Happy New Year!
It may be obvious, but I’m a fan of books and reading. I arrived at first grade able to read on day one – largely because my parents read to me regularly, and because I lived in a house with a lot of books. I was encouraged to read, and even 12 years of public school education and a literature curriculum anchored in the 1950s couldn’t beat that out of me.
It should come as no surprise, then, that I help organize an online monthly book chat, one that is primarily focused on steampunk and steampunk-adjacent works. My book chat partner, Madame Askew, is the convivial host. Whereas I do much of the behind-the-scenes work, contacting authors, posting reminders about the next session to social media, and generally trying to make sure people know about us, Madame ushers us through the discussion, keeping things on track, making sure everyone has a chance to talk, and expertly interviewing the authors, who frequently are able to join us for the discussion. Along the way, I’ve discovered a bunch of delightful books that I wish more people would read. I’m going to share that list here as a way to kick off the New Year, and in honor of the Icelandic holiday event Jolabokaflod, or “Yule Book Flood”, celebrating the tide of new books that arrive in the months prior to the end of the year. Icelanders celebrate by buying each other books,and spending a day (or part of one) dedicated to reading. Most of these are books I’ve discovered because of our Steampunk Virtual Book Chat, but some are long-time favorites of mine. So let’s get crackin’!
Steampunk
First up is Baba Ali and the Clockwork Djinn, by Danielle Ackley McPhail and Day Al-Mohamed. A steampunk retelling of the classic tale Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, this enchanting novel puts a steampunk twist on an old favorite, takes steampunk out of the too-familiar environs of London/England and shows us steampunk as it might be in the Middle East, and draws the reader into the story with skilled and engaging storytelling.
Next we have Murder on the Titania by Alex Acks. A series of connected shorter stories, MotT shows us a setting more like the Old West of the United States, with airships, pirates, and the occasional zombie to punctuate Acks’s engaging and entertaining tales.
Science Fiction
If you haven’t already been reading Martha Wells’ excellent Murderbot series of novels/novellas, you should begin. All Systems Red is the first, and it kicks off the story of a sentient security unit (“Sec Unit) android who secretly calls itself “Murderbot”. It gets assigned to a group who are exploring a planet to try to find exploitable resources, but there are life-threatening dangers that keep Murderbot plenty busy protecting his clients. The Apple TV series based on this novel and starring Alexander Skarsgard is quite faithful to the source material, and has many of us salivating and speculating over what season two of the show will cover.
Urban Fantasy
I enjoyed Vivian Shaw’s Strange Practice a great deal as one of our steampunk virtual book chat reads from 2025, and highly recommend it. Not at all steampunk, it tells the story of a doctor in modern-day London whose primary patients are the “monsters” and cryptids around us, hiding in plain sight. There are also people who hunt such creatures, not to mention the usual ailments from accidents, aging, etc. Fun, tense story with a few twists.
Romance
I don’t typically explore many romance novels, and yet I had a delightful read in Piper J. Drake’s Keeping Cadence as one of our steampunk book chat reads from 2025. This is quite steampunkish as well, but the romance is the primary driving force of the story, and Drake does a terrific job of intertwining romance with action and adventure. A top-notch read, sadly only available for the Kindle at this time.
Young Adult
If you’re a fan of that one series about a magical school and want to find a less onerous person to benefit from your book-buying, consider Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger. A precocious young woman is recommended to a finishing school for girls where the lessons train her to be skilled in espionage and assassination, as well as how to deal with many of the supernatural creatures that populate this world. Hijinks ensue, of course, including an encounter or two with denizens of the corresponding boys school, and Carriger is, as usual, a skilled and entertaining writer with a delicious sense of humor and more than a few things to say on the subject of class structures and social criticism. Again, Carriger is skillful, so these are more subtle and thoughtful, combining into a thoroughly enjoyable reading experience.
Fantasy
The Clockwork Boys by T. Kingfisher is set in a fantasy world that is beautifully crafted by the author. It has strong steampunk elements, but magic is what drives the mechanical devices here, so it seems to fit the fantasy genre a bit better. Engaging and exciting, this tales combines action and adventure with a bit of romance and no small amount of intrigue and terrifying sorcery. Another of our book chat reads this year, and one that had many of our readers eagerly devouring the sequel as well before we even met to discuss the first book.
Whatever you fancy, I hope you will continue — or start — to read books for pleasure. With things as they are now, our favorite authors can use all the support they can get. Even if you can’t afford to buy them, your local public library can often get books in for you by special request — just ask!
Thank you so very much! I can’t tell you how happy it makes me for Baba Ali to still resonate with readers after all this time. Thank you for recommending it to others, It is a joy I love to see shared 🙂
You’re welcome! It remains one of my very favorite steampunk novels of all time. You and Day should be very proud of what you accomplished with it.
I hope my series will join the ranks of favorites for you!
BTW, loved your tale in our Hounds anthology!
Enjoying it so far, and thank you so much! My story in Hounds is a “sequel” to one of my favorite horror short stories of all time – Doyle’s “Lot 249”.