The Jim Butcher Files: Dresden . Codex Alera . Cinder Spires & More

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by alansplace

No, like I said, that list consists of some of the more well-known *antecedents of Steampunk.

*an·te·ced·ent
ˌan(t)əˈsēdnt/
noun
noun: antecedent; plural noun: antecedents

1.
a thing or event that existed before or logically precedes another.

adjective
adjective: antecedent

1.
preceding in time or order; previous or preexisting.

I was probably confused by the way at least some of those are AFAIR considered steampunk, and didn't notice that word.

I am not sure liking the antecedents necessarily equates to liking the steampunk genre, to me that association just didn't work.

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I was probably confused by the way at least some of those are AFAIR considered steampunk, and didn't notice that word.

I am not sure liking the antecedents necessarily equates to liking the steampunk genre, to me that association just didn't work.

Agreed, but pointing out the antecedents could lead to re-thinking one's opinions of and attitudes towards of the resultant genre (which was my intent). Besides all Steampunk is, is a setting for the story and characters and most here who like Jim Butcher's writing, like it because of the characters and how they act during the story. To me, putting Jim's character creation ability and story telling ability in a different setting than we're used to probably won't make much difference in the long run.

[AlbertaCowboy]

Originally Posted by alansplace

So you hated 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Around the World in Eighty Days, Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Mysterious Island, From the Earth to the Moon, The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, The Island of Doctor Moreau, and The First Men in the Moon, just to cite a few antecedents of the genre. That's really too bad. Each to his own, I suppose.

When you put it like that, it makes me suddenly have to reevaluate my stance.
I've read all but one of the above examples and very much enjoyed them. I guess in my own mind, "steampunk" evokes a very specific type of image: Victorian era settings with wildly anachronistic tech, improbably powered by gears and steam.
When contrasted with 20,000 Leagues and Center of the Earth, all of a sudden, my visual changes dramatically from abhorrence to fondness.
Although you've cited these examples as antecedents, in today's terms, would these be classified as steampunk?
You have any recommendations personally of something worth reading in the modern steampunk genre? Mayhaps I should give it a chance to really change my mind.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by alansplace

Agreed, but pointing out the antecedents could lead to re-thinking one's opinions of and attitudes towards of the resultant genre (which was my intent). Besides all Steampunk is, is a setting for the story and characters and most here who like Jim Butcher's writing, like it because of the characters and how they act during the story. To me, putting Jim's character creation ability and story telling ability in a different setting than we're used to probably won't make much difference in the long run.

Keep at it, you may yet convince him.

Personally, I have no problem with genre so long as the story/plot/characters is something I enjoy.

For some reason, that does seem to preclude most non-Speculative Fiction...
(I do enjoy Agatha Christie and certain other classics. Yet to find anything recent that I like.)
Is that worrying?

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by AlbertaCowboy

When you put it like that, it makes me suddenly have to reevaluate my stance.
I've read all but one of the above examples and very much enjoyed them. I guess in my own mind, "steampunk" evokes a very specific type of image: Victorian era settings with wildly anachronistic tech, improbably powered by gears and steam.
When contrasted with 20,000 Leagues and Center of the Earth, all of a sudden, my visual changes dramatically from abhorrence to fondness.
Although you've cited these examples as antecedents, in today's terms, would these be classified as steampunk?
You have any recommendations personally of something worth reading in the modern steampunk genre? Mayhaps I should give it a chance to really change my mind.

As far as I know they are not actually called Steampunk by anyone.

Recommendations!? I've not really had a lot of experience there? I've so far read 3 of the 4 books in the Steampunk series, Tales of the Ketty Jay by Chris Wooding. Lisa Mantchev is only the 2nd author that I've read who writes in the genre. Ticker was Steampunk but a lot different than the world of the Ketty Jay! It was fast-paced and exciting like the Ketty Jay's world. The characters were likeable and interesting. It was overall, a quite enjoyable read as were the Tales of the Ketty Jay.

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Keep at it, you may yet convince him.

Personally, I have no problem with genre so long as the story/plot/characters is something I enjoy.

For some reason, that does seem to preclude most non-Speculative Fiction...
(I do enjoy Agatha Christie and certain other classics. Yet to find anything recent that I like.)
Is that worrying?

You like Christie? Then try the (so far) 2 Cormoran Strike novels by Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling), The Cuckoo's Calling and The Silkworm.

[alansplace]

"Pain is a part of life. Sometimes it’s a big part, and sometimes it isn’t, but either way, it’s part of the big puzzle, the deep music, the great game. Pain does two things: It teaches you, tells you that you’re alive. Then it passes away and leaves you changed. It leaves you wiser, sometimes. Sometimes it leaves you stronger. Either way, pain leaves its mark, and everything important that will ever happen to you in life is going to involve it in one degree or another."
- Harry Dresden, White Night, by Jim Butcher

[DuckieTigger]

Well, was trying to find more info about Cinder Spires, sample chapters or anything, and came up empty. But on the book at comments (Goodreads) I found this comment from Jim about why Skin Game was late:

Jim Butcher Actually, that had more to do with the implosion of my personal life. That kind of thing happens to each of us if we are fortunate enough to live long enough. It's part of the deal.

