Steampunk fiction is a little-known genre that has a big following. While the genre might be niche, it has a bunch of classics under its name. We decided to list the 25 best steampunk books of all time. Keep reading to find out which books made our list!
What is Steampunk Fiction?
Since it is a subgenre, not everyone may know what steampunk is. It is a subgenre of science fiction that focuses on technology that hasn’t developed beyond steam. Often times, it takes place during the Victorian age but that is up to the author and is not always the case. And technology does vary from book to book.
The 25 Best Steampunk Books of All Time
- Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon
- Agatha H and the Airship City by Phil & Kaja Foglio
- Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
- Homunculus by James P. Blaylock
- Lady of Devices by Shelley Adina
- Infernal Devices by K.W. Jeter
- Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
- Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve
- Morlock Night by K.W. Jeter
- Perdido Street Station by China Miéville
- Soulless by Gail Carriger
- Steampunk Edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer
- The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia
- The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers
- The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
- The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling
- The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
- The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman
- “The Iron Duke by Meljean Brook
- The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
- The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
- The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter
- Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
- Aurorarama” by Jean-Christophe Valtat
Classics and Then Some
You are probably surprised to see books that you know on this list. Yep, those books fall under the steampunk fiction label. Books like The Time Machine, and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and Frankenstein fall under this subgenre. While they weren’t trying to write a steampunk novel, that is what ended up happening unbeknownst to them.
The term steampunk was created by author K.W. Jeter in 1987 to describe the Victorian technology and technology that was powered by steam. As you can guess, there were dozens of novels that already did this before he came along and gave it a name that stuck.
Conclusion
That is all for the 25 best steampunk books of all time list. What books should we have included on this list? Let us know in the comments below!
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That you missed off Michael Moorcock’s Oswald Bastable stories is pretty harsh.
This one was Steampunk ground zero.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Nomad_of_the_Time_Streams
I was thinking the same, a list like this with no Moorcock is like a list of fantasy without Tolkien
Josiah Bancroft’s Tower of Babel trilogy should be at the top of the list.
Mark Hodder’s books about the adventures of Burton and Swinburne, definitely. https://needread.wordpress.com/category/ulme/hodder-mark/
The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder! My thoughts exactly.
In my opinion, Terry Pratchett’s diskworld novels count as steampunk too. Try ‘Raising Steam ‘ or ‘Going Postal ‘.
The Golden Compass doesn’t belong on this list, while I might have put Cogheart on it, but list are lists: never perfect, never complete.
The Ketty Jay books by Chris Woodling are top notch examples of the genre, and if HG Wells and Mary Shelley qualify, where is Jules Verne?
The Half-Made World is the BEST of the best.
Jay Kristoff’s Kinslayer and the rest of the Lotus War series. Feudal Japanese steampunk, best of both worlds.
How is Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age steampunk? At least a few people have very advanced technology in that book!