[dworth]

I'd heartily recommend China Meiville's books. Many of them are set in a dark, steampunk fantasy world, centred around the vast sprawling metropolis of New Crobuzon. They're quite surreal but beautifully written.

Also, William Gibson and Bruce Sterling's 'The Difference Engine'. A book which pretty much invented steam punk single handedly and is set in an alternative history of the mid nineteenth century where Charles Babbage's analytical engine was a great success and now Britain is run by mechanical computers.