Every month, we’re highlighting one genre within YA fiction as part of Angela’s reader’s advisory challenge. So far, we’ve discussed horror, science fiction, high fantasy, mysteries and thrillers, verse novels, contemporary realistic fiction, historical fiction, graphic novels, romances, and dystopias. November’s focus is another subgenre: steampunk.

Steampunk is not a subgenre either of us are very familiar with, but I know I’ve enjoyed getting to know it a bit more for this guide. So what exactly is steampunk? It’s a subgenre of science fiction, and its primary characteristic is that it features steam-powered machines, often anachronistically. What this means is that steampunk stories may include complex steam-powered contraptions in a time (such as the 19th century) when the technology for such things never existed (making it alternate history). They also often feature this type of technology in a future world, making the stories a fun combination of futuristic and retro. The “classic” steampunk story is also culturally Western, frequently Victorian-era British.

(I will say that the machines I’ve found in books described as steampunk aren’t always steam-powered. For a different sort of definition, take this one from the Steampunk Bible: a grafting of Victorian aesthetic and punk rock attitude onto various forms of science-fiction culture. As with other genres and subgenres, people define it in different ways.)

Like other genre fiction, there’s lots of genre-blending that goes on. You’ll find steampunk crossed with historical fiction, romance, mystery, fantasy, horror, and others. It’s part of what makes reading genre fiction such an adventure – the possibilities are endless.

Perhaps more so than other genres and subgenres, steampunk has lent itself to an entire culture beyond the books. People dress up in steampunk costumes and wear steampunk jewelry. Often, they’ll make their own. Fans make and sell steampunk art. Shops have sprung up online to sell these items to buyers all over. I’ve noticed that most of those passionate about steampunk tend to be adults – but I don’t doubt that there are many avid teen fans as well.

Below are a few resources if you’d like to learn more about the subgenre (from people more knowledgeable about it than me, no doubt!):

• The aforementioned Steampunk Bible by Jeff VanderMeer is the book to get if you’re interested in diving headlong into the genre/culture. 
• The Ranting Dragon gives us 20 Must-Read Steampunk Books in an article from 2011 (including YA titles) as well as a good, concise definition.
• AbeBooks discusses the history of the subgenre and offers more reading recommendations in their Steampunk 101 article.
• In a 2010 article, Library Journal offers up 20 core steampunk titles, including classics as well as more recent works. 
• The New York Public Library recently wrote this fantastic piece about steampunk for teens, including a reading list. 
• Steamed is the collaborative blog of a group of steampunk writers, and it’s full of information. Posts include Steampunk for Beginners, Women in Steampunk, and Beyond Steampunk. They also run Steampunkapalooza, a yearly celebration of all things steampunk.
• As part of Steampunkapalooza this year, Teen Librarian Toolbox collected some excellent craft ideas plus rounded up links to other good content.

Because this is a smaller subgenre without as many recent books to its name, I’ve broadened the list below to include notable titles older than five years. These titles, while older, should still be of interest to teens curious about the genre, especially since they’ve often influenced the more recent ones. Descriptions are from Worldcat. As always, please chime in if we’ve missed any.

Legacy of the Clockwork Key by Kristin Bailey: A orphaned sixteen-year-old servant in Victorian England finds love
while unraveling the secrets of a mysterious society of inventors and
their most dangerous creation.

Etiquette and Espionage and sequel by Gail Carriger: In an alternate England of 1851, spirited fourteen-year-old Sophronia
is enrolled in a finishing school where, she is suprised to learn,
lessons include not only the fine arts of dance, dress, and etiquette,
but also diversion, deceit, and espionage.

Clockwork Angel and sequels by Cassandra Clare: When sixteen-year-old orphan Tessa Gray’s older brother suddenly
vanishes, her search for him leads her into Victorian-era London’s
dangerous supernatural underworld, and when she discovers that she
herself is a Downworlder, she must learn to trust the demon-killing
Shadowhunters if she ever wants to learn to control her powers and find
her brother.

Riese: Kingdom Falling by Greg Cox: Riese has never been happy as a princess; she’d much rather be hunting
or fighting than sitting through another lesson on court etiquette. When
she meets Micah, a wandering artist with a mysterious past, she
pretends to be a peasant–it’s a chance to be just a normal girl with a
normal boy for a while. But with war decimating her once-proud nation
and the sinister clockwork Sect infiltrating her mother’s court,
Riese’s moments with Micah are the only islands of sanity left in a
world gone mad. As her kingdom falls and the Sect grows ever stronger,
will Riese remain true to her duty as a princess…or risk everything on
a boy she barely knows?

