Steampunk?

[meganbmoore]

 Watching Last Exile made me realize that, though I dislike most mecha, I like most steampunk that I've encountered(I think Steamboy is the only exception, off the top of my head...there are likely others if I think about it, though...I just try not to dwell on things I don't care for) but don't seem to run across it a lot, even though I know there's a lot out there..

Anyone want to rec me steampunk or gaslight romances, be they anime, manga or books?  (And tell me if it's available in the US) 

ETA:  wikipedia's page on steampunk 

ETA 2: crumpeteerhas posted very, very brief descriptions of the various "punk" genres here.

Comments

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

RRrrrrrruuuuuuusssssseeeeee....Simon...Emma...*goes to happy place*

Larklight, Hollow Fields? Five Fists of Science?

And are the Girl Genius trades in print?(I remember wanting them a while back, but not being able to get them.)

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Girl Genius is a lot of fun and I really need to go back and catch up with it one of these years. Amazon does seem to show the trades are available now...

Screw-On Head is Mignola at his most cracky. It's fun, although I'm not sure I'd suggest it as your first exposure to his work.

Miyazaki's version of HMC feels more gaslighty to me than the original Diana Wynne Jones book, but they're both charming in their own ways.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I need to read more DWJ...I've liked the 2 I read.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Heh, same here -- the two in my case being HMC and the sequel, Castle In The Air (which is flat-out fairytaleish, involving genies, magic carpets, humble shopkeepers falling for beautiful princesses, and so forth...)

[southerndave.livejournal.com]

I recommend "Hexwood".

[fairest1.livejournal.com]

*happysigh* Partners! Doomed to failure only 'cause the publisher went down in flames.

Larklight -- a young adult book, technically, set in what's basically the future as victorian sci-fi saw it; Newton developed entirely on his own*cough* the power source for spaceships. It's now the 19th century, and Queen Victoria is leading jolly old England's expansion across the solar system. It's hilarious and has awesome characters. Including Myrtle, a Proper Young Lady who gets very frustrated when there's no dashing young gentleman to come to her rescue and she must defend herself rather than fainting as a young woman should under such circumstances. A romance, of sorts.

Hollow Fields -- a manga that tells the tale of young Lucy Snow, who loses her way when headed to boarding school and finds herself signed up at a school for young mad scientists. Only one volume exists at the moment, but it's pretty good.

Five Fists of Science -- Nikola Tesla and Mark Twain, in an effort to make tons of cash and bring about world peace, build a robot and go to fight crime. The highest levels of historical accuracy I've seen on Tesla in a fictional work. Not a romance in any way, but as close as Tesla would ever get without including something inappropriate with a pigeon.

The Girl Genius trades are indeed in print! You can get 'em from Studio Foglio if Amazon doesn't have them in stock.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Ruse...

*'scuse me, mourning a bit...it and Crux and Negation and The First...but Ruse especially*

Amazon shows(in addition to 6 regular trades that could be priced better, but aren't ridiculous) a manga sized B&W trade collecting the first 3 volumes.

[fairest1.livejournal.com]

*bows head for moment of silence*

Route 666 wasn't half bad, either.

That's really a personal call; I've got a complete set of hardcovers, so I'm going to be pretty biased. Or you can just read the entire thing online, since it's all up.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah...Route 666 was good, not to mention Way of the Rat...I have a soft spot for Sojourn, too(Gareth/Arwyn is, IMO, the only decent romantic pairing Marz ever wrote, even if it was eventually wrecked by the obligatory Third party) but the others affected me more when I lost them. Esp. Ruse and The First(is it wrong that I shipped persha and Seahn(I think I misspelled that...the antagonist from the "peaceful" side...)

I prefer having lovely books in my hand to reading online.

[fairest1.livejournal.com]

. . . I only read Ruse and Route 666. And a couple issues of The Crossovers.

Then you'll want to invest in the full-size collections, rather than the manga-size edition. Better quality, plus bonus materials. At this stage, it's crazy to try for hardcovers, so TPBs are the way to go.