Brief Reviews

The following is a list of all the "steampunk" books I've blogged about to date, with a brief review and a rating on the letter-grade system -- I am an academic, after all! The list includes anything related to my research, so I've also incorporated a "steampunk factor" assessment, based on my definition of steampunk as an aesthetic utilizing three elements harmoniously: technofantasy, neo-Victorianism, and retrofuturism.
This page is currently "under construction", and will feature additional brief reviews in the future.

Steampunk Factor Rubric:
Very High - includes all aesthetic elements of technofantasy, neo-Victorianism, and retrofuturism, and uses them extensively 
High - includes all aesthetic elements of technofantasy, neo-Victorianism, and retrofuturism
Medium - includes two of the three aesthetic elements of technofantasy, neo-Victorianism, and retrofuturism
Low - includes one of the three aesthetic elements of technofantasy, neo-Victorianism, and retrofuturism
Very Low - includes none of the aesthetic elements of technofantasy, neo-Victorianism, and retrofuturism, but either makes reference to steampunk, or self-identifies as steampunk (erroneously). 


Affinity Bridge by George Mann
Grade: D
Steampunk Factor: Medium

Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon
Grade: A+
Steampunk Factor: High

Airborn by Kenneth Oppel
Grade: A-
Steampunk Factor: High

Android Karenina by Ben H. Winters: Another hybrid of classic literature and fantastic genre fiction, this time blending one of the greatest novels ever written with SF tropes including robots, alien invasion, and timestreams. The writing is uneven, but entertaining if you enjoy literary mash-ups. I'd recommend reading Tolstoy's original, followed by Asimov's I, Robot instead.  
Grade: C 
Steampunk Factor: Medium

The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia
Grade: A+
Steampunk Factor: Very High

Anubis Gates by Tim Powers:
Grade: A+
Steampunk Factor: Medium

Apparition Trail by Lisa Smedman
Grade: C
Steampunk Factor: High

Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld The followup novel to the brilliant Leviathan takes us further into Westerfeld's alternate world of Clankers and Darwinists. The political tension leading up to World War I is increasing, as is, dare I say, the romantic tension between Deryn and Alek (complicated here by a Twelfth Night love triangle). There are wonderful new beasties, innovative new (and really old!) Clanker machines, and an even-handed presentation of the setting of Istanbul/Constantinople. Behemoth is another compelling page-turner in the Leviathan trilogy.
Grade: A
Steampunk Factor: Very High 

Boilerplate by Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett
Grade: A+
Steampunk Factor: Medium

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
Grade: B-
Steampunk Factor: High

The Buntline Special by Mike Resnick
Utilizing the oft-told tale of the events surrounding the shootout at the OK Corrall in Tombstone, AZ, The Buntline Special is an exercise in playfully subverting the reader’s horizon of expectations. It’s intended to be light, escapist fiction for fans of the Weird Western, as well as a steampunked defamiliarization of this familiar story. However, unless you’re encountering the story of Tombstone for the first time, Edison’s electric streetlamps aren’t shedding light on anything new. Readers familiar with the history may be disappointed that, despite the introduction of advanced technology, undead gunslingers, and First Nations magic, the events leading up to, during, and away from the Gunfight at the OK Corral unfold with a strangely by-the-numbers adherence to the historical chronology.
Grade: B-
Steampunk Factor: High 

Chenda and the Airship Brofman by Emilie P. Bush
Grade: D
Steampunk Factor: Very High

The Dark Deeps by Arthur Slade
Grade: B
Steampunk Factor: High 

Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
Grade: A+
Steampunk Factor: Medium

Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling 
Grade: B+
Steampunk Factor: Medium

Dreadnought by Cherie Priest Cherie Priest’s Dreadnought is on par with Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan for best-self-conscious-work-of-steampunk. Dreadnought is all that is strong about the first third of Boneshaker, without any of the slower-pacing that plagued the latter book's ending. At points, Dreadnought seemed written in response to my critique of Boneshaker. In Boneshaker, Briar’s voice was stronger than Zeke’s; in Dreadnought, Priest focuses on one point-of-view, Mercy Lynch, who fits the bill of “strong female lead” in spades. Boneshaker’s "zombies" were too benign, lacking an intense threat; Dreadnought’s zombies crawl onto the page in stages, but once they’ve arrived, they’re faster, meaner, and hungrier than Boneshaker. And finally, the slow-paced meanderings in the Seattle underground have been replaced with a steampunk Trains, Planes and Automobiles as Mercy rushes to the West Coast via river, rail, and of course, airship. Strongly recommended.
Grade: A+
Steampunk Factor: High

