We've selected ten types of science fiction fans, offering you great gift ideas for fans of the big franchises, this summer's biggest movies, and even something for the steampunks and zombie lovers. You can also check out our fan gift guide from last year, which also includes gift ideas for fans of Battlestar Galactica, Harry Potter, and Batman.

Gifts for the Star Wars Fan (Gallery-free view)

Gifts for the Star Trek Fan (Gallery-free view)

Gifts for the Transformers Fan (Gallery-free view)

Gifts for the GI Joe Fan (Gallery-free view)

Gifts for the Doctor Who Fan (Gallery-free view)

Gifts for the Joss Whedon Fan (Gallery-free view)

Gifts for the Terminator Fan (Gallery-free view)

Gifts for the Vampire Fan (Gallery-free view)

Gifts for the Steampunk Fan (Gallery-free view)

Gifts for the Zombie Fan (Gallery-free view)

Additional gift ideas by Meredith Woerner.

Check out the rest of his work at and closer look at these stunning sculptures check out the artist's site.

cosmonaute
herr doctor
clockwork
homme volant
little flying civil servant
robot pet
rouleur de patins
albert minette
alien
blind man
Frank
beauty machine
leather machine

Banwell's masks are currently on display at the University of Oxford's Steampunk Exhibition.

[Tom Banwell Leather via Make]

The above image is Yap's incredible "Legend Of Yamato" image won the CG Society's concept art challenge a couple years ago. You may have seen it before, but it was new to us — and we love how colorfully it reinvents steampunk. Here are some more of our favorites.

It's a steampunk boat that's also a train, from BlueStorm. More of his art here.

A steampunk arctic explorer by Vyse — way more of his awesome art at Concept Art forums.

Fantastic concept art from Big Huge Games' Rise Of Legends. Way more awesome art here.

Fantastic concept art from Big Huge Games' Rise Of Legends. Way more awesome art here.

Fantastic concept art from Big Huge Games' Rise Of Legends. Way more awesome art here.

Fantastic concept art from Big Huge Games' Rise Of Legends. Way more awesome art here.

Fantastic concept art from Big Huge Games' Rise Of Legends. Way more awesome art here.

"Crab fort" concept art from Guild Wars Factions — we featured this art at io9 ages ago, but it's so amazing it deserves to be seen again. More art from the game here.

Walker concept art from Guild Wars Factions. More art from the game here.

Walker concept art from Guild Wars Factions. More art from the game here.

Requiem For Industry by Kazuhiko Nakamura. Way more art here.

Automaton by Kazuhiko Nakamura. Way more art here.

Metamorphosis by Kazuhiko Nakamura. Way more art here.

Steampunk concept art by Lebbeus.

Steam train concept art by Emil Landgreen.

War Zeppelin concept art from Iron Grip video game, by Leviathan artist Keith Thompson. Way more at the link.

ST-38 tank concept art from Iron Grip video game, by Leviathan artist Keith Thompson. Way more at the link.

Steam walker concept art from Iron Grip video game, by Leviathan artist Keith Thompson. Way more at the link.

Freighter concept art from Iron Grip video game, by Leviathan artist Keith Thompson. Way more at the link.

Norse APC concept art from Iron Grip video game, by Leviathan artist Keith Thompson. Way more at the link.

Antarctic exploration by Myke Amend, more at his site.

Captain Nemo's Office by Alex Brockel.

Steampunk Mary Poppins by Daniel Cestari (More at the link.)

Steampunk Mary Poppins (draft) by Daniel Cestari (More at the link.)

Juggernaut assault, concept art from Steam Wars movie by Lost Skeleton Of Cadavra director Larry Blamire.

Turkish "Flaming Kettle," concept art from Steam Wars movie by Lost Skeleton Of Cadavra director Larry Blamire.

Tyler Gunwagon (1872), concept art from Steam Wars movie by Lost Skeleton Of Cadavra director Larry Blamire.

French experimental steam rig, concept art from Steam Wars movie by Lost Skeleton Of Cadavra director Larry Blamire.

Goliath class gunrig, concept art from Steam Wars movie by Lost Skeleton Of Cadavra director Larry Blamire.

Concept art from War Of The Worlds: Goliath, a direct-to-DVD animated movie (from the Heavy Metal Fan Forum. More at the link.)

Concept art from War Of The Worlds: Goliath, a direct-to-DVD animated movie (from the Heavy Metal Fan Forum. More at the link.)

Concept art from War Of The Worlds: Goliath, a direct-to-DVD animated movie (from the Heavy Metal Fan Forum. More at the link.)

Concept art from War Of The Worlds: Goliath, a direct-to-DVD animated movie (from the Heavy Metal Fan Forum. More at the link.)

Concept art from War Of The Worlds: Goliath, a direct-to-DVD animated movie (from the Heavy Metal Fan Forum. More at the link.)

