Monthly Archives: February 2011

Steampunk in the Nebulas (Again)

SFWA has announced the 2010 Nebula Award nominees and once again there is a steampunk presence in the novel categories.

Nominated for the Best Novel Nebula, there is M. K. Hobson’s weird west novel Native Star, which was the Book of the Day here at the start of the month. Hobson is facing touch competition, including Mary Robinette Kowal’s Regency fantasy Shades of Milk and Honey and perennial Nebula favorite Connie Willis’ $52 two-part novel Blackout / All Clear.

While I can’t claim to have read all the short form nominees, I don’t see any steampunk representation there. If I am wrong, please let me know.

The Andre Norton Award is for best young adult SFF novel and again we find steampunk making forays with Scott Westerfeld’s Behemoth nominated. Stiff competition here as well, of course, with Paolo Bacigalupi (flush with victory since The Windup Girl wone every award it was eligible for), Terry Pratchett (perhaps a sentimental favorite due to his medical condition), and Suzanne Collins (whose Mockingjay enjoyed a mammoth 1.2 million copy first printing).

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Christopher Alender, The Mind Behind the Storm

When the video for Lovett’s “Eye of the Storm” hit the Internet, the reception by the steampunk community was immediate and immense. Several other sites have looked behind the scenes at the technical aspects of the making of this short, but I had a chance to ask director Christopher Alender some questions myself, and how could I resist.

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Not Less Than Gods by Kage Baker

Today’s book is the ninth book in a series that is not a steampunk series, yet I think it qualifies for inclusion here. The trick is that the series is about time travel and in this one the travel is to a steampunk Victorian England. The result is a lighthearted steampunk James Bond-style adventure using what Publisher’s Weekly called “Charles-Babbage-meets-Maxwell-Smart technologia”. Whether the much-loved late Kage Baker would have explored the steampunk world more, we will never know, but at least we have this.

Official description:

Recently returned from war, young Edward Anton Bell-Fairfax is grateful to be taken under the wing of the Gentleman’s Speculative Society. At the Society, Edward soon learns that a secret world flourishes beneath the surface of London’s society, a world of wondrous and terrible inventions and devices used to tip the balance of power in a long-running game of high-stakes intrigue. Through his intensive training Edward Anton Bell-Fairfax, unwanted and lonely boy, becomes Edward Anton Bell-Fairfax, Victorian super-assassin, fleeing across the Turkish countryside in steam-powered coaches and honing his fighting skills against clockwork opponents.

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The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry

Perhaps the biggest mystery in The Manual of Detection is what kind of book is it. Is it steampunk? Michael Moorcock certainly thinks so in his review for the Guardian (see below). Other reviews treat it as a noir detective story, a surrealist art piece, or fantasy. The New Yorker called it an allegory. Yet others compare it to Terry Gilliam’s Brazil. Some see it as ironic, while other never mention that aspect of it. At the end of the day, it is was the reader decides it to be. Certainly, the reviews suggest it is well worth a read regardless of category and it has been added to my to-read list.

Official description:

Reminiscent of imaginative fiction from Jorge Luis Borges to Jasper Fforde yet dazzlingly original, The Manual of Detection marks the debut of a prodigious young talent. Charles Unwin toils as a clerk at a huge, imperious detective agency located in an unnamed city always slick with rain. When Travis Sivart, the agency’s most illustrious detective, is murdered, Unwin is suddenly promoted and must embark on an utterly bizarre quest for the missing investigator that leads him into the darkest corners of his soaking, somnolent city. What ensues is a noir fantasy of exquisite craftsmanship, as taut as it is mind- blowing, that draws readers into a dream world that will change what they think about how they think.

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The Native Star by M. K. Hobson

Another visit to the weird west. In The Native Star, M. K. Hobson gives us a fantasy steampunk old west with everyday magic and biomechanical devices competing for our attention. The story centers on a witch and a warlock as half-rivals, half-allies on a cross-country quest to determine the nature of a magic artifact and save their lives. Hobson even gives us some romance to round out the story.

Official description:

In the tradition of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, this brilliant first novel fuses history, fantasy, and romance. Prepare to be enchanted by M. K. Hobson’s captivating take on the Wild, Wild West.

The year is 1876. In the small Sierra Nevada settlement of Lost Pine, the town witch, Emily Edwards, is being run out of business by an influx of mail-order patent magics. Attempting to solve her problem with a love spell, Emily only makes things worse. But before she can undo the damage, an enchanted artifact falls into her possession—and suddenly Emily must flee for her life, pursued by evil warlocks who want the object for themselves.

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