Dream of Perpetual Motion by Dexter Palmer
Grade: B-
Steampunk Factor: Very High

El Sombra by Al Ewing
Grade: B
Steampunk Factor: High

Fitzpatrick's War by Theodore Judson
Grade: A+
Steampunk Factor: Medium 

Flaming London by Joe Lansdale
Flaming London is filled with literary references, without any pretensions to being literature. It's a barrage of irreverent reverence for the classic SF and horror of yesteryear: as with Zeppelins West, the cast is a who's who of boyhood favorites: Wild West stories, Jules Verne, Mark Twain, a certain giant gorilla, flying monstrosities, the Martians from War of the Worlds, as well as a few characters who cross over from Lansdale's short story, "The Steam Man of the Prairie and the Dark Rider Get Down: A Dime Novel."
Grade: B+
Steampunk Factor: High 

Full Steam Ahead by Nathalie Gray
Grade: C+
Steampunk Factor: High

Glass Books of the Dream Eaters by Gordon Dahlquist
Grade: A+
Steampunk Factor: Very High

The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman: 
One of my favorite reads of 2010, combining dark steampunk, weird west, and surrealism in a secondary world modeled after the American West. This is a world of unexplored and untamed frontiers about to be encroached upon by the struggle between the Gun and the Line, and the powerful spirits behind them. Highly recommended if you liked Stephen King's Dark Tower, but prefer the comics detailing the fall of Gilead.
Grade: A-
Steampunk Factor: Very High 

The Hunchback Assignments by Arthur Slade
Grade: B+
Steampunk Factor: High 

The Innocent's Progress by Peter Tupper
Wonderful world building and sympathetic characters combine to place this steampunk erotica far above standard boy meets girl, boy eventually has sex with girl titillation: this collection of short stories is as good as any other steampunk anthology you'll come across, albeit far steamier.
Grade: A
Steampunk Factor: High

Kingdom of Ohio by Matthew Flaming
Grade: B+
Steampunk Factor: High

Larklight by Philip Reeve
Grade: B+
Steampunk Factor: Very High

League of Heroes by Xavier Maumejean
Grade: B+
Steampunk Factor: High

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
Grade: A+
Steampunk Factor: Very High

List of 7 by Mark Frost

Grade: B+
Steampunk Factor: Medium

Mainspring by Jay Lake
Grade: B-
Steampunk Factor: High

Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve
Grade: A
Steampunk Factor: High

Napoleon Concerto: A Novel in Three Parts by Mark Mellon: A solid novel of alternate history that reads like a blend of the Master and Commander series with Nemo's Nautilus. The first two movements of the book are better than the ending, which falls flat.  
Grade: C 
Steampunk Factor: Low

Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
Grade: A-
Steampunk Factor: High 

Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding
Grade: B
Steampunk Factor: High 

Skybreaker by Kenneth Oppel
Grade: A+
Steampunk Factor: High

Soulless by Gail Carriger
Grade: A-
Steampunk Factor: High

Starclimber by Kenneth Oppel
Grade: B
Steampunk Factor: Medium

The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder
Mark Hodder's first novel is exactly what I thought I'd be reading when I started this research project in 2008: a story set in the nineteenth century about an agent of the crown in a world filled with adventure. Hodder writes like someone inspired by The Difference Engine, but determined to have a hell of a lot more fun than Gibson and Sterling. This is a book I couldn't put down, a book that kept me up late into the wee hours, written well enough you refuse to skip ahead for fear of missing a great line or a well-crafted description.
Grade: A
Steampunk Factor: Very High


Unnatural History by Jonathan Green
Grade: F
Steampunk Factor: High

Warlord of the Air by Michael Moorcock
Grade: B+
Steampunk Factor: High

Whitechapel Gods by S.M. Peters
Grade: B+
Steampunk Factor: Very High

Year the Cloud Fell by Kurt R.A. Giambastiani
Grade: A-
Steampunk Factor: Low

Zeppelins West by Joe. R. Lansdale
Grade: B+
Steampunk Factor: High