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Steampunk -- a grafting of Victorian aesthetic and punk rock attitude onto various forms of science-fiction culture -- is a phenomenon that has come to influence film, literature, art, music, fashion, and more.

The Steampunk Bible is the first compendium about the movement, tracing its roots in the works of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells through its most recent expression in movies such as Sherlock Holmes. Its adherents celebrate the inventor as an artist and hero, re-envisioning and crafting retro technologies including antiquated airships and robots. A burgeoning DIY community has brought a distinctive Victorian-fantasy style to their crafts and art. Steampunk evokes a sense of adventure and discovery, and embraces extinct technologies as a way of talking about the future.

This ultimate manual will appeal to aficionados and novices alike on a wild ride through the clockwork corridors of Steampunk history.

Steampunk, the retro-futuristic cultural movement, has become a substantial and permanent genre in the worlds of fantasy and science fiction. A large part of its appeal is that, at its core, Steampunk is about doing it yourself: building on the past while also innovating and creating something original. VanderMeer's latest book offers practical and inspirational guidance for readers to find their individual path into this realm. Including sections on art, fashion, architecture, crafts, music, performance, and storytelling, The Steampunk User's Manual provides a conceptual how-to guide that motivates and awes both the armchair enthusiast and the committed creator. Examples range from the utterly doable to the completely over-the-top, encouraging participation and imagination at all levels.

Contains:

• It's a Steampunk Universe, Victoria essay by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer
• The 19th Century Roots of Steampunk essay by Jeff Nevins
• Benediction (excerpt from The Warlord of the Air) by Michael Moorcock
• Lord Kelvins Machine, by James P. Blaylock
• The Giving Mouth by Ian R. MacLeod
• A Sun in the Attic by Mary Gentle
• The God-Clown is Near by Jay Lake
• The Steam Man of the Prairie and the Dark Rider Get Down: A Dime Novel by Joe R. Landsdale
• The Selene Gardening Society by Molly Brown
• Seventy-Two Letter by Ted Chiang
• The Martian Agent, A Planetary Romance by Michael Chabon
• Victoria by Paul Di Fillipo
• Reflected Light by Rachel E. Pollack
• Minutes of the Last Meeting by Stepan Chapman
• Excerpt from the Third and Last Volume of "Tribes of the Pacific Coast" by Neal Stephenson
• The Steam Driven Time-Machine: A Pop-Culture Survey essay by Rick Klaw
• The Essential Sequential Steampunk: A Modest Survey of the Genre within the Comic Book Medium by Bill Baker

Contents:

• What is Steampunk? - essay by Jeff VanderMeer and Ann VanderMeer
• The Gernsback Continuum - (1981) - shortstory by William Gibson
• Great Breakthroughs in Darkness (Being, Early Entries from 'The Secret Encyclopaedia of Photography') - (1992) - shortstory by Marc Laidlaw
• Dr. Lash Remembers - shortstory by Jeffrey Ford
• The Unblinking Eye - (2009) - shortstory by Stephen Baxter
• The Steam Dancer (1896) - (2008) - shortstory by Caitlín R. Kiernan
• The Cast-Iron Kid - shortfiction by Andrew Knighton
• Machine Maid - (2008) - novelette by Margo Lanagan
• The Unbecoming of Virgil Smythe - shortfiction by Ramsey Shehadeh
• The Mechanical Aviary of Emperor Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar - (2010) - shortfiction by Shweta Narayan
• O One - (2003) - shortstory by Chris Roberson
• Wild Copper - (2006) - shortfiction by Samantha Henderson
• The Bold Explorer in the Place Beyond - (2010) - shortstory by David Erik Nelson
• Lost Pages from the Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana - shortfiction by Jess Nevins
• Tanglefoot (A Story of the Clockwork Century) - (2008) - novelette by Cherie Priest
• A Serpent in the Gears - (2010) - shortstory by Margaret Ronald
• The Strange Case of Mr. Salad Monday - (2009) - novelette by G. D. Falksen
• The Persecution Machine - (1994) - shortstory by Tanith Lee
• Balfour and Meriwether in the Adventure of the Emperor's Vengeance - (2009) - novelette by Daniel Abraham
• As Recorded on Brass Cylinders: Adagio for Two Dancers - (2010) - shortstory by James L. Grant and Lisa Mantchev
• Flying Fish Prometheus (A Fantasy of the Future) - shortfiction by Vilhelm Bergsøe (trans. of Erindringen fra en Reise med Flyvefisken "Prometheus" 1870)
• The Anachronist's Cookbook - shortfiction by Catherynne M. Valente
• Lovelace & Babbage: Origins, with Salamander - shortfiction by Sydney Padua
• A Secret History of Steampunk - shortfiction by The Mecha-Ostrich
• Which is Mightier, the Pen or the Parasol? - essay by Gail Carriger
• At the Intersection of Technology and Romance - essay by Jake Von Slatt
• The Future of Steampunk: A Roundtable Interview - essay by various