Technically a urinal, the "Teslapunk" toilet is completely functional but offers some rather unusual features, including a laser guidance system, a "flush capacitor," a cup holder, and more gauges than you can shake a pair of goggles at. Sure, it works, but I'm not sure we need that much electricity so close to a giant bowl of water:

[via Make]

Boneshaker takes place in an alternate Washington territory, where the Klondike gold rush ramped up decades earlier, making the Seattle of 1860 a bustling metropolis of 40,000 residents. To more efficiently extract gold from the ice, a Russian mining company contracts Seattle inventor Leviticus Blue to create the ultimate mining machine, Dr. Blue's Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine. But during the device's first test run, it malfunctions, leveling the city's banking district and tearing open an enormous crack in the earth. The destruction was bad enough, but what pours out of that crack in the ground is far worse: Blight gas, a deadly, invisible substance that kills the lucky and transforms the less fortunate into "rotters," undead creatures who hunger for living flesh. Blue and his Boneshaker vanish, Seattle is abandoned, and a high wall is built around the city to hold in the rotters and the Blight.

Fifteen years later, Briar Wilkes lives on the Outskirts of Seattle with her teenaged son Zeke, working at a factory that cleans Blight from the drinking water. Briar labors under a strange pair of legacies: she's not only the widow of Leviticus Blue, she's also the daughter of Maynard Wilkes, a lawman who became something of a folk hero after the first days of the Blight. Briar would rather forget the men of her past (if anyone on the Outskirts would let her) and focus on creating some semblance of a life for her son. But Zeke is curious about the father he never knew, and wonders if there is more to Leviticus than his reputation would suggest. So, one day while Briar is at work, Zeke ventures into the walled city to visit the home his parents shared before the Blight. When Briar learns, to her horror, where Zeke has gone, she does the unthinkable and follows him behind the wall.

Granted, there are moments when Boneshaker reads like an exercise in finding legitimate reasons to include elements of steampunk (special goggles let you see the Blight, airships fly over the Seattle wall, and there are gas masks aplenty). On top of that, there's a healthy dose of alternate history. Not only did Priest bump up the timetable for the Klondike gold, Stonewall Jackson fails to die as a result of his injuries at Chancellorsville, a turn of events that has left the Civil War raging back East some fifteen years. And it seems Priest never met a pulp character she didn't like; the supporting cast includes a one-armed bartender, an aged Native American princess, a deck hand whose tongue was cut out, and air pirates.

Ultimately, though, Boneshaker shares more kinship with the post-apocalyptic genre, even though the Blight didn't destroy the world — or even, for that matter, Seattle. As it turns out, people are still living in the wasted city, going about their daily lives thanks to a network of tunnels, a series of pumps that bring in fresh air, and a few novel technologies for dealing with the gas and the rotters. The residents of Blighted Seattle view themselves as sort of frontiersmen (and women) of the apocalypse. With the Blight still leeching into the air, it could someday overtake all of Washington, and perhaps even the world. They live a hard and strange life, but one not devoid of pleasures. There is a sort of freedom in living where the law and most polite society won't travel, and necessity has bred technological wonders that don't exist in the outside world. Progress is slow, but it happens, and it lets them carve out a gradually improving home for themselves. It's a version of the American Dream that exists in sharp contrast to the big payoff the gold rushers and Leviticus Blue chased after.

But even hard labor and ingenuity weren't quite enough to buy a habitable Seattle. The residents were forced to turn to the unscrupulous Dr. Minnericht — a sort of wannabe Bond villain with a dash of Darth Vader thrown in for good measure. In the early days of the Blight, Minnericht helped the residents obtain supplies and fashion new technologies, and now has set himself up as the king of Seattle. No one knows Minnericht's true identity and few have seen his face. But his way with gadgets and his questionable morals remind many of the residents of Leviticus Blue, and they've begun to chafe under his rule. And the sudden appearance of Blue's widow and son threaten to bring years of resentment to a head.

Boneshaker's greatest strength is that Priest doesn't overly fetishize the subgenres she plays with, never overwhelming the fairly straightforward stories of mother and son, and giving her clockwork machinations and zombie encounters more impact when they do appear. Though zombies and Blight certainly color the lives of Seattle residents, they aren't obsessed with either; they simply accept that their routines occur in a deadly world. And Zeke and Briar may live in a world filled to the brim with elements of science fiction and pulp, but those are just the things and people they must navigate to reunite and survive. The only real downside is that, throughout the book, we visit too briefly with so many intriguing characters and concepts in favor of the novel's core adventure. Fortunately, Priest is already setting a second novel in her strange and blemished world, so we will hopefully see a fuller, richer picture of what goes on inside.

This year, one of the ScareHouse's three Halloween "haunts" is Rampage, an attraction powered by steampunk concepts and design. Guests witness an uprising in a clockwork facility, where scholars and workers have long been oppressed by the wicked DieRector. They'll travel amidst the facility's grisly experiments, encounter mutants aplenty, and try to avoid getting caught in the crossfire between the rebels and the DieRector's militant forces. The ScareHouse's creative director Scott Simmons says that visually, Rampage borrows from Alien and Serenity in addition to more steampunky influences like Bioshock, and describes it as "much more aggressive and hard-hitting that anything we had done before."

