2017 Award-Eligible Work Blog Posts & Roundups for F&SF

Steampunk continues to manifest as a genre, although it seems to me it’s not as relentless in its novelty as it used to be. Perhaps once you have reached the point of being parodied in a Key and Peale episode, you cannot claim to be cutting edge anymore? Not to mention that I’ve found steampunk jewelry making kits at the local craft store and the local Value Village flyers featured “How to Make a Steampunk Costume” along with Pirate, Vampire, Zombie, Superhero, and Sexy Barista.

I love the texture of steampunk and have been enjoying seeing continued riffs on a theme that has a long way to go before it’s played out. Here’s six that I’ve enjoyed in the past couple of years. It is by no means an exhaustive list, but each of these bring in aspects of other genres in a way that showcases how much life such a mixture can produce.

Clockwork Lives by Kevin J. Anderson and Neil Peart The book description had me at “steampunk Canterbury Tales” and it’s got some of that adventure’s flavor as it moves along following the adventures of Marinda Peake as she strives to make her life worthy of her father’s legacy. I picked up the lovely hardcover version of the book, which is very prettily put together, complete with facsimile marbled endpapers, high-grade paper, and nice illustrations.

City of the Saints: A Scientific Romance in Four Parts by D. J. Butler There’s a frenzied genius to Butler’s cast of characters, which includes Richard Burton, Samuel Clemens, and Edgar Allen Poe, all turned into intelligence agents vying with each other and the agents of the Kingdom of Deseret against a background of a Utah transmogrified by the steampunk filter into something rich and tangily textured. This book is fun not just for the quick-paced story but as an alternate history that plays with a number of known characters in ways that only add to their legendary nature.

The Emperor’s Edge by Lindsay Buroker. Buroker is a great example of what indie publishing can be. I came to her Emperor’s Edge series because she’d offered the first one free for the Kindle. Smart strategy on her part, because they’re fun fantasy romps that are addictive as crack, with a cast of characters that are entertaining and engaging, and a slow simmering love story that stretches out over the course of the series.

The Clockwork Dagger by Beth Cato. The Clockwork Dagger is the first of a series; the sequel appeared this June. Another strong romantic subplot, but the focus is the journey of Octavia Leander as she struggles to understand her growing healing powers. It’s an unexpectedly satisfying book, and I’ve got the sequel queued up and in my TBR pile.

Cold Magic by Kate Elliot. The first of a terrific trilogy, this combines epic adventure and steampunk as the orphaned Catherine Barahal travels through a pseudo-Victorian world caught up in the middle of social upheaval. One of the joys of big fat fantasy book series is knowing that you’re in for a good, long ride, and Elliott delivers that in spades. (And if you haven’t read her before, you’re welcome. She’s one of the underestimated fantasy writers, IMO.)

A Thousand Perfect Things by Kay Kenyon. Kenyon writes some of the best social science fiction around, and here she turns that skill to steampunk. The warring countries of Anglica and Bharata meet on a mystical bridge that spans the sea distance between them, and the description of that mode of travel continues to resonate in my head as one of the most interesting landscapes fantasy has to offer.

Crooked by Richard Pett. Imagine Lovecraftian steampunk, with machineries of flesh and rot, and mysterious elixirs of immortality, and you might come close to Crooked. Eerie and wonderful, it’s a marvelous and chilling read that shows how steampunk Cthulhu can becomes.

And here’s a bonus that I ran across while researching links for this post, and found a must-buy: The Diabolical Miss Hyde, by Viola Carr. The description made it irresistible. I love books that pay tribute to classics by reworking them in interesting ways, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a particular favorite of mine. I’ve saving this read for sometime when I want to curl up and lose myself for a while.

#sfwaauthors #sfwaauthor

I tweeted this image recently along with the tag-line, “What’s missing? Tell me your favorite graphic novel.” I got literally hundreds of replies, and since I’m going through the list to compile one for me in order to fill out my library a bit, I figured I’d do it as a blog post and thus hit two birds with a single stone. I’m still updating and adding as more people respond to the original post. But if you’d like to know what my Twitter following recommended, here’s the list.

