Science fiction or fantasy set in a Victorian-era world powered by steam technology, often with anachronistic inventions.
Steampunk reimagines the 19th century with advanced technology powered by steam, clockwork, and mechanical ingenuity. Airships fill the skies, automata walk the streets, and inventors tinker with impossible machines. The aesthetic is Victorian but the attitude is punk: anti-establishment, inventive, and unafraid to question authority. It blends science fiction, alternate history, and fantasy into something distinctly its own.
Steampunk demonstrates how powerful aesthetic can be as a genre-defining element. It's also a masterclass in alternate history worldbuilding. If you're interested in writing historical fiction with speculative elements, steampunk shows you how to change the technology while keeping the social dynamics believable.
The novel that crystallized steampunk, imagining Charles Babbage's computer succeeding and transforming Victorian society.
Alternate WWI with bioengineered living airships versus mechanical war machines, steampunk for a YA audience.
Airship combat and crystal-powered technology in a world of floating habbles, pure steampunk adventure.
Take a piece of modern technology you use daily (a smartphone, a car, a computer) and redesign it using only Victorian-era materials: brass, glass, steam, clockwork, leather. Write a 300-word product description for your invention, in the voice of a 19th-century inventor. Make it functional and fascinating.