You can check out promotional images from Rampage below, or catch a video of the horror at the ScareHouse website.

ScareHouse Goes Steampunk This Halloween [SF Universe]

[Lex Machina via Warren Ellis]

The son of an architect, Schuiten grew up fascinated by architecture and horrified by the increasing destruction of historic buildings in Brussels in favor of more generic modern structures. This sense has greatly influenced his most famous work, the ongoing Les Cités Obscures (often translated as Cities of the Fantastic), a collaboration with writer Benoît Peeters.

Les Cités Obscures is set on a "counter-Earth," a planet similar to our own that exists on the exact opposite side of the sun. The Obscure Cities are versions of Earth cities, but are ruled by architects, and so architecture is the world's driving force. Jules Verne is a recurring character in the series, and a key influence on the comic's technology and aesthetics.

In addition to Les Cités Obscures, Schuiten created Les Terres Creuses (The Hollow Grounds) with his brother Luc Schuiten, and designed the Arts et Métiers Métro station in Paris (inspired by Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea), and the Hallepoort station in Brussels.

[Urbicande]

Arts et Métiers
Arts et Métiers
Hallepoort
Hallepoort

Edgar Allan Poe is usually credited for creating the detective fiction genre but it was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that really nailed it with his timeless creation, Sherlock Holmes. The world's first and greatest consulting detective is the model for countless later fictional investigators as disparate as The Batman and television's Dr. Gregory House. And he no doubt inspired as many real-life careers.

There is something that's always been very compelling about an individual of modest birth, who succeeds against every obstacle using naught but pure intellect and a thirst for ever more knowledge. To be sure, Holmes had some major character flaws: he was an utter jerk even to those closest to him, a misanthropic humanist, a recovering drug addict (his cocaine habit was, in later tales, "not dead, but merely sleeping"), and an overly enthusiastic violinist to boot. Still, he uses his immense gifts in aid of a society that he could never quite feel comfortable with. Sherlock Holmes is a Geek God on par with his distant descendant, Mr. Spock.

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. " – Sherlock Holmes, The Sign of Four

A fitting statement indeed for this supreme rationalist. Holmes would only believe what he could observe and prove. This led to some odd quirks in his otherwise encyclopedic knowledge. In the very first Holmes story, the 1887 "A Study in Scarlet", his new acquaintance and faithful chronicler Dr. John H. Watson discovers that Holmes is unaware that the Earth revolves around the Sun. It plays no part in his criminal investigations and so he had never considered it. Despite this he used the most current scientific knowledge to solve cases that plumbed the depths of the human psyche and affected the affairs of mighty nations. It is to Sir Arthur's credit as a writer that he created such an amazing character so at odds with the author's own beliefs. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was hopelessly infatuated with the fads of spiritualism and the supernatural. This was the guy totally bamboozled by two young girls and their hoax of the Cottingley Fairies. Yet he made Holmes, that paragon of logic and analysis feel so real.

Take another gander at the above quote. If the Detective ever encountered a case truly unworldly and improbable that he couldn't Scooby-Doo it apart like the Sussex Vampire or the Baskerville Hounds, his trusty Occam's Razor would allow him to deal with it in the same cool dry reason that he used against pickpockets or philandering spouses. This is the basis behind The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.. The original stories of Sherlock Holmes may not be science fiction, they surely belong on the borderlands and have influenced many a speculative genre writer.

Editor John Joseph Adams oversaw this anthology of twenty-eight tales of the Great Detective, involving hard science, the undead, aliens, allohistory, dinosaurs, pirates, Canadians and other weirdness. Click here for a look at the complete Table of Contents.

Nearly all of them are reprints, but it's pretty cool to have them all in one volume, and there are some you might have missed. Shamefully, I must admit I never read Neil Gaiman's oft-reprinted and deservedly popular "A Study in Emerald" before. It really is a must-read for Lovecraft fans. Squamous and rugose notes of the Mythos can also be felt in Tim Lebbon's "The Horror of Many Faces" and Barbara Hamby's "The Adventure of the Antiquarian's Niece".

Another story steeped in the supernatural that caught my bibliophilic eye was Barbara Roden's "The Things that Shall Come Upon Them" wherein Holmes teams up with fellow investigator Flaxman Low. Low was a fictional psychic investigator, perhaps the first, the literary creation of Doyle's friend Hesketh Vernon Hesketh-Pritchard. The 1957 film Night of the Demon was based on one of his stories. In Ms. Roden's story, the two detectives solve a case using wildly differing methods but arriving at the same conclusion. I got a kick out of Holmes' initial dismissal of Low as a cheap imitator and charlatan. Low, of course, is a total Holmes fanboy.

