Steampunk fiction mixes fantasy, history

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Steampunk fiction mixes fantasy, history
December 5, 2010
By Gail Shelton
The Daily News

With Dickens on The Strand taking on a steampunk element this weekend, I thought I’d talk about steampunk books.

There’s a lot of discussion in the genre-fiction ranks about what steampunk is and isn’t.

Some prefer a narrower definition of the subgenre, insisting that it only includes what would be called science fiction if projected into the future rather than the past.

Others (and I am one of them) use the term willy-nilly to refer to any speculative fiction set in a recognizable historic past, whether it has magic or machines. Or magical machines.

I even stretch the term to include settings in all of the 19th century, even before the age of steam power.

That said, I haven’t actually read many books that are shelved as “steampunk” on the GoodReads website. (GoodReads.com is a great place to keep track of books you’ve read and pick up recommendations for new books to read.)

“Boneshaker” by Cherie Priest and “Perdido Street Station” by China Mieville are near the top of the list. I do own a copy of “The Windup Girl” by Paolo Bacigalupi. I will get around to reading it before too long, I hope.

I thoroughly have enjoyed the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik.

It’s perhaps a stretch to include it in the steampunk subgenre, since it’s set during England’s wars with Napoleon, but I’m one of those inclusive people.

The series generally follows known history, except that there are dragons.

What could be more steampunky than dragons in harness, going to war with Admiral Nelson?

The first book in the series is “His Majesty’s Dragon.” (Mass market paperback reprint, Random House, 384 pp., $7.99, Nook e-book $5.99)

In it, a sea captain captures a French ship and finds a dragon egg aboard.

The egg promptly hatches and the infant dragon — of a species previously unknown in England — inside bonds to Captain Lawrence, adopting the name Temeraire.

Temeraire and Lawrence go on many adventures together in the successive books, learning to fight in the English Air Force, traveling to China, to Africa, dealing with a French invasion and more.

They’re told in the rather dry and distant tone of, say, Patrick O’Brien’s Jack Aubrey seafaring books, which suits the stories. There are six books in all, so far.

“Soulless” by Gail Carriger (Orbit, 384 pp., $7.99 mmp or e-book) is another on the steampunk shelf that I’ve read.

I had a hard time getting into it to begin with because I struggled with her basic concept, which is that someone can be born without a soul.

But since the soul in her universe isn’t actually a soul, but more like electricity or something, I managed.

The heroine is soulless, and therefore negates the magic in magical creatures like werewolves and vampires. Bad things are happening that she gets dragged into.

I enjoyed the quirky characters, had a bit of trouble figuring out the construction of her world, but it was an entertaining read, overall.

And finally, I will mention that my own latest two books, “New Blood” (Tor Paranormal Romance, 512 pp, $6.99) and “Heart’s Blood” (Tor, 418 pp., $6.99), are steampunk Victorian fantasy romance novels.

Gail Shelton lives in Galveston and is published by Tor Books in the fantasy-romance genre as Gail Dayton.