That said, I published my first novel in April of 2000. It's currently 2014, with 15 novels in the Dresden Files, plus the anthology, most of a second anthology, six Alera books, and the Spidey novel completed in that time. That's an average of two novel length pieces of fiction per year, or about a quarter of a million words per annum.

I don't write as fast as anyone wants me to, including me. I just write as fast as I can.
5 months ago

Now I have to reconsider complaining about him being slow. Why does ho have to be human?

I will give him more slack from now on ...

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by alansplace

Jun 18, 2013 - Jim Butcher reading from his new steampunk series "The Cinder Spires"

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

Well, was trying to find more info about Cinder Spires, sample chapters or anything, and came up empty. But on the book at comments (Goodreads) I found this comment from Jim about why Skin Game was late:

Now I have to reconsider complaining about him being slow. Why does ho have to be human?

I will give him more slack from now on ...

Above are sample chapters being read to you.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

Well, was trying to find more info about Cinder Spires, sample chapters or anything, and came up empty. But on the book at comments (Goodreads) I found this comment from Jim about why Skin Game was late:


Now I have to reconsider complaining about him being slow. Why does ho have to be human?

I will give him more slack from now on ...

I did not realize he was that fast. Dang. He's not quite a match for Brandon Sanderson, though.

19 books (doorstoppers !!) since 2006, plus a few short stories. And 2 more coming out next year. Then a few more.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.htm...cId=1000661941

Sanderson: Even when I’m on a tight deadline, I make sure I have an hour after I get up and an hour in the evening to play with my son. And I take Sundays off from writing. It’s important for me to have some time to recharge, to keep some perspective. I love writing and my idea of a vacation from writing is to write something else, but any one book will come and go. I can’t afford to miss being there for my family.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by alansplace

Above are sample chapters being read to you.

Oh thank you. Youtube, huh?

Usually I don't search there. I will watch them when I can - a bit too noisy here right now - probably tomorrow morning.

[alansplace]

Found on naldzgraphics.net

[bizzybody]

Science Fiction written in the "Victorian Era" (circa 1837 to 1901, the reign of Queen Victoria) would by today's standards mostly be considered steampunk.

Steampunk as a genre is an attempt to go back to the era when steam engines powered trains and ships. Flight, such as was happening, was all done by hot air, hydrogen or helium. Powered road vehicles that didn't run on rails were in their earliest days and steam power was a major player, with gasoline, diesel and (very late Victorian era) electricity being the other three contenders. Steam's advantage had a lot to do with the primitive state of crude oil refining and formulating of gasoline.

Electricity was the new kid on the block and mostly used for lighting (from late 1870's).

Electric cooking and space heating was a rare curiosity until the early 1900's due to a lack of available high power electricity distribution. Electric motors of practical form came along in the late 1830's, with the first electric vehicle being a boat that transported 14 people in 1838. Motors for stationary use had the same problem as using electricity for cooking. Attempts were made to use large battery banks but a battery powered lathe or drill press just didn't cut it - not for very long at a time.

So for contemporary Victorian SciFi or latter-day steampunk, things like electric stoves and motors are the "high tech" of the day. Authors like Jules Verne saw the potential applications of electricity, once a sufficient and steady supply of it would become available.

50's era SciFi could be called Atompunk due to the ubiquity of "atom powered" and radioactive based technology. Read the original Foundation trilogy by Isaac Asimov for a taste of that. Atomic this and Atomo that. Every little bloody thing is "atomic powered", including a fancy dress with 3D lighting effects. 'Tis a pity Asimov completely abandoned that in the much later continuation books.

How about Jetpunk for the 1960's? As the jet engine obsoleted the piston engine in commercial aircraft, jet engines sprouted up everywhere in fiction.

The 1970's? Google formicapunk I've read a lot of SciFi from that decade. A lot of it was "experimental" or "new wave" - lots of it total crap or a real headscratcher as to how it even qualifies under the loosest definition of SciFi let alone Science Fiction - or "Why the bleep did Analog publish this?".

The 1980's and later? Far as I'm concerned, that's when Science Fiction and SciFi finally matured. Everything was fair game and the field could no longer be pigeonholed, it consistently failed to be mainly represented by the big new major technology of the time. Electronic computer technology had been in SF since at least the late 1950's, with written and visual SF envisioning things like computers as small as desks (desk computers, not *desktop* computers, The Jagged Orbit, 1969) and some especially forward visionaries postulating handhelds like Star Trek, Rendezvous with RAMA and The Mote in God's Eye.

The 1980's brought in real world refinements with many of the previous fantasy devices becoming real. That made it much harder for authors to come up with "far out" technologies to put in their stories. Real desk sized computers like the Xerox Alto and STAR never made much of a mark, being rapidly surpassed by microtechnology leading to the microcomputers that could sit *on* desks.

Throughout the history of science fiction the *best* stories haven't been so dependent on the technology being a main cast member, but tech is always there lurking in the background at least as part of the scenery.

The genre has come a long way from the time when an author would have to provide an extensive description of something like an electric motor for readers who might not have ever even seen an electric lamp, let alone know what electricity is.

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by bizzybody

Science Fiction...
...electricity is.

[alansplace]

....................loup garou