There are significant appearances by the rest of the Holmesian dramatis personae besides the trusty Watson, who solves a case before his friend in a story by Stephen King. Long-suffering landlady Mrs. Hudson gets her moment in the sun at long last in a piece from Laurie R. King's Mary Russell canon. Rat-faced whipping boy Inspector Lestrade is here of course, as is The Woman — sublime Irene Adler, and the formidable older brother Mycroft Holmes. And what Sherlock Holmes collection would be complete without that Napoleon of Crime, Professor James Moriarty and his sinister right-hand man Col. Sebastian Moran. We even get a crossover with another Arthur Conan Doyle character, the quintessential early science fiction boffin, Professor Challenger.

Even more of a treat are the stories where Holmes crosses paths with historical figures. A Young H.G. Wells assists in Stephen Baxter's "The Adventure of the Internal Adjustor" Aan elderly Rev. CharlesDodgson helps investigate the cold case of the untimely demise of a student named Doyle many years ago in Tony Pi's "Dynamics of a Hanging". Arthur Conan Doyle himself appears as a client who summons Holmes and Watson to investigate crop circles and strange lights in the night sky over his estate. "The Adventure of the Field Theorems" by Vonda N. McIntyre is a sharp and very funny look at the differences between Sherlock Holmes and his creator.

In the fifty-six stories and four novels penned by Sir Arthur, he alludes to other cases that Dr. Watson was sworn to never reveal. In The Improbable Adventures, we can finally read the truth(s) behind the shocking affair of the Dutch steamship Friesland, the criminal Merridew of abominable memory", and others.

Sadly, Mr. Adams did not see fit to include any tales concerning the Giant Rat of Sumatra. Perhaps he felt the world is not yet ready for that tale. For those of you stout of heart, I was always fond of this interpretation of that ghastly case. Okay, it's pretty silly, but I like it. The Holmes-Dracula File by Fred Saberhagen is probably more worthwhile. I also recommend this tragically overlooked film by the great Billy Wilder, it includes midgets, steampunky tech, Christopher Lee as Mycroft, and a certain famous loch.

I should also mention contributions from legends Michael Moorcock and Anthony Burgess or those stories that explore the Fermi Paradox and Everett's many-worlds interpretation. Suffice it to say, this is a great collection of stories that really only samples a wee bit of the shelves and shelves of works that writers and fans of the Great Detective have written. The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a good place to start or rediscover your love for one of the world's greatest literary creations, Sherlock Holmes.

The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes will be out soon. You may purchase it from these bozos
or your local independent bookseller.

Grey_Area is known to the Baker Street Irregulars as Chris Hsiang. He awaits Guy Ritchie's film with cautious optimism.

We've already shown you concept art for Westerfeld's book, but below is the full-motion trailer from steampunk artist Keith Thompson:

The trailer is a handy way to sell books, but based on this, I'm ready to hand over my nine dollars for an eventual Leviathan feature film as well. Leviathan comes out October 6th.

[via Westerblog]

I always secretly suspected that if the Pirates Of The Caribbean ever did break down, the pirates would in fact eat the tourists, and ignite a park-wide riot. Similarly, the Tiki room always gave me the creeps and seemed on the verge of Hitchcock-inspired manslaughter. Don't get me started on the Jungle Boat ride.

Needless to say this concept art for what is being codenamed "Epic Mickey" caught my eye right away. In this vision of the Creepiest Place on Earth, familiar landmarks lie in ruins, storm clouds gather over Epcot, and Zombie Mecha runs amok. But what is this masterpiece, and whose vision is it?

The artwork is apparently by game designer and illustrator Gary Glover and Disney artist Tony Pulham, who worked as the art director on such family-friendly Disney films as Winnie-the-Pooh's Heffalump Movie and The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning. Word on the interwebs is that the game is being developed by the Disney-owned Junction Point Studios, and being helmed by Deus Ex maestro Warren Spector.

Rumor has it that the game is being developed for the Wii, and idea of getting to play through something that appears to be Kingdom Hearts-on-acid has me gripping my WiiMote in anticipation.
Oh, Epic Mickey - you had me at dystopian. Check out more amazing Concept Art in the gallery below.

Dr.Grordbort's Infallible Aether Oscillators


You may have read about Dr.Grordbort's amazing artillery here before, or perhaps you even had the pleasure of seeing them at Comic-Con. These ray-guns are the careful craftsmanship of WETA designer Greg Broadmore, who has created an entire world for his work to reside in, publishing Dr. Grordborts Contrapulatronic Dingus Directory. Broadmore is also responsible for all of the cool alien contraband tech in District 9. Take a gander at this WETA Informercial for his Infallible Aether Oscillators:

Steampunk TARDIS Console

Livejournal user Douglas442 is working on a project we wish we'd thought of first; a Steampunk TARDIS console. We assume he's building it using a only a sonic screwdriver. Douglas has posted a 3D rendering of the eventual finished project, pictured here. Wouldn't Matt Smith look dandy in his bow tie and tweed at this gleaming console? Assuming, of course, that his Doctor is a bit more competent at flying through time and space than some of his predecessors....

Steampunk Dalek
Because we can't get really mention the Doctor without making some mention of the deadly dustbins, here is an amazing little project from Who fan Alex Holden, the base of which is apparently a Dalek Bubble Bath bottle. (And yes, Cyberman Bubble Bath is also available.)

