pornokitsch

"Steampunk is...set in a place and time where steam is the dominant form of high technology. It's a retro futurism," writes Cherie Priest. Boneshaker is just like that... a "steampunk zombie adventure". So, just to be clear, steampunk's distinctively defined by its use of technology.  Except the bits that are supernatural. Clear? Good. (Seattle Times found via Gail Carriger)

Disney purchased the rights to Clive Barker's Abarat for $8 million in 2000. The publisher's website still has us looking forward to a "release in 2005", but the only film is a fifteen-minute spiel about the man's paintings. There's some hope in sight. After a few years, Abarat 3: Absolute Midnight is with the publishers, but, as of the last update, still isn't expected before 2011. 

Graphic Novel Round-Up: The Power of Books

Three graphic novels reviewed. The golden thread this time? Books. The power of books. The strange call to collecting books. And even the danger of hiring a "book" author to write a graphic novel...

Unwritten (Carey / Gross): The team from Lucifer team up in this new, slightly post-modern fantasy. Tom Taylor lives in the shadow of his missing father - but even more in the shadow of "Tommy Taylor", his father's Potter-esque fictional creation. 

As things start to get a bit weird (serial killers, death threats, magical tattoos...), Tom Taylor starts out on a quest to figure out what's really going on. He doesn't get too far in this first collection, but the set-up is very intriguing. 

A bit of Fables (what with the "power of stories" shtick) and a bit of The Magicians (with its combination of angst and fantasy). The lead characters are, so far, slightly forgettable - with the absent father being the most appealing of the lot. However, the story is great - and the occasional creative segue to "Tommy Taylor books" (or Rudyard Kipling's diary) is incredibly well done. Carey and Gross should settle in for a long and fascinating run. One to keep following. (7/10)

Two more below the jump - the lastest from Vertigo Crime and a classic from Seth.

Underground Reading: The California Voodoo Game by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes

 On a personal note on the progression of time, I remember picking up my copy of The California Voodoo Game from the second-hand section of Rainy Day Books (Fairway, Kansas) and reading it while my mom was at work. I was, at most, 13. 

This was the first book I ever read in the Dream Park series - and it lead to some pretty wild speculation about my own future career. Somehow I parlayed my skills at math (awesome) and tennis (not so hot) to become a fearsome warrior the likes of which the world had never seen... 

Two decades later, I suck at math, Rainy Day Books is on Twitter and The California Voodoo Game is as wildly entertaining as ever.

Joe Abercrombie x Fantasy

Joe Abercrombie contemplates his place in the new "sword & sorcery" wave. This is an absolute must-read, especially if, like me, you're fascinated by the new Golden Age in fantasy writing. 

Flowerpunk Reading List

This list is also mirrored on Amazon - dive right in after the jump. Please leave a comment or grab me on Twitter with any additions.

Steampunk x Flowerpunk

A new genre idea hits the shelf and - within a few best-selling years - the vampires and elves sneak in. This seems to happen during the life cycle of almost every geeky sub-genre. 

For steampunk, this is particularly insidious - and confusing.

Fantastic alternate histories have existed for a while, but the core premise of steampunk isn't a mystical one - it is a technological one. Steam technology is the backbone of steampunk - the revolutionary, imaginative resource that shakes up the system. Steampunk is an exaggerated analogue of the real world upheaval that came with the industrial era.

Once a single elf raises his pointy-eared head, everything starts to get muddy. Adding magic adds another resource - in fact, it adds another system of resources. For the sake of clarity, this isn't steampunk. It is something else entirely.

Upcoming Signings: Paul Hoffman & Jasper Fforde

Both Paul Hoffman & Jasper Fforde are coming to Forbidden Planet (London) next week. 

Hoffman's The Left Hand of God is the author's first fantasy novel, and has been highly lauded. He'll be at FP on Thursday, 14 January - 6 to 7 pm.

Jasper Fforde is a fantasy regular - Shades of Grey is the first book in his newest series. Done with fairy tales & literary silliness, his new series is set in a color-based dystopia (reminds me of Paranoia). He's dropping by FP on Monday, 18 January - 6 to 7 pm.

Underground Reading: Purple & Black by KJ Parker

KJ Parker might as well change his/her pen name to "The Enigmatic". Not only do the official blurbs refer to the author in this fashion, but virtually every review does the same. "KJ Parker" is a pseudonym (supposedly of someone that's already famous in another genre), but the cryptic reputation is reinforced by his/her chosen stylistic territory.

Parker, as I've pretentiously noted in the past, writes epic fantasy with the tone and flair of the great existentialists. Imagine Camus (beret / chain-smoking / small coffee / derisive look) secretly going home and reading Tolkien under the covers. The closest modern comparison is Andrzej Sapkowski, who also lends a certain stark & philosophical bent to his work. (Although the 'stark' could be the result of the translations).

Purple and Black is a limited edition novella from Subterranean Press, who have defied the 2009 malaise by putting out some stonking short fiction over the past 12 months. 

Understanding Mu by Hans Stefan Santesson

Apparently the previous owner (writer John Brunner) had some definite opinions about the subject matter - at least, so the book's author thought.