As you may have gathered, my last post was published with a little delay, therefore, I give you now the links to truly the latest issues of our two steampunk online magazines:

• Click here for issue #6 of SteamPunk Magazine
• Click here for issue #8 of the Gatehouse Gazette

  SteamPunk Magazine takes on “The Pre-Industrial Revolution” as theme with this issue, featuring the Romantics, alchemy, Luddites, corsets, sculpture, windmills, poetry and the Victorian martial arts in their biggest edition to date!

The Halloween Edition of the Gatehouse Gazette celebrates “Forbidden Tales of Fervor and Fright” with articles about H.P. Lovecraft and the latest Wolfenstein video game. There is also an interview dieselpunk artist Sam Van Olffen and a short story by Natania Barron.

The next issue of SteamPunk Magazine is currently scheduled for release in March 2010. The next issue of the Gatehouse Gazette should appear around the 1st of November this year.

Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan is the first volume of a new series of young adult novels. Leviathan is set in an alternate steampunk past, in which the powers of the world are divided into “Clankers” ,who favour huge, steam-powered walking war-machines; and “Darwinists”, whose hybrid “beasties” can stand in for airships, steam-trains, war-ships, and subs (inclusing a giant squid/octopus hybrid called the kraken that can seize whole warships and drag them down).

Set on the eve of WWI, the story’s two main characters are Aleks, the incognito orphan of the freshly assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Deryn, a Scots girl who has dressed in boys’ clothes to join Britain’s Darwinist air-corps.

Leviathan is, (of course) a floating ecosystem a quarter-mile long, made up of whales, bats, bees, six-legged hydrogen-sniffing dogs, and all manner of beasties that make her the meanest thing in the sky.

Filled with gripping air and land-battles, political intrigue and danger, science and madness, Leviathan is part Island of Dr Moreau, part Patrick O’Brien. And to top it all off, the volume is lavishly illustrated with fabulous ink-drawings of the best scenes from the book, executed in high Victorian style by Keith Thompson.

Leviathan is available now at amazon.com

(info via Boing Boing)

The two premier steampunk online magazines have released their latest editions. SteamPunk Magazine’s fifth issue features “everything from emergency welding to a very special guest essay by Bruce Sterling” while the seventh issue of the Gatehouse Gazette is dedicated to “The Metropolis,” with reviews of the 1927 film, columns and an exclusive preview of Toby Frost’s upcoming Space Captain Smith novel, Wrath of the Lemming Men.

• Click here for SteamPunk Magazine’s Issue #5
• Click here for the Gatehouse Gazette’s Issue #7

TOR Books, publisher of science-fiction and fantasy books has declared October 2009, to be their Month of Steampunk.

From the TOR Newsletter:

“In other words, October is Steampunk Month on Tor.com! All month, we’ll be hosting special content, including giveaways, wallpapers, reviews, and posts by guest bloggers from the steampunk community. Check out the Steampunk Month index page to see what’s going on.  Tor.com being a well-oiled machine, we’ll naturally update it as each post goes up.

To start you off, we have an interview with Diana Vick, vice-chair of the upcoming Steamcon, on what steampunk means to her and the dubious joys of running a con. You can also check out this review of George Mann’s The Affinity Bridge—a cracking good yarn, and just the thing to get you in the mood”

Well worth a look.

Although not strictly Steampunk, the Chap Magazine harks back to a time when men were men, and women were mysterious creatures that were to be worshipped and feared in equal measure.

This bi-monthly publication is always a joy to read, and features very strongly the sartorial qualities that  intersect with Steampunk- to wit: hats, tweeds, grooming and facial hair.

A forthcoming issue is to feature a feature on Steampunk, we will endeavour to keep you updated as and when this issue appears.

More details may be found at:

The Chap Magazine

Steampunk is all about “Playing Roles & Dressing-Up” with the third and holiday issue of the Gatehouse Gazette.

Read about the most stylish history maker, Beau Brummell, from Mr James Roberts or discover the glory of the Venetian Carnival in an article by Mr Joost van Ekris. Learn the life story of the first steampunk musician from the man behind Vernian Process himself, Mr Joshua Pfeiffer, and let Mr “Piecraft” teach you about the early history of the dieselpunk genre with the films Metropolis and Man With A Movie Camera.

Furthermore, we have an article about steampunk makeup by Miss Bérengère Couneson, two articles about steampunk role-playing as well as a Steampunk Wardrobe column about the “Airship Pirate” look all by Miss Hilde Heyvaert, reviews of Unhallowed Metropolis, Scarlet Traces and BioShock, plus a column by Professor Delphinius J.C. Tucker.

Click here to download and read it!

Mike Mignola’s Hellboy stories have always had healthy doses of Steampunk. With Iron Prometheus, the first Lobster Johnson collection, the Hellboy world has taken another stride into the world of wonderfully clunky mad science which we all love.

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Steampunk is “History in the Making” with the second issue of the Gatehouse Gazette, released this September.

From the origins of World War I by Mr Robert Rodgers to an article about Japan’s reasons for attacking Pearl Harbor by Mr J.D. Roger, it is history that the contributors to the Gazette are writing. Between all this war, there is fortunately more adventurious spirit also, in a narrative about the first motorized crossing of the Sahara, by Mr Joost van Ekris, a report on steampunkness in Disneyland Resort Paris, by Ms Hilde Heyvaert, plus an article about Hugh Ferriss, “delineator of Gotham”. And the Gazette offers an exclusive preview of Mr Toby Frost’s upcoming novel, God Emperor of Didcot!

Please click here to download it.

I recently finished reading Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman. This is a fine novel. I love superheroes, and any novel that includes the line “I fought for prize money in unlicensed hero fights in Bangkok” gets my vote. That line does a good job of summing up the story: it’s a more realistic look at the spandex-and-cape world. Some people have called it a parody or a satire, and while it’s funny at parts, it never feels like it’s making fun of superheroes.  It loves being a superhero story and embraces it wholeheartedly. If you like superheroes or just want a good, quirky read, I highly recommend it.

The story follows the world’s greatest villain, Doctor Impossible, as he breaks out of jail for the twelfth time and tries once again to take over the world. It also follows a young cyborg, Fatale, as she joins the world’s greatest team of superheroes and tries to fit in.

But why am I mentioning it in a Steampunk blog? (more…)

“The new steampunk & dieselpunk magazine” is here with the release of the first issue of the Gatehouse Gazette.

In this first issue, the reader with find an introduction to the genre of dieselpunk by Piecraft and Ottens, an interview with Toby Frost, author of the steampunk-in-space novel, Space Captain Smith, an article about the gentleman in modern times by Delphinius Tucker, steampunk fashion and couture by Hilde Heyvaert, a review of the latest Indiana Jones film by Jack Rose, steampunk poetry, essays, cartoons—and more!

Please click here to download it.