Well, I finished reading the Jules Verne book, "Around The World In 80 Days" today, and LOVED it! Maybe it's not technically a steampunk book, but it's by Verne and set in the Victorian era; that's close enough. I was pleasantly surprised about how good the book was because I was rather lukewarm on Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea," which is supposed to be a pillar of the steampunk trope. To each his/her own, I guess.
I'm not going to give a synopsis of the plot here- most people have a general idea what it's about. The plot moved along at a fast clip, just like Fogg en route to San Francisco from Japan. He wrote lots of geographical description but it didn't go over-long or over my head (like Verne's descriptions of the undersea wonders in 20,000 Leagues did). I do wish he'd developed his main characters more, even just a bit. Fogg is a stereotypical Victorian British gentleman but we know nothing about him. Passepartout (his valet) is colorful & fun. Aouda (the lead female) is a blank canvas that wanted developing. But that's typical of reading Victorian novels with a 21st century sensibility.
I read it as an e-book on my iPhone. That's a very convenient way to read books from another era; no need for an annotated copy of the book when the internet is at my fingertips. Now I want to find a copy of the film on DVD or VHS so I can see where Phineas Fogg & company used the hot air balloon they depict in the movie ad; it's the one mode of transportation they didn't use in the book.
Next on my Steampunk reading list? I'm undecided; not sure whether I'm going to stay with 19th century writers or read a modern author. I was thinking about buying "Infernal Devices" as an e-book, but "Morlock Nights" was absolutely rotten with typos... it was a very distracting and distressing read for an amateur editor. I'll have to think about it.
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