Chronotheric Fluxing Capacitron

It's what makes time travel possible. The inventor (the elusive Absinthetic) explains his revolutionary time-traveling device:

I set forth in a series of experiments, attempting to capture that energy and use it towards my research on creating tears in the fabric of time. Though I cannot divulge the exact method, I will grant you the final product: lightning in a bottle! With this incredible success, after much trial and error of course (and three dead cats), I had the 1.21 gigawatts necessary to power the Chronotheric Fluxing Capacitron and send myself back (and forward!) through the time-aether. A rotating "time dial" allows me to set the exact date and time I wish to arrive in (to the nearest hour)

A photo gallery of the CFC can be found here. His Wonderland Expedition Kit is also well worth a look, and was a runner-up for this list.

The Electriclerk
Bringing the dystopian deskware of Brazil to life, our next entry is the incredible Electriclerk . According to the Make: blog, The ElectriClerk is a functional 1988 MacSE with a 1923 Underwood typewriter base, which craftsman and creator Andrew Leman says was "built for a game of Cthulhu Lives! that has yet to be played." Leman is a multi-talent prop maker and designer, and we shudder to think what awesomeness could ensue if he and WETA's Broadmore ever collaborated.


Steampunk Telectroscope
Based on the infamous Victorian hoax, the Telectroscope is ostensibly a transatlantic tunnel, allowing viewers in London to peer through a giant 'telescope' and see viewers in New York, and vice versa. The web-cam installation appeared in both cities last year courtesy of artist Paul St. George and the Artichoke Trust, whose mechanical innovations and gigantic inventions are the next two entries on our list.


The Sultan's Elephant
The brainchild of the Artichoke Trust and theater company Royal de Luxe,The Sultan's Elephant is both dazzling performance art and a masterpiece of steampunk conceptual design. The first performance took place in Nantes, France for the Jules Verne Centennial, and involved a massive mechanical elephant, a time-traveling little girl and her rocketship. The show was performed in London in 2006 to much fanfare. If you haven't already seen it, check out this video of the Elephant in London:

Machines of the Isle of Nantes
Artichoke and Royal de Luxe set up shop in a vast shipyard and warehouse in Verne's hometown of Nantes to construct the Sultan's Elephant and other fantastical mechanical contraptions for our enjoyment. Along the way the Machines de l'île factory became a tourist attraction in itself, and in 2007 became a permanent exhibit hall and museum for the Royal de Luxe crew. The museum is home to, among other oddities, a full-scale replica of the Sultan's Elephant and a replica of the giant mechanical spider known as La Princesse. The crew is currently working on a giant merry-go-round of undersea creatures (including a giant squid!) which will debut in Spring 2010 - book tickets now!


The Swimming Cities
The Swimming Cities are something out of Terry Gilliam's daydreams, part Mad Max fantasy and partWaterworld reality. The first iteration, Swimming Cities of The Switchback Sea, is a collaborative project by notable artists and eccentrics such as Swoon, Chicken John, and Kinetic Steam Works crew. A flotilla of seven sister raft-cities, hand-crafted and cobbled together with everything including the kitchen sink, they voyaged down the Hudson River river last year and put on various multi-media performances from there decks. This year, the gang reunited and built three vessels christened The Swimming Cities of Serenissima, and sailed the rafts across the Adriatic sea to crash the Venice Biennale. We eagerly await the next installation by these merry mischief makers.



We couldn't complete this list without mentioning the Treehouse, could we? Brought to you by the fine purveyors of steam-powered wonder, Kinetic Steam Works, the Treehouse emerged as a installation for Burning Man 2007 and has since become something of a Steampunk celebrity. The 30' tall Treehouse has been traveling, and most recently showed up at Coachella. Members of KSW are currently in Nevada, assembling the Raygun Gothic Rocket in Black Rock City.

Bell's series "Osteomechanics" and "Crania Mechanica," integrate animal bones into imagined machinery. With the heavy use of brass and electrical prongs, they have a steampunk feel, but Bell's core inspiration comes from 18th Century scientist Luigi Galvani, who experimented with delivering an electrical spark to animal muscles. The sculptures are supposed to evoke a sense of mystery, leaving the viewer to wonder at the era and person that gave rise to these strange little machines, and what scientific problem they were meant to solve.

International Museum of Surgical Science Current Exhibitions [Myspace]
Ron Bell's Osteomechanics and Osteomechanics 2 [Packer Schopf Gallery]

Matt Staggs, a literary publicist who specializes in speculative fiction, has put forth a "GreenPunk Manifesto," to define the concept and his hopes for a possible eco-friendly fiction movement:

GreenPunk: a technophilic spec-fic movement centered on characters using and being affected by the use of DIY renewable resources, recycling and repurposing. GreenPunk would emphasize the ability of the individual – and his or her responsibility – for positive ecological and social change.