Color-code
Bold = multiple recommendations
Green = I have it and recommend it.
Purple = already on the shelf, but someone recced anyway
Blue = I have it in the original comic form and feel very hip accordingly

So here are the books, arranged alphabetically by author, and with my own notes where pertinent.
Jason Aaron – Thor: The Goddess of Thunder
Alex Alice – Castle in the Stars; Siegfried
Michael Allred – iZombie
Natasha Alterici – Heathen
Sarah Andersen – Fangs
Kevin J. Anderson, Brian Herbert, and Frank Herbert – Dune
Robert Asprin – Myth Adventures
Michael Avon Oeming and Bryan J. Glass – Mice Templar
Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso – 100 Bullets (4) (One person said, “Despite the ending.”)
Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon – Daytripper (3)
Carl Barks – A Christmas for Shacktown. This looks super intriguing and got added to my list.
Donna Barr – Desert Peach; Stinz
Mike Barr – Camelot 3000 (2)
Alison Bechdel – Fun Home (4) This has been on my list of TBR for ages; need to get around to it.
Brian Michael Bendis – Powers
Joe Benitez – Lady Mechanika
Marguerite Bennett – Insexts
Enki Bilal – La Trilogie Nikopol
Vaughn Frederic Bode – Cheech Wizard
Archie Bongiovanni – Grease Bats
Dan Brereton – The Nocturnals
Cullen Bunn – The Sixth Gun
Rich Burlew – Order of the Stick
Charles Burns – Black Hole
Kurt Busiek – Astro City (3)
Thierry Cailleteau – Aquablue
Bob Callahan – Perdita Durango
Sophia Campbell – Shadoweyes
Mike Carey – Lucifer; The Unwritten (2)
Emily Carroll – Through the Woods (2)
Donny Cates – God Country
Chris Claremont. God Loves, Man Kills (3)
Brian Clevinger – Atomic Robo (2)
Peter David – Aquaman
Alexis Deacon – Geis
Kelly Sue DeConnick – Bitch Planet (3), Pretty Deadly (2)
Kim Deitch – The Boulevard of Broken Dreams
J.M. DeMatteis – Greenberg the Vampire
Aaron Diaz – Dresden Codak
Juan Diaz Canales – Blacksad
Andy Diggle – Adam Strange: Planet Heist
Colleen Doran – A Distant Soil
Phillippe Druillet – Lone Sloane
Ben Edlund – The Tick
Grace Ellis and Noelle Stevenson – Lumberjanes (2)
Warren Ellis – The Authority; Global Frequency (2); Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E.; Ocean; Planetary 2); Transmetropolitan (7) Warren Ellis has also been revealed to be problematic lately; you may or may not want to poke around to read about that before buying. I have a number of his books and I do not think one can deny he’s been a very strong influence on the field.
Garth Ennis – The Boys; John Constantine, Hellblazer: Dangerous Habits; Hellblazer; Preacher
Emil Farris – My Favorite Thing is Monsters (4) Described as “a great one about a kid investigating a murder in “˜60s Chicago drawn as if they’re sketches in a school notebook,” which I love so I’ve got it on order.
Phil Foglio – Buck Godot, Zap Gun for Hire; Girl Genius (3)
Ellen Forney – Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me (2)
Matt Fraction – Hawkeye; Sex Criminals
Pierre Gabus – District 14
Neil Gaiman – Sandman (5); Stardust
David Gemmell – Legend
Dave Gibbons and Frank Miller – Give Me Liberty
Kieron Gillen – Die; The Wicked and the Divine (7)
Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo – Asterix
Joe Haldeman – Dallas Barr
Joe Haldeman The Forever War
Dean and Shannon Hale – Rapunzel’s Revenge
Larry Hama – A Sailor’s Story
Matt Hawkins – Think Tank
Herge – Tintin
The Hernandez Brothers – Love & Rockets (3)
Jonathan Hickman – East of West
Joe Hill – Locke & Key (4). Great stuff! I don’t have these, mainly because I borrowed them from someone else to read, and I don’t like buying stuff I’ve already read.
Kohta Hirano – Hellsing
Dylan Horrocks – Hicksville
Jody Houser – Faith
Matt Howarth – Changes
Junji Ito – Uzumaki (6)
Alejandro Jodorowsky – La caste des Meta-Barons
Matt Johnson – Incognegro (2)
Nagata Kabi – My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness
Ryan Kelly and Brian Wood – Local
Stephen King and Scott Snyder – American Vampire
Tom King – The Sheriff of Babylon; Vision
Yukito Kishiro – Battle Angel Alita
Peter Kuper – Heart of Darkness
David Lapham – Stray Bullets
John Layman – Chew
Jeff Lemire – Descender; Sweet Tooth
John Lewis – March (3) Added this to my next order.
