Briggs’ Silver Borne Book Tour:

When mechanic and shapeshifter Mercy Thompson attempts to return a powerful Fae book she’d previously borrowed in an act of desperation, she finds the bookstore locked up and closed down.

It seems the book contains secret knowledge-and the Fae will do just about anything to keep it out of the wrong hands. And if that doesn’t take enough of Mercy’s attention, her friend Samuel is struggling with his wolf side-leaving Mercy to cover for him, lest his own father declare Sam’s life forfeit.

All in all, Mercy has had better days. And if she isn’t careful, she might not have many more to live…

ZOMG! We’ve only got a month to wait until the official release of the fifth Mercy Thompson book, Silver Borne! To promote her newest title, the awesome, esteemed Patricia Briggs will be traveling the west coast on a book tour where she will sign books and answer reader questions. If you are lucky enough to live in one of the tour cities, we HIGHLY recommend making your way out to a signing. Patty Briggs rules.

Silver Borne officially hits shelves on March 30, 2010. You can read the first chapter of the book online HERE.

Steampunk Week Teaser:

A bit of a teaser now. We Smugglers have planned our next big event – in two week’s time, we shall host the first of our two-part Steampunk Week! Details will follow soon, but for now we give you our official posters for the event (courtesy once again by the fantastic, amazing, incredible KMont of Lurv ala Mode)!

We’ll have guests, posts about the steampunk subgenre, and, of course, steampunk reviews galore.

This Week on The Book Smugglers:

On Monday, Thea reviews YA speculative fiction title NUM8ERS by Rachel Ward. We’ll also have a grand prize giveaway opportunity for the book’s release, so stay tuned for a chance to win.

Tuesday, Ana reviews Something About You, the newest book-crack title from Julie James! We’ll also have a copy of Something About You up for grabs.

Wednesday, we have Urban Fantasy/Paranormal author Stacia Kane over for another Interactive Q&A and giveaway opportunity to celebrate the shiny new release of her latest Megan Chase novel, Demon Possessed! Also, Thea reviews Incarceron by Catherine Fisher – a YA dystopian novel that blew her away.

On Thursday, Ana reviews the brilliant, poignant YA novel The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson. Later, Thea reviews Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde – one of her hands down favorite reads of 2010.

On Friday, we have a joint review of new title Spider’s Bite, as author Jennifer Estep changes gears from lighthearted paranormal romance to gritty urban fantasy.

Finally, on Saturday, we are having a crazy wicked cool giveaway, courtesy of Simon & Schuster to celebrate the release of Kresley Cole’s newest novel in her Immortals After Dark series, Pleasure of a Dark Prince.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Kresley Cole enraptures again with this seductive tale of a fierce werewolf prince who will stop at nothing to protect the lovely archer he covets from afar.

A DANGEROUS BEAUTY…

Lucia the Huntress: as mysterious as she is exquisite, she harbors secrets that threaten to destroy her — and those she loves.

AN UNCONTROLLABLE NEED…

Garreth MacRieve, Prince of the Lykae: the brutal Highland warrior who burns to finally claim this maddeningly sensual creature as his own.

THAT LEAD TO A PLEASURE SO WICKED….

From the shadows, Garreth has long watched over Lucia. Now, the only way to keep the proud huntress safe from harm is to convince her to accept him as her guardian. To do this, Garreth will ruthlessly exploit Lucia’s greatest weakness — her wanton desire for him.

We will be giving away 20 COPIES of Pleasure of a Dark Prince!

It’s another crazy week…