Girl in the Steel Corset and sequels by Kady Cross: Finley, who has a beastly alter ego inside of her, joins Duke Griffin’s
army of misfits to help stop the Machinist, the criminal behind a series
of automaton crimes, from carrying out a plan to kill Queen Victoria
during the Jubilee.

Incarceron and sequel by Catherine Fisher: To free herself from an upcoming arranged marriage, Claudia, the
daughter of the Warden of Incarceron, a futuristic prison with a mind of
its own, decides to help a young prisoner escape.

 
Worldshaker by Richard Harland: Sixteen-year-old Col Porpentine is being groomed as the next Commander
of Worldshaker, a juggernaut where elite families live on the upper
decks while the Filthies toil below, but when he meets Riff, a Filthy
girl on the run, he discovers how ignorant he is of his home and its
residents.

The Iron Thorn and sequels by Caitlin Kittredge: In an alternate 1950s, mechanically gifted fifteen-year-old Aoife
Grayson, whose family has a history of going mad at sixteen, must leave
the totalitarian city of Lovecraft and venture into the world of magic
to solve the mystery of her brother’s disappearance and the mysteries
surrounding her father and the Land of Thorn.

The Friday Society by Adrienne Kress: Cora, Nellie, and Michiko, teenaged assistants to three powerful men in
Edwardian London, meet by chance at a ball that ends with the discovery
of a murdered man, leading the three to work together to solve this and
related crimes without drawing undue attention to themselves.

Innocent Darkness and sequels by Suzanne Lazear: In 1901, on an alternate Earth, sixteen-year-old Noli rejoices when a
mysterious man transports her from reform school to the Realm of Faerie,
until Noli learns his sinister reason.

Steampunk! edited by Kelly Link: A collection of fourteen fantasy stories by well-known authors, set in
the age of steam engines and featuring automatons, clockworks,
calculating machines, and other marvels that never existed.

Railsea by China Mieville: On board the moletrain Medes, Sham Yes ap Soorap watches in awe as he
witnesses his first moldywarpe hunt: the giant mole bursting from the
earth, the harpoonists targeting their prey, the battle resulting in
one’s death & the other’s glory. But no matter how spectacular it
is, Sham can’t shake the sense that there is more to life than traveling
the endless rails of the railsea–even if his captain can think only of the hunt for the ivory-colored mole she’s been chasing since it took her arm all those years ago.

Airborn and sequels by Kenneth Oppel: Matt, a young cabin boy aboard an airship, and Kate, a wealthy young
girl traveling with her chaperone, team up to search for the existence
of mysterious winged creatures reportedly living hundreds of feet above
the Earth’s surface.

Steampunk Poe: Presents a collection of Poe’s short stories and poems, including “The
Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Fall of the House of Usher,” and “The Raven,”
accompanied by steampunk-inspired illustrations.

Fever Crumb by Philip Reeve: Foundling Fever Crumb has been raised as an engineer although females in
the future London, England, are not believed capable of rational
thought, but at age fourteen she leaves her sheltered world and begins
to learn startling truths about her past while facing danger in the
present.

Mortal Engines and sequels by Philip Reeve: In the distant future, when cities move about and consume smaller towns,
a fifteen-year-old apprentice is pushed out of London by the man he
most admires and must seek answers in the perilous Out-Country, aided by
one girl and the memory of another.

The Hunchback Assignments and sequels by Arthur Slade: In Victorian London, fourteen-year-old Modo, a shape-changing hunchback,
becomes a secret agent for the Permanent Association, which strives to
protect the world from the evil machinations of the Clockwork Guild.

Corsets and Clockwork edited by Trisha Telep: Collects thirteen original stories set during the Victorian era,
including tales of steam-powered machines, family secrets, and love.

Leviathan and sequels by Scott Westerfeld: In an alternate 1914 Europe, fifteen-year-old Austrian Prince Alek, on
the run from the Clanker Powers who are attempting to take over the
globe using mechanical machinery, forms an uneasy alliance with Deryn
who, disguised as a boy to join the British Air Service, is learning to
fly genetically engineered beasts.