What are the best Steampunk Books?

Steampunk is an interesting sub-genre of science fiction as well as alternate history and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980’s and early 90’s.  Steampunk involves an era or world where steam power is still widely used and depended upon.  In most cases it is usually the 19th century and often in Victorian Era Britain and incorporates prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy.  Works of steampunk often feature anachronistic technology or futuristic innovation as Victorians may have envisioned them based on a Victorian perspective on fashion, architecture, sex, love, medicine, culture, art.  The technology can include such fictional machines like those found in the works of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells or real technologies like the computer but developed from an earlier perspective and in alternate history.

Other examples of steampunk contain alternate history-style presentations of “the path not taken” for such technology as analog computers, dirigibles or digital mechanical computers as Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace’s Analytical engine.

Steampunk in Fiction

William Gibson and Bruce Sterling’s 1990 novel The Difference Engine is often credited with bringing widespread awareness of steampunk to a wider readership.  The novel applies the principles of Gibson and Sterling’s cyberpunk writings to an alternate Victorian era where Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage’s proposed steam-powered mechanical computer, which Charles called a difference engine (a later, more general-purpose version was known as an analytical engine), was actually built, and led to the dawn of the information age more than a century “ahead of schedule”.

While most of the original steampunk works had a historical setting, later works would often place steampunk elements in a fantasy world with little relation to any specific historical era. Historical steampunk tends to be more “science fictional”: presenting an alternate history; real locales and persons from history with different technology. Fantasy-world steampunk, such as China Miéville’s Perdido Street Station and Stephen Hunt’s Jackelian novels, on the other hand, presents steampunk in a completely imaginary fantasy realm, often populated by legendary creatures coexisting with steam-era or anachronistic technologies.

Top 10 Collectible Steampunk Books

Great Gift Idea List for Steampunk & Science Fiction Collectors

1) Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley We don't need to say very much about this book as it is one of the most collectible books ever and influenced countless science fiction, horror, and steampunk authors. Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel written by Mary Shelley. Shelley started writing the story when she was eighteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty-one. The first edition was published anonymously in London in 1818. Shelley's name appears on the second edition, published in France. Only 500 copies were printed in 1818. If you are lucky enough to mind one for sale, be prepared to spend over $100,000 US. View rare and collectible copies of Frankenstein
4) The Difference Engine William Gibson and Bruce Sterling’s 1990 novel The Difference Engine is often credited with bringing widespread awareness of steampunk. This is a fantasy based on the premise that the computer age started in the 1850s, rather than the 1950s, with the perfection of Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine. View collectible First Editions of The Difference Engine
5) Homunculus In 1870s London, a city of contradictions and improbabilities, a dead man pilots an airship and living men are willing to risk all to steal a carp. Here, a night of bangers and ale at the local pub can result in an eternity at the Blood Pudding with the rest of the reanimated dead. Homunculus is an essential Steampunk novel and collectible First Edition belongs in every Steampunk collection.
6) Anno Dracula Kim Newman's novel, "Anno Dracula" is an amazing blend of gothic horror, vampire, steampunk and alternative history is a must read for anyone who a fan of any of those genres. The author asks the reader a simple question: What if Dracula had won in his confrontation with Dr. Van Helsing and the other protagonists from Stoker's novel? His ultimate objective, it appears, was to marry Queen Victoria and claim the British throne for himself. To cement his rule, the vampire spreads his curse to create a whole new class of subject, the undead. Within this mess Dr. Seward finds himself cast in the role of Jack the Ripper as he seeks to destroy the undead in his quest for vengeance. With a fine eye for literary satire Newman throws in plenty of Victorian characters from other great works just for kicks. If you like Dracula or Jack the Ripper stories and don't mind the occasional "What If" scenario then you might want grab a copy of this very collectible gem. If you know a fan of gothic horror, vampire, steampunk and alternative history genres, a collectible copy of Anno Dracula will make the perfect gift. View collectible First Editions copies of Anno Dracula
Two 19th century stage illusionists, the aristocratic Rupert Angier and the working-class Alfred Borden, engage in a bitter and deadly feud; the effects are still being felt by their respective families a hundred years later. Working in the gaslight-and-velvet world of Victorian music halls, they prowl edgily in the background of each other's shadowy life, driven to the extremes by a deadly combination of obsessive secrecy and insatiable curiosity. At the heart of the row is an amazing illusion they both perform during their stage acts. The secret of the magic is simple, and the reader is in on it almost from the start, but to the antagonists the real mystery lies deeper. First Editions of The Prestige are very rare and belong on the shelf of any Science Fiction collector.
Set in Victorian London with characters that are both imagined and real, The Map of Time is a page-turner that boasts a triple play of intertwined plots in which a skeptical H. G. Wells is called upon to investigate purported incidents of time travel and to save lives and literary classics, including Dracula and The Time Machine, from being wiped from existence. What happens if we change history? Felix J. Palma explores this question in The Map of Time, weaving a historical fantasy as imaginative as it is exciting—a story full of love and adventure that transports readers to a haunting setting in Victorian London for their own taste of time travel. View collectible First Editions of The Map of Time

Below is a comprehensive reading  list of essential Steampunk Books:
(Click on Book Cover for more information)