SteamPunk is a science fiction / fantasy sub genre that is based around the premise that Late 19 century/Victorian technology is able to achieve modern or futuristic machines, devices and computers.
The idea that the victorians could build spaceships powered on steam, or cowboys in the wild west could build robot sherifs.
The central images used are metal rivited structures (think the Nautilus in the 1954 Disney version of 20000 Leagues Under the Sea) and computers build with thousands of small brass cogs.
Possibly the first novels that could now be brought under the Steampunk banner are Jules Verne‘s 20000 Leagues Under the Sea and HG Wells‘ The Time Machine.
The term STEAMPUNK is a play on the CyberPunk branch of Science Fiction established in the early 1980s, following the fantastical useage of information technology. Wikipedia suggests that the term may have been coined by science fiction author K. W. Jeter.
Commonly steam Steampunk stories are set in Industrial Revolution / Victorian / Wild West backgrounds, but it is now becoming normal to see the alternate history type stories creating new fantasy worlds.
In the past few years there has been a big fresh movement on the Steampunk genre. Though it has never been away more and more books are being published on this sub genre of Sci-Fi.
