steam-punkiness

[anotheranon]

What happens when you cross a Victorian steam engine with the U.S.S. Enterprise: Steam Trek. I'm not a participant, just intrigued by the visual landscape - nuts and bolts AND light speed!

Obligatory costume geeking: think of the costumes! Light up bustles, pinstripe suits made out of futuristic fabrics!

Comments

[timcharmorbien.livejournal.com]

Lord Darcy was the Man!! - - and he didn't have a scrap of magic himself in world where magic ability was everything in the social order.

And what forensicist (sp?) wouldn't like that body preservation spell?

Tim

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

***happy sigh*** I LIKE e-people ... they've all read the GOOD stuff!!!!

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

What authors write in this genre? I always got the impression that it was a grand concept but that very few authors actually wrote Victoriana/technology (Difference Engine notwithstanding).

As it is, my connection has been so slow that I've had trouble getting to the site to see their back story. I've read so far that some moon people attacked in 188? and the British Empire took their tech, but that's it.

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

Randall Garrett for sure, but he died too young and so there isn't much; just one novel and two volumes of short stories in the Lord Darcy series ("Lord Darcy Investigates", "Murder and Magic", and "Too Many Magicians" [novel]). Stephen Fry's "Making History", while not Victoriana, still has some interesting social differences (and I think there were some technological ones too) caused by the non-existence of Hitler. The only other thing that comes immediately to mind is an Andre Norton juvenile about a temporal police force moving between parallel dimensions (I can't remember the title 'cause THAT was LONG time ago, but I DO remember the Victorian-style clothing that was in very NON-Victorian colours and patterns due to historical differences). When searching for this type of fiction in a library, I believe the subject heading is "Alternate history" or something similar ... I'll look that up and post it.

[timcharmorbien.livejournal.com]

Heh, most of my sources are gaming sites, but William Gibson (of cyberpunk fame) wrote a really good steampunk novel titled "The Difference Engine". Like many stories in the cyberpunk genre, it centers around stolen data, but instead of a chip or data crystal it's a box of keypunch cards - - it's a very interesting take. :)

The best RPG example I can come up with is 'Castle Falkenstein', which is a fantasy/steam power Victorian era alternate earth - - I think the dwarves invented steampower, but I'm hazy on details.

As far as alternate history goes, Harry Hamlin has written more alternate history than one can handily shake a stick at, though that's the only name my tired brain can spit out right now - - I'll have to check the info JLS posted on that! :)