Rejecting steampunk's romanticism while embracing its focus on approachable, "knowable" technology (as opposed to the "black box" nature of digital tech), GreenPunk envisions a world in which the detritus of consumer culture as propogated by the Elite is appropriated and repurposed by the masses toward the reconstruction of a devastated ecology and the address of social ills.

What Staggs misses, however, is the design component that has made steampunk so popular. Because it's rooted to a particular aesthetic, steampunk is easy to recognize and simple for enthusiasts to replicate. Staggs is trying to compile a list of novels and stories that fit within his definition of greenpunk, but he might do better to work with designers and solicit images as well.

A GreenPunk Manifesto [Enter the Octopus]

Ever since I was four years old, in 1972— before the merger of punk to steam, I wanted to be Captain Nemo. After devouring Verne and Wells, I discovered the Oswald Bastable trilogy by Michael Moorcock. Philip José Farmer further fueled my feverish pubescent imagination with such works as The Wind Whales of Ishmael and The Other Log of Phileas Fogg. I discovered there's more to science fiction than spaceships and robots in the future.

K. W. Jeter is usually credited with coining the phrase "steampunk" back in the early 80s. He, along with Tim Powers and James Blaylock, created dark versions of the Victorian Era, stocked with accelerated technology re-dressed in period appropriate materials with occasional supernatural elements. Morlock Nights, The Anubis Gates, and The Digging Leviathan all echoed the literature and feel of 19th Century and commented on society struggling to keep up with rapidly changing technology. With less doom and gloom than than its gleaming, black, low-slung sibling — cyberpunk — these speculations still offered cynical social commentary. The Good Old Days weren't all that great, and throwing a lot of shiny gizmos around will never fix the societal ills that confound us in any era.

I wasn't really aware of this trend in fiction until '91 when William Gibson and Bruce Sterling introduced the wider reading public to steampunk in The Difference Engine. Then, as Snow Crash did to Neuromancer, Neal Stephenson one-upped Messers Gibson and Sterling with The Diamond Age. It's just my humble opinion; this is a smarter and by far more entertaining novel. Stephenson turned the expected convention around, injecting Victorian styles and sensibilities into a future that enjoys nearly miraculous technologies. His novel examines the infamous repressive morality of that era as much as it explores the possibilities of nanotech. Michael Swanwick took a similar route with a far more playful tone in the ripping adventures of Darger and Surplus. I strongly recommend these ribald short stories — there is an excellent recent Swanwick collection from Subterranean Press and another, The Dog Said Bow-Wow, from Tachyon.

Also of note is Paul Di Filippo's weird and wonderful Steampunk Trilogy (1995). The first tale concerns a gentleman inventor and his remarkable amphibian prodigy involved in a royal scandal. "Victoria" fits most preconceptions of what a steampunk story is about: advanced retro-science and aristocratic adventures. The other two are more atypical but I adore Di Filippo's customary pop culture references and mashups at play in the 19th Century. Famed naturalist and racist asshole Louis Aggasiz visits the sleepy little fishing hamlet of Innsmouth? Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman explore the astral plane with Madame Blatavasky — and Allen Ginsberg has a cameo? Zany, clever stuff.

Even though steampunk lit has been around for a few decades now, it's increased rapidly in popularity the past few years. It has inspired other media as well as design and fashion to an eye-rolling degree. There are more steampunk novels than ever, although too many or not enough for some people. Here I'd like to share my thoughts on four of these with you, Gentle Reader.

The Affinity Bridge by George Mann (Tor, on shelves now)
In 1901, Sir Maurice Newbury and his new assistant Miss Veronica Hobbes are employed at the Anthropology department of the British Museum. They also serve as special agents of the Crown, investigating extraordinary threats against the Empire.

Sir Maurice scoffs at spiritualism and superstition, even though some of his c ases have involved the supernatural. He bows before the altar of Rationality and is enthralled by the mighty airships, graceful clockwork androids, and the other mechanical wonders of his age. Miss Hobbes finds her employer's enthusiasm for noisy odoriferous machines childish. She prefers horse-drawn carriages and Georgian architecture to the chaos and ornate fripperies of the current mode. Still she is a thoroughly modern woman championing forward-thinking social causes. Both of them keep shameful secrets and hidden agendas from each other, will their new partnership survive?

Newbury and Hobbes are assisting with Scotland Yard to investigate a series of strangulations in Whitechapel that may have a supernatural cause. Before they can pursue any new leads, Sir Maurice is called away for a special audience with the Queen. She is not amused.

Her Royal Majesty Queen Victoria is kept alive by huge wheezing machines (in our world she died in the first month of the 20th Century). The frightening cyborg monarch orders Newbury off all other cases to investigate the fiery crash of an airship that killed all those aboard. The automaton that piloted the craft is missing but, most seriously in her Royal eyes, one of her family, a Dutch prince was aboard. The investigation leads to Chapman & Villiers, Britain's largest airship company and the inventors of the wondrous automatons, which may not be as foolproof or harmless as advertised. .

