Books Read (2011)

[cosmic_celery]

It's about time for another one of these.

1. The Lathe of Heaven - Ursula K. Le Guin (1971)
2. The Book of the Still - Paul Ebbs (2002)
3. Camera Obscura - Lloyd Rose (2002)
4. Fear Itself - Nick Wallace (2005)
5. The Slow Empire - Dave Stone (2001)
6. Dark Progeny - Steve Emmerson (2001)
7. The City of the Dead - Lloyd Rose (2001)
8. The Adventuress of Henrietta Street - Lawrence Miles (2001)
9. Django: The Life and Music of a Gypsy Legend - Michael Dregni (2006)
10. Hope - Mark Clapham (2002)
11. Anachrophobia - Jonathan Morris (2002)
12. Fearless Fourteen - Janet Evanovich (2008)
13. The Banquo Legacy - Justin Richards and Andy Lane (2001)
14. Trading Futures - Lance Parkin (2002)
15. The Crooked World - Steve Lyons (2002)
16. American Gods - Neil Gaiman (2001)
17. History 101 - Mags L. Halliday (2002)
18. Time Zero - Justin Richards (2003)
19. Wise Children - Angela Carter (1991)
20. The Infinity Race - Simon Messingham (2002)
21.The Domino Effect - David Bishop (2003)
22. Good Omens - Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett (1990)
23. Cauldron - Jack McDevitt (2007)
24. Reckless Engineering - Nick Walters (2003)
25. The Last Resort - Paul Leonard (2003)
26. Timeless - Stephen Cole (2003)

Comments

[black-rider.livejournal.com]

Just about anything by Neal Stephenson (The Diamond Age) or China Mieville (Perdido Street Station), as they're sort-of the go-to guys for atmosphere, and they tell a damned good story...

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell strikes me as steamy, but I couldn't really say why. It's exceptionally long and written in Victorian-style prose with extensive footnotes, but don't let that intimidate you, it reads very fluidly and WOW IS IT GREAT.

If you want stories that steampunk has grown from, you want Harlan Ellison (I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream), William Gibson (read Neuromancer, since Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is actually not quite as good as the Bladerunner movie), Frank Herbert (wrote a lot of crap sci-fi but Dune is EPIC), CS Lewis (The Space Trilogy), and of course Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury.

[cosmic-celery.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the recs! I have read and loved Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell. For the record, I'm a huge fan of strange and unnecessary footnotes.

[die-monster.livejournal.com]

Very very dismal sort of surreal steampunk type thing, The Iron Dragon's Daughter by Michael Swift, I think is his name. And then there's the go-to Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. If you like visual things, maybe the webcomic Gunnerkrigg Court, it's pretty fantastic.