Pen & Sword Review: The Real World of Victorian Steampunk, by Simon Webb

In the last few decades, steampunk has blossomed from being a rather obscure and little-known subgenre of science fiction into a striking and distinctive style of fashion, art, design and even music. It is in the written word however that steampunk has its roots and in this book Simon Webb explores and examines the real inventions which underpin the fantasy. In doing so, he reveals a world unknown to most people today.

The Real World of Victorian Steampunk shows the Victorian era to have been a surprising place; one of steam-powered airplanes, fax machines linking Moscow and St Petersburg, steam cars traveling at over 100 mph, electric taxis and wireless telephones. It is, in short, the nineteenth century as you have never before seen it; a steampunk extravaganza of anachronistic technology and unfamiliar gadgets. Imagine Europe spanned by a mechanical internet; a telecommunication system of clattering semaphore towers capable of transmitting information across the continent in a matter of minutes. Consider too, the fact that a steam plane the size of a modern airliner took off in England in 1894.

Drawing entirely on contemporary sources, we see how little-known developments in technology have been used as the basis for so many steampunk narratives. From seminal novels such as The Difference Engine, through to the steampunk fantasy of Terry Pratchett’s later works, this book shows that steampunk is at least as much solid fact as it is whimsical fiction. 

My Review

Thanks to Rosie Crofts at Pen & Sword for my copy of this book, sorry I’ve taken so long to review it. I’m surprised I still get asked to review books for Pen & Sword, because I take so long to get the books read and reviewed. The last book I read by Simon Webb was about torture, bit of a different experience this.

The Rosie Synopsis

This book covers the development of technology that really existed but is not only seen in steampunk novels and short stories. There’s everything from pneumatic trains, steam aeroplanes, to early computers and fax machines. Fears about fossil fuel use and plans for great solar energy parks in the deserts of Africa. Cities under glass and robots pulling wagons across the prairies (okay, they are fiction, but people believed it was possible).

The Good

It was very interesting reading and the bits of history and technology explored were fascinating and tallied with things I already knew. The information provides greater depth to the reading of steampunk novels because a good writer in the genre needs to know actual history to be able to pull off a convincing story and the references to real events, people and inventions add to that.

The author brings up that what we consider to be modern inventions – electric cars, solar power, hydroelectricity – and concerns – fossil fuels, pollution – are replays of the mid- and late-nineteenth century. Kitchener was near approving a solar power plant in Sudan until the Great War started and he got distracted. Admittedly, that power plant was a colonialising project, as was an earlier one proposed for the Sahara. I don’t know if current plans to put giant fields of photovoltaic glass in various deserts around the world are colonialism, but Firewalkers by Adrian Tchaikovsky suggests the possibility. I read it last year, not sure if I reviewed it.

The Not-So-Good

Needs more pictures and a references/further reading section.

The Verdict

If Steampunk is your thing and you want to know more about the history that inspires the genre, this is a good place to start.

I have also bought a copy of the first true, modern Steampunk novel, The Difference Engine, by Bruce Stirling and William Gibson, in the SF Masterworks series edition, because of this book. Personally, I thought Steampunk was fantasy, but Webb considers it Science Fiction. I suppose it depends on whether there is fantasy elements or not. It’s one of those cross-over sub-genres.