Steampunk: Growing healthy or dying on the vine?

[Loerwyn]

I think Steampunk is less a genre and more a style, although it is kind of both. It can be both sci-fi and fantasy, or it can be just one of those. Some steampunk books (e.g. Gail Carriger's series) are fantasy in a steampunk setting. Some (like Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan series - though technically it's dieselpunk but anyway...) have no fantastical elements and instead are 'pure' science-fiction. Both could be classed under a wider-reaching Steampunk term, but it is definitely a case of some are sci-fi, some are fantasy.

Unless, of course, we just break out the good ol' Science Fantasy label.

[Steven L Jordan]

Unless, of course, we just break out the good ol' Science Fantasy label.

Naw... let's not, and say we did.

[GoodEyeSniper]

There have been attempts (albeit generally bad ones!) to get films with steampunk elements in the cinema. I loved Sky Captain, and could be persuaded that its pulp style, with dirigibles, rockets, robots *might* just skirt in there. I enjoyed it: many didn't. I also enjoyed Steamboy and there's Castle in the Sky, although they are cartoons.

But how about Sucker Punch?

I think the trick would be to have a movie with elements of steampunk in it, so that you can say, 'If you enjoyed this, then try....'

Anyone any suggestions as to steampunk books that would make great movies?

One mustn't forget Wild Wild West with Will Smith...

[ivanj]

It appears that IBM thinks steampunk is going to be the next 'big thing' if the report in the Register is anything to go by. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/01...ment_analysis/

[RedMage]

I've read through this thread and not once has anyone mentioned Avatar: the Legend of Korra. How has no one mentioned this?!? If we want a steampunk depicted well I don't think we have to look too much further than this show. Only 1 season out now, I am eager to see what they do with the upcoming episodes. So far, they have shown a fantasy steampunk with a living, vibrant culture that is not stagnating but, rather, is the technological time period in which the show has been set. The world is facing all the challenges of the Industrial Revolution, affecting everything from entertainment, trade, war, government, religion, clothing, and society. In the show society is running to keep up with its own changes, which are outpacing it like a race car outpacing an Olympic sprinter. Yet the sprinter, on foot, continues to try to keep up. To me, that is a thing steampunk needs to show more of. The world was changing so rapidly during the historical era in which most steampunk is set that was real and true one day was complete falsehood and behind the times by the next.