CMIS Evaluation Fiction Focus

In the week that Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan finally hit the shelves both here and in the US, it seems timely to take a look at steampunk. It’s certainly a nice change from vampires.

In case you are not one of the 75,000 or so people who have seen the Leviathan trailer on YouTube, it’s here (and also in our VodPod collection).

When James Roy gave a paper on the concept at the 2003 CBCA / ASLA conference in Hobart, steampunk was a new idea to many. James was about to publish his Ichabod Hart series, but it seems that the genre had been around for a good ten to fifteen years already.

At the core of steampunk is the notion of altered history (often Victorian, and London Victorian at that) combined with technology that is historically impossible, and therefore all the more intriguing.

In YA writing, many look to Philip Reeve as the master of steampunk, not only for the Mortal Engines quartet but also for the rousing fun of Larklight and its sequels Starcross and Mothstorm. (You’ll have to follow the links to get the full titles of these three books – they go on for lines.)

Steampunk has quite a following here in Australia – check blogs here, here and here.  And the blog of literary journal Meanjin looks at how the idea is influencing other fiction, films and fashion.

Michael Pryor’s Laws of Magic series and Richard Harland’s new title Worldshaker are both excellent examples of steampunk written by Australian authors.

If your students get hooked on steampunkery through Scott Westerfeld, point them in these other directions too. They won’t look back.

Fever Crumb, Philip Reeve’s prequel to the Mortal Engines quartet, is due to be published in Australia in November. It’s set well before the events of Mortal Engines, Predator’s Gold, Infernal Devices and A Darkling Plain.

If you can’t wait, you can be teased by the first two chapters here. And read reviews from The Independent and The Guardian.

Vampires begone. Steampunk appears to be the genre du jour. Philip Reeve has led the way, Australian Richard Harland’s Worldshaker is a terrific local example, and Scott Westerfeld has gone all WWI. The trailer for Leviathan has just been released: