by Renee Holden, Head Editor, INALJ Nebraska

Steampunk – Science Fiction and Fantasy with a Twist

I am a collection development librarian in a public library that also specializes in reader’s advisory for my library. Patrons ask me all day long about books that are similar to this author or that author and books that are this genre or that. However, the one genre that is gaining in popularity in my library is Steampunk. I usually get at least one patron a day that asks what are some good Steampunk books. So here are some of my top picks to unleash your inner Steampunk.

The Diviners by Libba Bray (2012)

Seventeen-year-old Evie O’Neill is thrilled when she is exiled from small-town Ohio to New York City in 1926, even when a rash of occult-based murder thrusts Evie and her uncle, curator of The Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult, into the thick of the investigation.

The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross (2011)

Finley, who has a beastly alter ego inside of her, joins Duke Griffin’s army of misfits to help stop the Machinist from carrying out a plan to kill Queen Victoria during the Jubilee.

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (2001)

In a world where one can literally get lost in literature, Thursday Next, a Special Operative in Literary Detection, tries to stop a criminal from kidnapping characters, including Jane Eyre, from works of literature.

Incarceron by Catherine Fisher (2010)

To free herself from an upcoming arranged marriage, Claudia, the daughter of the Warden of Incarceron, decides to help a young prisoner escape.

The Greyfriar by Clay Griffith (2010)

In 1870, vampires took over the northern regions of the world, forcing the surviving humans to flee to the southern hemisphere. Now, the year is 2020 and Princess Adele, a human, is on the verge of coming to power just as a final war with the vampires is approaching.

Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel (2011)

In the year 2195 when society is technologically advanced but follows the social mores of Victorian England, recently orphaned Nora is left at the mercy of her aunt, until she is nearly kidnapped by zombies and falls in love with a group of mysterious commandos.

Fever Crumb by Philip Reeve (2010)

Foundling Fever Crumb has been raised as an engineer although females in the future London, England, are not believed capable of rational thought, but at age fourteen she leaves her sheltered world and begins to learn startling truths about her past while facing danger in the present.