SteamPunk Review: The Difference Engine

The Difference Engine
by William Gibson & Bruce Sterling (1990)
Published by Gollancz in 2003 – ISBN 978-0-575-60029-4
After rereading 'The Difference Engine' all be it a bit at a time (after starting it mid November), I found that the depth of this early SteamPunk World still full of detail, and you can delight in it's fantasy of an alliterative historical England and the Empire, when calculating engines of brass and steel started the information age over a hundred years before the microchip and the industrial might that sparks the British conflict with the new Luddites has its moments!

It's now over 20 years after its first printing and this imagined World is now familiar, as well as fiction of alliterative histories and SteamPunk as a sub-genre of science fiction has had many enthusiasts and imitators, even the emergence of writers who's settings are solely in the Victorian era are well liked.
I feel that The Difference Engine's brass has lost a little of its shine, but it has its place in fiction and should always have a place on your bookshelf.

SteamPunk review: Captain Swing & the Electrical Pirates of Cindery Island

'Captain Swing & the Electrical Pirates of Cindery Island' By Warren Ellis, Illustated by Raulo Cacers. Published by Avatar (2011). ISBN 1-59291-136-6

Warren Ellis an English author of comic-books, who has written 'Excalibur' for marvel, 'The Authority' for Wildstorm (DC), and 'Ministry of Space' for Image Comics among others, has put pen to paper, and finally finished this four part mini-series after much anticipation, and now the Trade paperback is out too!

This neo-Victorian fantasy rides on the waves of the popularity of the SteamPunk genre. Set in 1830 the title character taking the immortal alias of the Luddite saboteur 'Captain Swing' who sounds more like a modern Advocate of Internet Freedom – with a rallying cry of “Knowledge should be free”, and the use of a technology possibly inspired from the film 'Stardust' makes an interesting figure.

You will follow Constable Charles Gravel an honest peeler, and see his character grow as he is swept up in a storm of political high adventure.
The woodcut style of the illustrations by Raulo Caceres are a welcomed sight throughout this comic-book and offset the artwork in the panels.

One for your collection I think.

SteamPunk Review: A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court (1889)

A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court (1889)
by Mark Twain and original Illustrator Dan Beard
Published in 2007 by Penguin Classics ISBN 9780141919928

A defining novel of a modern World, all be it the 1880's, and a fine example of what the 21st. Century's hopes to achieve with fictional alternate histories such as the Worlds that SteamPunk fiction resides in. The worlds of “what ifs” leading to a sideways take on past events, pushing ahead to new futures, not all of them turning out to be Utopias!

On a Literary note with Edgar Allen Poe being the Founder of Science Fiction (later to be nicknamed 'The sham technical' by other authors), I find that Mark Twain dipping his toe in to the domains of Scientific Romances, when his character (the Boss) imposes19th. Century's political, economic, and industrial might on the Old England of King Arthur's realm and his Knights, is by our definition SteamPunk without a doubt.

Has modernisation shockingly moved to fast for the 19th. Century's Mr. Twain, and who would oppose science in King Arthur's realm, you will just have to read and find out!

Steampunk Review: The Gangs of New York

The Gangs of New York ( An informal history of the underworld) By Herbert Asbury,
First published in 1927. ISBN 0099436744


Showing the darker side of of New York's history, so much so that street names and places have been renamed, and corrupt Politicians and Police have been forgotten!
From 1838 up to 1925 with foot notes about the 1700's as well, full of colourful characters that New Yorkers have unnoticed for to long. Looking at the rise and fall of the district known as the 'Five Points' a dismal slum.

Charles Dickens who visited and chronicled his observations for publication in 'American Notes' wrote:-
“Let us go on again, and … plunge into the Five Points….We have seen no beggars in the streets by night or day, but of other kinds of strollers plenty. Poverty, wretchedness, and vice are rife enough where we are going now.

This is the place; these narrow ways, diverging to the right and left, and reeking everywhere with, dirt and filth. Such lives as are led here bear the same fruits here as elsewhere. The coarse and bloated faces at the doors have counterparts at home and all the wide world over. Debauchery has made the very houses prematurely old. See how the rotten beams are tumbling down, and how the patched and broken windows seem to scowl dimly, like eyes that have been hurt in drunken frays.”

White-chapel in London features in Charles Dickens's novels 'Oliver Twist' and 'Pickwick Papers' is upstaged by the 'Five Point' for its slum and villainy!

The Martin Scorsese film 'Gangs of New York' centres on only a small period of time around the American civil war Riots in New York, with a lot of characters based on real historical people.