Marjorie Liu – Monstress (10) One person called it “the only one I buy for myself.”
Jeremy Love – Bayou
David Mack – Kabuki (2)
Howard Mackie – Gambit and Rogue; Robyn Hood
Larry Marder – Tales from the Beanworld
Julie Maroh – Le bleu est une couleur chaude
Alan C. Martin – Tank Girl (2) I wrote a grad school paper on this one.
Shirow Masamune – The Ghost in the Shell
Taiyo Matsumoto – Tekkon Kinkreet
Scott McCloud – The New Adventures of Abraham Lincoln; Reinventing Comics; Understanding Comics (4). I keep this on my shelf of writing books. Definitely picking up the Abraham Lincoln book.
Seanan McGuire – Spider-Gwen
Carla Speed McNeil – Finder (2)
Linda Medley – Castle Waiting
Mike Mignola – Hellboy (3)
Mark Millar – Jupiter’s Legacy
Frank Miller – Daredevil: Born Again; The Dark Knight Returns (4); Elektra: Assassin (2); Ronin (2); Sin City (3)
Peter Milligan – Red Lanterns; X-Statix
Shigeru Mizuki – Showa: A History of Japan
Alan Moore – let’s just assume I have and rec everything Moore has written, and wrote a paper in grad school involving the Watchmen.
Terry Moore – Strangers in Paradise (3)
Pepe Moreno – Batman: Digital Justice
Grant Morrison – Doom Patrol; The Invisibles (2); We3 (3)
Brennan Lee Mulligan – Strong Female Protagonist (2)
Ted Naifeh – The Crumrin Chronicles (2)
Mai K. Nguyen – Pilu of the Woods
Hope Nicholson (editor) – Moonshot: The Indigenous Comics Collection This looks pretty cool, adding to my “next buy” list.
Marieke Nijkamp – The Oracle Code
Steve Niles – 30 Days of Night
Lee Nordling – Once Upon a Time Machine
James O’Barr – The Crow (2)
Nnedi Okarafor – LaGuardia
Bryan Lee O’Malley – Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World; Seconds
K. O’Neill – The Tea Dragon Society
Natsume Ono – not simple
Katsuhiro Otomo – Akira (2)
Kevin Panetta – Bloom
Benoit Peeters – Obscure Cities
Rosalind B. Penfold – Dragonslippers
David Petersen – Mouseguard
Richard and Wendy Pini – Elfquest (2)
Rick Remender – Fear Agent
Jamie Rich – Ladykiller
James Robinson – Starman (2)
Greg Rucka – Lazarus (2); Queen and Country (2); Wonder Woman
Mark Russell – Exit Stage Left: the Snagglepuss Chronicles. Ordered because it looked like it would hit a couple sweet spots for me.
Mary Safro – Drugs & Wires (having trouble tracking this one down online so far)
Stan Sakai – Usagi Yojimbo
Richard Sala – Peculia
Marjane Satrapi – Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (6) I loved this, and the film was lovely too. I ended up passing my copy along to a cousin because it felt like a book that should be out there educating people.
Tom Scioli – Jack Kirby: The Epic Life of the King of Comics
Stjepan Sejic – Sunstone (2)
Jason Shiga – Demon
Ray Simon – Habitat
Gail Simone – Birds of Prey; Red Sonja
Jeff Smith – Bone (7); Shazam!: The Monster Society of Evil
Charles Soule – Curse Words
Art Spiegelman – Maus (5)
Richard Stark – The Parker Novels
Jim Starlin – The Death of Captain Marvel (2) (The first graphic novel that Marvel did)
Noelle Stevenson – Nimona (3) I have this in electronic form and wish I’d bough hardcopy.
Masayuki Taguchi and Koushun Takami – Battle Royale
Bryan Talbot – Adventures of Luther Arkwright (3); Grandville; Alice in Sunderland (2)
Mariko Tamaki – Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass; Skim
Shaun Tan – The Arrival
Yoshihiro Tatsumi
Doug TenNapei – Earthboy Jacobus (2)
Dirk I. Tiede – Paradigm Shift
James Tynion IV – Something is Killing the Children
John Upchurch – Lucy Claire
Serena Valentino – Nightmares and Fairytales
Brian K Vaughan – Ex Machina; Paper Girls (5); Saga (16); Y: The Last Man (2)
Ursula Vernon – Digger (5)
Charles Vess – Books of Magic (2)
Matt Wagner – Mage (2)
Mark Waid – Kingdom Come (3)
Tillie Walden – Are You Listening?
Jen Wang – The Prince and the Dressmaker
Gerald Way – The Umbrella Academy
Jeremy Whitley – Princeless
Kurtis J Wiebe – Rat Queens (5)
Bill Willingham – Elementals; Fables (6)
G. Willow Wilson – Cairo; Ms. Marvel (3)
Gregory A. Wilson – Icarus
Brian Wood – Channel Zero; DMZ (3); Northlanders
Gene Luen Yang – American Born Chinese
Jane Yolen – Foiled
Skottie Young – I Hate Fairyland
Jim Zubkavich – Wayward

Le Grand Pouvoir du Chninkel, which sadly has no official English release as far as I know.