Steampunk World

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Steampunk fiction has traveled a long way. Chronologically, steampunk’s inspiration stems from the classic scientific romances and dime novels of the 19th century. Manifestations of “proto-steampunk” fiction existed, usually pastiches and re-interpretations of classic Victorian novels. One of the first early examples of modern steampunk was Michael Moorcock’s Nomad of the Time Streams trilogy, written in the 1970s. This type of fiction became anointed as “steampunk” in 1987, when K.W. Jeter wrote in his now famous letter to Locus magazine: “Personally, I think Victorian fantasies are going to be the next big thing, as long as we can come up with a fitting collective term…Something based on the appropriate technology of that era; like ‘steampunks,’ perhaps….”

Jeter’s Morlock Night and books from his fellow writers Tim Powers (The Anubis Gates) and James Blaylock (Homunculus) are considered the founding texts of the modern steampunk genre. Later books have become game-changers in steampunk fiction, each one marking a new turn in the genre. William Gibson & Bruce Sterling’s The Difference Engine stamped the “punk” into steampunk with its subversive, gritty take on how computing technology can change the industrial age in the West. Cherie Priest’s Clockwork Century series, beginning with Boneshaker, took the science fiction community by storm, introducing steampunk that isn’t limited to Victorian England and highlighting how people across race, class, gender, and sexuality also had stories in history worthy of being told. The fiction anthologies by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer gathered both classic and modern takes on steampunk together, and their latest volume dares to ask whether steampunk fiction can become a revolutionary act.

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