Jaq D Hawkins

Steampunk Recommendations

This page will grow slowly as I read and discover good Steampunk books. I will only be including those that I would give a 4-5 star rating to as there is no point in recommending the substandard dross or books that I don't think belong on the Steampunk shelf. If you're looking for Paranormal Romance, look elsewhere. Similarly there will be no Young Adult recommendations here, even in the Steampunk genre. Somebody has to cater for adult readers, so this page is devoted to interesting, well written books directed at an audience that no longer identifies with teenage issues.

Forever Boy by Lita Burke

Life is dirty, difficult, and all too short for the dogs digging up the deadly mandrake roots that wizards animate with minor demons. A pup named Go Fer has an odd magical talent. He does not die from the fatal screams of newly-unearthed mandrakes. Go Fer’s master, a prideful minor magician, sees Go Fer’s talent as a fluke saving him the cost of replacing dogs killed by the mandrakes’ cries.

One morning, a young Wizard Kadmeion and his half-elf assistant Bright watch Go Fer at work. This mandrake extraction goes horribly wrong, and Go Fer runs away during the hubbub. After seeking out the wizard, the dog’s life is not the same. In fact, Kadmeion discovers Go Fer is no longer a dog.

An exciting life as the wizard’s familiar awaits Go Fer. Bright built clever clockwork men who pilot Kadmeion’s wonderful airship. Go Fer would have a new name, a new boy appearance, and he would fly with his new master between islands that float above the sea.

But Magic Guild law makes the mandrake harvester Go Fer’s master, and Kadmeion will not go against the guild. Go Fer must return to the dog-murderer, lose his wondrous boy form, and dig mandrake roots until he dies. Which will be the very next time, unless the clever clockwork man and the kindly wizard can get him out of this fatal mess.

Ephraim's Curious Device by Lita Burke

Wizard Kadmeion struggles with getting his magician-for-hire business off the ground. With their funds running low, and his familiar Furgo missing, the wizard and his clockmaker assistant Sir Bright answer a summons from a powerful local lord. Finally, they have a job.

Not true. His Lordship has kidnapped Furgo. Kadmeion must find the magical gadget called Ephraim’s Curious Device and use it to buy Furgo’s freedom. He and Bright have a few short weeks before the noble executes Kadmeion’s familiar.

With no information except a coded map, clues lead them to an oracle’s riddle with three impossible tasks. Even worse, they must go to one of the dying lands--a floating island heading for oblivion in the Rim Winds of their plate-shaped world. The island’s magic has soured, and Kadmeion struggles to save his companions and the island’s desperate fey-folk.

Fighting off seductive swamp inhabitants who feed on wizard’s flesh, and keeping His Lordship’s thick-witted bodyguards from getting them all killed, are constant inconveniences. Bloodthirsty harpies and worse opponents delay Kadmeion and Bright from locating Ephraim’s Curious Device and saving their kidnapped friend.

The wizard and his clockworks man know that time is not on their side. They must deliver Ephraim’s Curious Device to His Lordship before time runs out. If they fail, then tick tock. Furgo dies.

The above two selections are intended to be YA, but read at a level that doesn't sound like children's fiction. There is a third book in the series, Old Bony Blue Eyes, but I haven't read it yet. Clockpunk, a relative of Steampunk with more gears.

The Affinity Bridge by George Mann

Welcome to the bizarre and dangerous world of Victorian London, a city teetering on the edge of revolution. Its people are ushering in a new era of technology, dazzled each day by new inventions. Airships soar in the skies over the city, whilst ground trains rumble through the streets and clockwork automatons are programmed to carry out menial tasks in the offices of lawyers, policemen and journalists.

But beneath this shiny veneer of progress lurks a sinister side. For this is also a world where lycanthropy is a rampant disease that plagues the dirty whorehouses of Whitechapel, where poltergeist infestations create havoc in old country seats, where cadavers can rise from the dead and where nobody ever goes near the Natural History Museum.

Ok, that word Lycanthropy raises a red flag. In this case it's ok, this is primarily a crime drama story in a Steampunk setting worthy of the genre. Trust me, it's a good read. I've given it 4 stars.