The colourful history was by and large gained from the Newspapers of the time, and thus prone to sensationalism, but there is no getting away from the rottenness and vile depravity of New York's slums and their gangs with their political masters.

The Campaign to Bridge the Gap!

Bridging the Gap! (part one)

SteamPunk: like an explosion on the verge of happening.

From the generation of 'The Young Controller' with his real passion for trains and steam engines (like any little boy of that age), all the way to the fond memories of steam from our Grandparents, and Great-Grandparents - the nostalgic past of our engineering greatness spanning over one-hundred years, from giant beam engines powering our industry to steam locomotives on roads and rails.


What of the youth of today, the teenagers and the twenty somethings, rebelling against authority and consumerism, and not just standing on street corners intimidating passersby, will they bridge the generational gap?

With the arrival of the myriad of SteamPunks consisting of Literary fans, Artisans, Contraptors, Idealists in decorum, Fashion enthusiasts of both neo-Victorian and SteamPunk apparel and steam devotees, there is hope to bridge the gap.
Combining Jules Verne's imagination of the1800's (much like the late Walt Disney's imagineers) and Victorian engineering you can create artwork and contraptions, and even Life-styles.
This misplaced generation are finding out for themselves, the skills and crafts of an older generation, the cut of a suit and the allure of the corset, the appreciation of physical machines and mechanical apparatus by reinventing the past, and recycling a future that never was.

With this mixture of sensibilities and ideologies a new sub-culture has been forming, linked by the virtual communities on the internet, now like an explosion on the verge of happening, SteamPunks can be spotted out in the open with their telltale artful Victorian clothes and good manners. Look for them among the traction engines and steam-rollers, among great beam-engines and steam locomotives, on omnibuses and trams, in the grand halls and botanical gardens keeping alive a very different age of Steam!


For the uninitiated, - SteamPunk is the amalgamation of two branches of the same fictional genealogical tree, Scientific Romances the proto-Science Fiction from the 1800's to the early 1900's, and modern authors of a type of Science Fiction using the setting of an altered historical past, usually the Victorian era, SteamPunk has become a sub-culture of craftsmen working in brass and copper and recycled materials; engineers and inventors taking our present technology back in to the past, for instance a computer keyboard that has been re-engineered and remodeled using brass and steel and now its keys are those resembling the round keys of an Victorian typewriter; taking the modern Japanese sub-culture for young adults of CosPlay - the fun of dressing-up to show what type of devotee you are, has grown in to an exhibition of photographic celebrity, (even the now accepted video-gaming culture, has online avatars with SteamPunk fashion accessories).


I hereby invite you to Join the Campaign to Bridge the Gap!

Campaign details to follow.....

Signed

The SteamPunk Empire's devoted servant and protector

The Steam Brigadier

A proper SteamPunk Tale!

While doing some background research on the British Empire, and the planed endeavor of the 'Cape to Cairo Railway ' (I think the Great War got in the way of that being finished), and its visionary Cecil Rhodes. His first draft of his Will & testament, asked of certain fellows to start a Secret Society to keep the British Empire going on in to the future, and for it to be the sole power and peacekeeper in the World!

This all lead to a novella by John Crowley first printed in 1989 called 'Great Work of Time' (based on what the Will & testament called for), that now can be found in a collection entitled 'Novelties and Souvenirs'. And should arrive by post in under a weeks time!

Time travel, and the British Empire written in the 1980's, that sounds like proper SteamPunk to me!!

SteamPunk for the young at heart

A DVD review for those little SteamPunkers out there, and those who are still young at heart.

The UK release of the childrens' cartoon series 'Sherlock Hound' DVD box set.
Following a second viewing of all 26 episodes that rekindled my delight with this childrens' animated TV series from 1984 Japan.

The charming characters are depicted as anthropomorphic dogs, save Sherlock Hound who is Fox-like, and Professor Moriarty who is most definitely a Wolf. Being Japanese animation (know as Anime) this series also has a pedigree of one the finest Animators and animation directors the world has ever known 'Hayao Miyazaki' who had full control over the following episodes:

Ep. 3. Martha's Small Case ( Eng. title A Small Client ),
Ep. 4. Mrs. Hudson's Hostage Incident ( Eng. title Mrs. Hudson is Taken Hostage ),
Ep. 5. The Blue Ruby ( Eng. title The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle ),
Ep. 9. Treasures of the Seabed ( Eng. title Treasure Under the Sea ),
Ep. 10. The Major Dogfight of Dover Strait ( Eng. title The White Cliffs of Dover ),
Ep. 11. The Enormous Saving Box ( Eng. title The Sovereign Gold Coins ).


