Steampunk Bibliography

K

klingsor

Mongoose
It would be worthwhile creating a list of sources of use to Steampunk GMs. A few obvious ones to start with.

Books, Fiction
Wilson, F. Paul. The Keep
Fraser, George MacDonald. Flashman, Royal Flash, Flashman on the March…
Mieville, China. Perdido Street Station.
Kipling, Rudyard. Kim
Kipling, Rudyard. The Man Who Would Be King and Other Stories

Books Non Fiction
Farwell, Bryron. Queen Victoria's Little Wars
Owen , Beattie. Frozen in Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition


Books, Comic
Moore, Alan and O'Neill, Kevin. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen


Films
The Deceivers (1988)
North West Frontier (1959)
Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)
Gunga Din (1939)
The Man Who Would Be King (1975)

Good hunting,
Michael
 
The Man Who Would be King, with Sean Connery and Michael Caine is one of my favourite films and certainly captures the right feel of an English "gentleman" in a steampunk setting.

Arabin
 
I would add to the comics list the comic Steampunk (written by Joe Kelley, illustrated by Chris Bachalo), which, despite being vaguely incomprehensible, is firmly set in that millieu, and has a coal-powered cyborg as the main character.

Additionally, you might add the computer game Arcanum (Sierra Games) to the list of inspirations. If anything, it is the closest thing to the universe presented in the RPG, and my guess is that it was a key influence.
 
The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling was pretty good in the genre. I'd say it encapsulates the idea of Steampunk as put forth in the OGL game perfectly.

edit: We would be completely remiss not to mention Jules Verne and H. G. Wells in our bibliography here. Holy cripes! Not strictly "punk" per se, but definitely fantastic technology and all that rot, eh wot?
 
This is the list I assembled when writing :)

Books
The classics are better served when mentioned by author, rather than by title.

• H.G. Wells – The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, War of the Worlds, The Island of Dr. Hybrid, The Food of the Gods.
• Jules Verne – 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Around the World in 80 Days, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, From the Earth to the Moon, The Mysterious Island, Carpathian Castle. “In the Year 2089” (short story).
• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – The collected cases of Sherlock Holmes, as well as the lesser known exploits of Professor Challenger, most famous because of The Lost World.
• Charles Dickens - Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, A Christmas Carol.
• Bram Stoker – Dracula, The Lair of the White Worm.
• Oscar Wilde – The Portrait of Dorian Gray, Canterville Ghost, The Happy Prince and Other Tales.
• Robert Louis Stevenson – The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde, Treasure Island, The Supernatural Short Stories of Robert Louis Stevenson.
• H. Rider Haggard – The adventures of Allan Quatermain, from King’s Solomon’s Mines to Allan and the Ice-gods; also the adventures of Ayesha, from She to Wisdom’s Daughter.
• L. Frank Baum – The Oz series, Father Goose: His Book, A New Wonderland, Dot and Tot of Merryland.
• Other classics of note: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, ‘The Murders at Rue Morgue’ by Edgar Allan Poe, A Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain, The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, Peter Pan by James M. Barry.

While the classics receive the name of scientific romance, the term ‘steampunk’ is more rightly applied to contemporary works such as:

• The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling.
• The Lord Darcy series by Randall Garrett.
• The Runestaff series by Michael Moorcock.
• The Anubis Gate, by Tim Powers.
• The Digging Leviathan, Homunculus and Lord Kelvin’s Machine, by James Blaylock.
• The Hollow Earth, by Rudy Rucker.
• Dracula Unbound and Frankenstein Unbound, by Brian Aldiss.
• The Dinotopia series by James Gourney.
• The Steampunk Trilogy, by Paul DiFilippo.
• The Age of Unreason series by J. Gregory Keyes.
• Perdido Street Station and The Scar, by China Mieville.

Films, TV and Video
The audiovisual media provide the most wonderful examples of steampunk, for they provide the imagery that literature can only evoke from the reader’s imagination. Curiously, Japanese animation dove into steampunk motifs with gusto, with a lot of examples and series available in the west only in DVD form or through fan distribution.