Oh and by the way, there is also a plague of Revenants (to his credit, Mann does not use the Z-word). A virus, brought by soldiers returning from India, is infecting the neighborhoods of the less fortunate creating shambling cannibals of the classic Romero type. Everyone feels just awful about these and some calculate most of the country's population will be infected. Then again it only appears to occur to the poor, so not much is being done to stop it.

The plot whirrs along with a brisk clockwork (hah!) predictability switching over at times to reveal some of the protagonists' eccentricities and mysterious pasts. The second half shifts into high gear with some truly exciting action scenes. For all their supposed intellectual prowess, Newbury and Hobbes seem to solve most things by hitting them. Most of the puzzle clicks together as expected but some bits are just ejected with the flimsiest explanation. I'm sorry to report this story was steampunk lite, thrills and spills with steam engines in the background. Victorian language and customs have been watered down. There is an obvious message about the loss of our humanity to an increasingly mechanized society and a vague conflict between Science and Superstition. Most of the intimations of magic and the supernatural hint at the direction further Newbury and Hobbes investigations will go. I dearly hope that The Affinity Bridge is not their most interesting case.

The Kingdom Beyond the Waves by Stephen Hunt (Tor, on shelves now)
The Kingdom Beyond the Waves by Stephen Hunt (Tor, on shelves now)
This follow up to last year's excellent The Court of the Air is a riot of twisted imagination and full steam ahead thrills. Hunt's richly textured worldbuilding compares favorably with China Miéville's New Crobuzon novels or Philip Pullman. These authors blend sorcery and science with steampunk trappings and have their own encyclopedia's worth of invented creatures, histories, and societies. Miéville has the more sober tone and keeps a firmer hand on the tiller of plot and pacing, wheras Hunt is just crazy in all the right ways. Sometimes he gets a little at sea: characters will be a bit inconsistent, and his climaxes are just way over the top. He also has similar convoluted wordplay to Miéville but with less purple prose and more groan-worthy puns. There is also dark political satire stretching to bizarre proportions (Marxist thought is not spared this treatment).

Most of Hunt's protagonists hail from the Kingdom of Jackals which resembles Great Britain. Centuries ago, the Jackals' version of the Cromwell's Civil War assured that Parliament would have the upper hand in the nation's affairs. The royal family are kept in breeding houses and the arms of each King or Queen get amputated upon coronation, so no more waving from the balcony. Parliament members make and pass laws the in traditional manner: bashing each other with stout "debating sticks" in ritual duels. This green and pleasant land of shopkeepers and shepherds enjoys stability through its monopoly of the celgas that keeps its aerostat navy aloft as well as the Court of the Air, the secret police that uses a combination of total aerial surveillance and leyline magic.

Jackal's enemies abroad include Quatérshift, in the throes of an Eternal Revolution bloodier than Robbespierre, Stalin, and Pol Pot combined. Even more frightening is the desert Caliphate of Cassarabia where the biomages breed all manner of monstrous creatures from the wombs of human slaves. They all share the planet (Earth in a far-flung future?) with people that resemble crustaceans or winged lizards. There are also the steammen, a race of mostly gentle clockwork robots with a religion that has elements of Santería and Zen.

There are also Plucky orphans, fey-blooded super-soldiers, science-pirates akin to Nemo, vigilantes with mystic weapons, lost cities, shouty dinosaurs, and an entire jungle ecology with a hive mind. Petroleum — like the controllable "electricity" — is long gone, Much industry is powered by steam or clockwork. "Expansion engines" (and firearms) run on the volatile sap of the Blow-Barrel tree. I've just given you a sliver of Hunt's creation, and hope this has piqued your interest. Look beyond all the fascinating and fantastical elements, and Hunt's work is about the pursuit of dreams in a world of clashing ideals and conquest. You can probably read Kingdom without reading The Court of the Air first, but I think you'll be hooked either way. Join the expedition of Professor Amelia Harsh (who literally has the arms of a gorilla) and her quest for The Kingdom Beyond the Waves.

Soulless by Gail Carriger (Orbit, Late Sept. 2009)
This comedy of manners and monsters is the first of the Parasol Protectorate series. I was a tad embarassed that I enjoyed this silly and original story so much. I mean, let us now judge the book by its cover – hmm, photo of a slinky young lady in period costume...oookaaay, her bumbershoot has arbitrary gears and a length of rubber hose attached to it for no discernible purpose, and the cover blurb speaks of vampires and werewolves, uh huh – Oh Sweet Buffy Sainte-Marie, this is a steampunk paranormal romance! Well yes, there are dirigibles over another Victorian London and our sassy heroine does have some decidedly racy scenes, when not facing the forces of darkness. Ms. Carriger has imbued this book with a delightful sense of humour and some very fresh changes. Her heroine, Alexia Tarabotti, is a very original creation quite separate from all those crossbow-wielding tattooed tarts one sees writhing on so many paperback covers these days. She also understands the Importance of Tea, and the problem of Silly Little Hats.