There are umpteen examples of turn of the Century vehicles, ranging form early motorcars to roadsters, blimps to airships to biplanes, steam locomotives, traction engines, and dreadnoughts, but this is the age of invention, and in the series Sherlock Hound's nemesis is Professor Moriarty a thief and an inventor of marvels that convey him and his henchmen, in the air, on land and above and beneath the sea.
These ingenious SteamPunk vehicles are mostly coloured in bright pink. I would speculate that this could have been to catch young childrens' attention, but I like to think it is that this garish colour 'Pink' that was considered by the Victorian's to be only suitable for men (that' right Boys had pink and Girls had blue, in that era) shocking that it was, and would be another way Professor Moriarty would be able to terrorize polite and genteel Victorian society.

It was good to see many seances at his residence depicting Sherlock using chemistry to aid his deductions, and the occasional violin playing too! Foggy London also featured in episodes, but I found the change of atmosphere to the countryside of just one episode to a bleak industrial town called 'Gillmore's valley', with its ankle-deep muddy roads and Armaments factories with the wealthy owner's large house over looking the town from the hill-top. The workers children being given medical attention by Dr. Watson, add to that, that the Factories owner's son is more concerned with the health and welfare of the workers and their families than inheriting his father's fortune. ( in the 11th. Episode 'The Enormous Saving Box' ( Eng. title The Sovereign Gold Coins ).

In episode 21 'Singing! Growing Mechanic Maneuvers' ( Eng. title The Disappearance of the Splendid Royal Horse ) has the introduction of a Arthur J. Raffles like thief in London, and puts Moriarty in disgrace. With flash-backs done as sketches in sepia, a delightful and charming tale.

I found episode 22 'The Chaotic Large Airplane Race' ( Eng. title Disturbance, The World Flight Championship! ), so reminded me of the 1965 film 'Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines' Terry-Thomas could have easily been Moriarty intending to sabotage his way to first place in this esteemed airplane race, of a story.

In 'The London Sky Battle' ( Eng. title The Rosetta Stone ) episode 19 set in the British Museum when the Rosetta Stone is levitated away by a theft, many countries' who lay claim to the stone are under suspicion. It pokes fun at British Imperialism and how many nations' treasures are in British museums.
I will leave you with episode 1 'His Name: Detective of Rumor' ( Eng. title The Four Signatures ) in which Sherlock is a passenger on a ship that is attacked by Pirates, and with the aid of a fellow passenger a Dr. John Watson tries to foil their plans. What more could a child ask for!

In to a parallel distant future, that could have been dreampt by, Hans Pfaall.

Upon reading the collection short stories (Kipling's Science Fiction ISBN 1-84677-128-5) from the master storyteller Rudyard Kipling, best known for the works of the Jungle Books and Kim. In witch by the year 2000, submersibles carry freight, and Aeroplanes are still just a bit of a reckless fad! Entitled 'With the Night Mail '(1905) and 'As Easy As A. B. C' (1912), Aeroplanes are the heaver than air coffins that only the most courageous of adventures would use to mount the stratosphere in a world governed by the 'Aerial Board of Control' and AirShips are the lords of the skies. Among other delightful tales are, 'The ship that found Herself' (1898) and '.007 - The Story of an American Locomotive ' (1897), giving a soul to an Iron ship, and a voice to an Iron-Horse, while 'Wireless' (1902 ) explores the new scientific apparatus of wireless telegraphy,. These are some of my best-loved stories.

This is not intended as a book review, more of a nod to the enlightened reader.

Seek out this book!

Regards
The Steam Brigaider

Steampunk Review: Men like Gods

Ever been driving for miles down a wonderful road, and then the landscape suddenly changes, and its like you are transported to an other World? Well that's what happens to Mr. Barnstaple, going on holiday, Not from Kansas to Oz, but a foggy London to the parallel world of Utopia.

Men like Gods by H. G. Wells

ISBN: 0-8495-5847-6

A socialist (state-controlled) garden paradise set far into the future, and after 'The age of confusion' gave birth to the five Utopian principles that are its foundation;


1. The Principle of Privacy
2. The Principle of Free Movement.
3. The Principle Unlimited Knowledge.
4. Lying is the blackest of crimes.
5. Free Discussion and Criticism.


Quite a shock, to the party of Victorians Wells portrays, the only favourable character being Mr. Barnstaple voicing Wells's own hopes and dreams. The Beautiful People of Utopia (with not a stitch on) meet the Ugly minded Earthlings, with their repressed Victorians values.


A dammed good view into the Victorian mind, and ones views on its society.