• Metropolis (1927, Fritz Lang)
• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954, Richard Fleisher), a miniseries (1997, Michael Anderson).
• The Time Machine (1960, George Pal) and the remake (2002, Simon Wells).
• The Wild, Wild West; TV series in 1965, movie version in 1999.
• Time After Time (1979, Nicholas Meyer)
• Mastermind (1982, TV series)
• Young Sherlock Holmes and the Pyramid of Fear (1985, Barry Levinson, Chris Columbus).
• Tenkuu no Shiro no Rapyuta (Laputa: Castle in the Sky, 1986, animated, Hayao Miyazaki).
• Robot Carnival, (1987, animation, Katsuhiro Otomo); take note of the following shorts: ‘Franken no Haguruma’ (‘Franken's Gear’, Hiroyuki Kitakubo), and ‘Meiji Karakuri Bumei Kitan’ (‘A Tale of Two Robots,’ Kouji Miramoto).
• Ôritsu Uchûgun Oneamisu no Tsubasa (Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise, 1987, animation, Hiroyuki Yamaga).
• Frankenstein Unbound, (1990, Roger Corman)
• Fushigi no Umi no Nadia (Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, 1990, animated TV series).
• Spirit of Wonder: China-San no Yuutsu (Spirit of Wonder: Miss China's Ring, 1992, animated miniseries) and Spirit of Wonder: Shonen Kakagu Club (Spirit of Wonder: Scientific Boys Club, 2001, animated miniseries)
• The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. (1993, TV series).
• Legend, (1995, TV series).
• Memories (1995, animation, Katsuhiro Otomo), mostly the short ‘Taiho no Machi’ (‘Cannon Fodder’).
• Tenkuu no Escaflowne (The Vision of Escaflowne, animated TV series).
• Sakura Taisen, (Sakura Wars, 1997, animated miniseries and TV series).
• Kaiketsu Jouki Tanteidan (Steam Detectives, 1998, animated TV series).
• Shanghai Noon (2000, Tom Dey) and Shanghai Knights (2003, David Dobkin).
• The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne, (2001, TV series).
• The Infinite Worlds of H.G. Wells, (2001, TV series).
• Le Pacte des Loups, (Brotherhood of the Wolf, 2001, Christophe Gans).
• Atlantis: The Lost Empire, (2001, animation, Gary Trousdale) and Atlantis: Milo's Return (2003, animation, Tad Stones).
• Dinotopia: Miniseries (2002, TV miniseries, Marco Brambilla), and Dinotopia: The Series (2002, miniseries, Robert Halmi Sr.).
• Treasure Planet, (2002, animation, John Musker).
• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003, Stephen Norrington).
• Last Exile (2003, animated TV series).
• Steamboy (2003, Katsuhiro Otomo)
• Full Metal Alchemist (2003, animated TV series).
• Van Helsing (2004, Stephen Sommers).
• Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004, Kerry Conran)


World Wide Web
Here are a few online resources worth checking out.

Steampunk: Victorian Adventures in a Past That Wasn’t.
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/9094/STEAM2.html

Steampunk Central
http://www.geocities.com/sarahlegend/

Uchronia: The Alternate History List
http://www.uchronia.net/

Steam Trek
http://www.steam-trek.com/

Victoriana: A Victorian Antique Marketplace
http://www.victoriana.com/welcome/

19th Century Scientific American Online
http://www.history.rochester.edu/Scientific_American/
 
Great lists!!

Coyotzin said:
• The Runestaff series by Michael Moorcock.
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Whoa... I never even thought of that. But yeah!! I read those books so long ago. There wasn't even a "steampunk" genre when Moorcock wrote those.

• The Anubis Gate, by Tim Powers.
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Great book. I didn't think of that one either. More of a time travel story though. With really weird twists. But it takes place in the Victorian times so, it passes muster. ;)
 
Books

The Lord Darcy series by Randall Garret. Set in an alternate 1970s British Empire which has progressed only to steam power, but has magic. one of the main characters is a forensic sorcerer.The idea that science will be slowed by the fact that many of those same people will be working on magic instead was interesting.

In the U.S. this series was recently reprinted in a compilation volume. Sadly the author died in the 1980s, so it will not be continued.

The Auld Grump
 
TheAuldGrump said:
The idea that science will be slowed by the fact that many of those same people will be working on magic instead was interesting.
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And an idea that they used a little in OGL Steampunk! Note that firearms haven't progressed much past muskets, where in RL Victorian era we had repeating rifles and all that good stuff.
 
El Diablo Robotico said:
where in RL Victorian era we had repeating rifles and all that good stuff.
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I still think Peace and Love are the best stuff...
But I can see your point. :D
 
If you need ideas, characters, or background for you steampunk games, check out the following;

http://www.pjfarmer.com/woldnewton/Pulp2.htm;

While mostly dealing Pulp Age material, there is more then enough to add to any Steam Age game.

another good site for creating character concepts is;

http://www.geocities.com/jessnevins/vicintro.html
 
Mythos said:
If you need ideas, characters, or background for you steampunk games, check out the following;

http://www.pjfarmer.com/woldnewton/Pulp2.htm;

While mostly dealing Pulp Age material, there is more then enough to add to any Steam Age game.

another good site for creating character concepts is;

http://www.geocities.com/jessnevins/vicintro.html
Click to expand...

Yikes the top one is a dead link and the bottom one has exceeded it's bandwidth...
 
kiln publications said:
[Yikes the top one is a dead link and the bottom one has exceeded it's bandwidth...
Click to expand...
Can't do anything about the second link. You'll just have to keep trying.
As to the first link, this one may work better;

http://www.pjfarmer.com/woldnewton/Pulp.htm
 
Movie

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. More than a little off in period, but really close n regards to tech. (Fitting the characters to their classes, and seeing how close you can come in regards to the Amazing Machines in the movie can also be amusing.)

The Auld Grump
 
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