Alexia Tarabotti seems doomed to spend her life as a spinster. She is far too willful and too old (well into her third decade) and has a father who is both Italian and dead. He left her with an unfashionable complexion, an abundance of all manner of curious books, and very little social prospects. Unbeknown to her mother and other boring people, Alexia lacks something else— a soul. Oh she laughs and cries as the rest of us do, appreciates the arts, and I suspect could bust out in a funky gavotte. She just has no immortal soul. Supernaturals; ghosts, vampires, werewolves, and the like have a surplus of soul, thus accounting for the extra life and unkillability they enjoy. The extemely rare preternaturals are born without a soul. Upon the slightest physical contact with Miss Tarabotti, a supernatural becomes a mere mortal, the fangs retract, fur sheds, and death or injury become very real prospects. This can be a very handy talent should the local vampire forget his manners and attempt to dine without an invitation.

In this capacity, Alexia occasionally assists the Bureau of Unnatural Registry, that Branch of Her Majesty's Civil Service that polices vampires and werewolves. Supernaturals revealed them selves to the world at large during the Civil War. They had grown weary of skulking in the shadows, fleeing the inevitable torches and pitchforks. Now they are integrated into high-society and have helped build the British Empire and no longer threaten innocent mortals. Still, there are little misunderstandings, and that's where the BUR comes in. It is led by the very dashing Scottish peer and Alpha of London's werewolf pack, Lord Conall Maccon. Miss Tarabotti is often offended by his brusque, crude manner, no doubt stemming from his exotic and savage nature. Oh, and he turns into a wolf once a month. How bothersome, and yet the lady doth protest too much, methinks.

Lord Conall and Miss Tarabotti must investigate the sudden appearance of unregistered vampires and the appearance of known supernatural citizens. They employ cutting-edge science and the most scathing banter they can muster. Gail Carriger has employed some very original thinking to the alternate-history-with-monsters game. She also lampoons the vicious world of Victorian society where an arch remark or fumbled introduction could reduce one to a state akin to walking death. Soulless is a character-driven romp with great worldbuilding and delicious rapier wit that recalls Austen and P.G. Wodehouse. Mystery and bloodshed abound, tea will be served,and there will be treacle tart!

Not Less Than Gods by Kage Baker
(Deluxe Hardcover, Subterranean Press, Dec. 2009 Trade Hardcover, Tor, March 2010)
I am a big Kage Baker fan and have raved about her books before. This one won't be coming out until after Kwaanza, and I'll do a more in-depth review then. I'll just say it involves the early life and career of that Victorian superspy, Edward Alton Bell-Faifax, whom some of you may know from The Company novels. Bell-Fairfax is a Hero in the most Classic sense, fated for greatness and all the tragedy that entails. There's globe-trotting espionage and scads of amazing secret gadgetry: novelty-hat cameras, radio transmitters, a kung-fu robot, radar-equipped speedboats, a rifle that shoots ice bullets, bullet-proof carriges with "internal-combustion engines", and so much more! "But wait, will there be goggles? We want the goggles, Grey!" Do you? Well how about telescopic infrared goggles? For Everybody! GOGGLES YAY!!

Do please pardon me. The important thing to remember is that Kage Baker really brings 1849 alive with a wealth of details and pitch perfect dialogue. This woman truly understands language in a way only someone deeply involved in the Theater can. She often works as a professional historical reenactor and has taught Elizabethean English as a Second Language. She takes a rather dim view of people who show up at RenFaire dressed as their WoW character and ask where the frozen yogurt stand is.

I have a similar problem with these Josiah-come-latelys who glue-gun clock parts to their bolo ties and spout things like, "I say, old bean, zeppelins are absolutely smashing!" in a bad Cockney accent. I spoke to one gentleman deeply committed to the Steampunk Lifestyle and he admitted that he never read any of the novels I discussed in the top half of this post. For him it all began and ended with that TV series starring Robert Conrad, which admittedly predates those novels. When asked why he found steampunk so fulfilling he rhapsodized about the DIY aesthetique his community enjoys,"I stitched this waistcoat and suit myself!" and the sense of boundless optimisim the psuedo-era held (holds?). To paraphrase; "People could become whatever they wanted despite their gender, race, or class!". This is stunningly ironic from someone emulating a period known for a rigid social hierarchy and the beginning of mass-produced consumer goods. Of course it's all fantasy, there never were clockwork automatons or airship fleets ushering in a Utopia of muttonchops and bustles. I just wish some of these fashion victims put a little more depth and research in to their statement. Read a damn book already.

Commenter Grey_Area is known to the Gentlemen's Speculative Society as Christopher Hsiang, Esq. He is very much looking forward to the 20th Century again.

Steamy Photograph by Kyle Cassidy, Models: Liza James and Jared Axelrod

Adam Baines is a concept designer in the UK, and is just starting his career. I love how some of these images combine a classic, cartoony animation style with anime-style cyborg body parts. And the steampunk images, while not incredibly original, are still very nicely-executed and fun. The lunar lander (number 5) and weird cart (number 6) are especially pleasing.

via Baines' gallery at Voidart