"The definition of what actually qualifies as steampunk is a debate that continues to rumble on, as does the question of why it has become so widely popular in the past few years. For me, steampunk is the plucky adventurousness of Victorian sensibilities re-imagined with extra, fantastical machinery. It's an attempt to see what would have happened if that era could have been even more plucky and adventurous than it already was. As for why it's become so popular, my feeling is that, at heart, we are all explorers. Yet there is little left of our own planet to explore now and no longer even the need to physically go out and find what is there in order to see it. Steampunk presents us with a new age of exploration and children are the greatest explorers of them all. Books in the genre for youngsters of all ages are still quite thin on the shelves, but that's changing. These are some of the ones I have most enjoyed."
Sharon Gosling started her career in magazine journalism and went on to write successful tie-in books for popular television shows such as Stargate and Battlestar Galactica. She has also written, produced and directed audio dramas. Her first book, The Diamond Thief, is a steampunk adventure set in the gaslit world of Victorian London, starring Rémy, a young trapeze artist who lives a double life as a cat burglar under the control of her evil circus master.
1. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne
With the advent of modern steampunk, Verne's mechanical fantasies have been re-coined as "proto-steampunk". His story of underwater adventure is fascinating not only because it was so far ahead of its time, but also for all the technical information he details about how his fantasy sub Nautilus was built. As a result, it's easy to believe that it really could have been. Gentle, perhaps, by today's standards, but perfect for firing young imaginations.
2. Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve
Reeve is the king of children's steampunk. Mortal Engines is the first of his quartet of books set on a post-apocalyptic Earth where most of the planet's population live in "Traction Cities", huge moving vehicles that hunt and "eat" each other for resources (a system known, brilliantly, as "municipal Darwinism"). Mortal Engines follows Tom Natworthy, a 15-year-old orphan and apprentice Historian, as he finds himself thrown from the city of London and onto the unknown – and for him, disgusting – world of solid ground with Hester Shaw, a disfigured young girl trying to avenge the death of her archaeologist mother. Reeve's world is ingenious, cautionary, exciting and as steampunky as they come.
3. The Nine-Pound Hammer by Jean Claude Bemis
The first in Bemis's Clockwork Dark Trilogy, The Nine-Pound Hammer is set in the American south at a time when steam engines still pulled passengers across the country and medicine shows entertained the sparse populations with circus acts in the hope of earning a dime or two. Bemis, himself a musician, artfully uses American folklore, music and the stories that his grandfather used to tell him of his hobo life of "train hopping" to weave a fantastic steam-driven fantasy.
4. Leviathan/Behemoth/Goliath by Scott Westerfeld
An alternate history of the first world war, assuming that besides evolution, Darwin also discovered DNA and how to manipulate it. The result is a Europe divided between "Clankers" (nations who only use machines) and "Darwinists", who have developed countless hybrid creatures, including the Leviathan of the title – a gigantic, living airship that uses hydrogen to keep it afloat. Deryn, a young woman whose only dream is to fly, defies convention and disguises herself as a boy to join the military just as war comes to Europe. The assassination of Franz Ferdinand leaves his son Alek vulnerable and on the run and the two intersect as Darwin's granddaughter tries to broker peace.
5. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznik
Part-graphic novel, part-modern fairytale, Selznik's beautiful and haunting story of clocks, early stage magic and the birth of cinema is suitable for all ages. Set in Paris in 1931, it's the tale of Hugo who has, since the untimely death of his father, been forced by his uncle into maintaining the clocks at the train station where he now lives. Convinced that repairing the automaton his father was working on when he died will deliver a final message from his dad, Hugo begins to steal parts from the local toymaker in order to fix it himself. It's an enchanting epistle to the power of imagination, the ingenuity of childhood and the value of dreams.
6. The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec/The Arctic Marauder by Jacques Tardi
Most recently reaching the big screen as a Luc Besson-directed film of the same name, Adèle Blanc-Sec and her extraordinary adventures first appeared in 1976 as a comic strip penned by French graphic artist and author, Jacques Tardi. Several of her stories have now been collected and translated. Recommended for teens rather than younger children, the titular heroine is a feisty investigator of crime in early 1900s Paris who finds herself tangled up in literally extraordinary events. Perhaps even more befitting of the genre, though, is Tardi's earlier graphic story, The Arctic Marauder, first published in 1972. Set in 1899, it harks back to the proto-steampunk sensibilities of Verne, involving an Arctic journey that becomes a battle against mad scientists and fantastic machines, all accompanied by Tardi's intricate and absorbing artwork.
7. The Book of Dead Days by Marcus Sedgwick
The "dead days" of the title are the ones that fall between Christmas and the turning of the year, those bleak hours when everyone is exhausted by December but not yet permitted to move forward into the new beginning promised by January. In these days Boy, a child with no family or history and his master, the cold and selfish magician, Valerian, search for a way for the older man to escape a supernatural pact he made long ago. Joined by a girl called Willow, Boy makes his way through the graveyards and tunnels of an icy, careless Victorian-esque city in an engrossing and supremely atmospheric adventure.
8. Return of the Dapper Men by Jim McCann/Janet Lee
Another graphic novel, though this time it's a steampunk fairy tale that will work well as a bedtime story for younger readers. In a world called Anorev, where time no longer exists and every clock is useless, children live underground, leaving the surface to the machines and the giant clockwork angel that control it. Then, one day, the Dapper Men arrive to help Ayden and his robotic friend, Zoe, restart their world.
9. Airborn by Kenneth Oppel
Published in 2004, Oppel's award-winning steampunk adventure was an early example, (like Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines) of the genre as written for younger readers. The protagonist is Matt, a 14-year-old cabin boy aboard the luxury airship Aurora, and a young woman called Kate, who is intent on proving that the air-living "cloud cats" her grandfather talked about are real.
10. Scourge: A Grim Doyle Adventure by David H Burton
Grim has two dads and lives with six other children, only one of which is actually a sibling, and Aunt Patrice. He's always known their family isn't normal, but until he finds himself slipping into another world, where airships roam the sky, he never really knew why. The other world is Verne, a place that he and his unconventional family had escaped from years before. Now they've been sucked back in and have to escape the evil clutches of Lord Victor and the deadly, titular Scourge. A good one for Harry Potter fans.
And one more! The Strange Case of Finley Jayne/The Girl In The Steel Corset/The Girl In The Clockwork Collar by Kady Cross
Another one for teens, Cross's rip-roaring tales of Finley Jayne takes elements of classic adventure literature and mixes them together with added mechanical gadgetry and supernatural elements in a fun, steampunk fantasy series.