Book picks similar to
Flaming Zeppelins: The Adventures of Ned the Seal by Joe R. Lansdale
steampunk
science-fiction
fantasy
sci-fi
The Half-Made World
Felix Gilman - 2010
What exists has been carved out amidst a war between two rival factions: the Line, paving the world with industry and claiming its residents as slaves; and the Gun, a cult of terror and violence that cripples the population with fear. The only hope at stopping them has seemingly disappeared--the Red Republic that once battled the Gun and the Line, and almost won. Now they're just a myth, a bedtime story parents tell their children, of hope. To the west lies a vast, uncharted world, inhabited only by the legends of the immortal and powerful Hill People, who live at one with the earth and its elements. Liv Alverhyusen, a doctor of the new science of psychology, travels to the edge of the made world to a spiritually protected mental institution in order to study the minds of those broken by the Gun and the Line. In its rooms lies an old general of the Red Republic, a man whose shattered mind just may hold the secret to stopping the Gun and the Line. And either side will do anything to understand how.
Impossible Places
Alan Dean Foster - 2002
. . .NASA Sending Addicts to Mars! It was the most insane idea in the annals of space travel--and the only one that would work.Diesel Dream Sometimes on dark, lonely highways dreams do come true, and this trucker's hope was the best one of all.Sideshow Flinx hadn't a clue about the alien dancer, but Pip knew trouble when she saw it.Empowered A magnificent male discovers the not-so-super part about being a superhero.The Question A bold adventurer determines to solve one of life's profound mysteries.
. . . and fifteen other amazing stories!
Cold Magic
Kate Elliott - 2010
At a select academy they study new airship technologies and the dawning Industrial Revolution, but magical forces still rule. And the cousins are about to discover the full ruthlessness of this rule.
Terminal World
Alastair Reynolds - 2009
Clinging to its skin are the zones, a series of semi-autonomous city-states, each of which enjoys a different—and rigidly enforced—level of technology. Horsetown is pre-industrial; in Neon Heights they have television and electric trains . . .Following an infiltration mission that went tragically wrong, Quillon has been living incognito, working as a pathologist in the district morgue. But when a near-dead angel drops onto his dissecting table, Quillon's world is wrenched apart one more time, for the angel is a winged posthuman from Spearpoint's Celestial Levels—and with the dying body comes bad news.If Quillon is to save his life, he must leave his home and journey into the cold and hostile lands beyond Spearpoint's base, starting an exile that will take him further than he could ever imagine. But there is far more at stake than just Quillon's own survival, for the limiting technologies of the zones are determined not by governments or police, but by the very nature of reality—and reality itself is showing worrying signs of instability . . .Terminal World is a snarling, drooling, crazy-eyed mongrel of a book: equal parts steampunk, western, planetary romance, and far-future SF.
Abomination
Gary Whitta - 2015
But when he is called back into service to combat a plague of monstrous beasts known as abominations, he meets a fate worse than death and is condemned to a life of anguish, solitude, and remorse.She is a fierce young warrior, raised among an elite order of knights. Driven by a dark secret from her past, she defies her controlling father and sets out on a dangerous quest to do what none before her ever have—hunt down and kill an abomination, alone.When a chance encounter sets these two against one another, an incredible twist of fate will lead them toward a salvation they never thought possible—and prove that the power of love, mercy, and forgiveness can shine a hopeful light even in history’s darkest age.
Shambling Towards Hiroshima
James K. Morrow - 2009
Back in the States, Hollywood B-movie star Syms Thorley lives in a very different world, starring as the Frankenstein-like Corpuscula and Kha-Ton-Ra, the living mummy. But the U.S. Navy has a new role waiting for Thorley, the role of a lifetime that he could never have imagined.The top secret Knickerbocker Project is putting the finishing touches on the ultimate biological weapon: a breed of gigantic, fire-breathing, mutant iguanas engineered to stomp and burn cities on the Japanese mainland. The Navy calls upon Thorley to don a rubber suit and become the merciless Gorgantis and to star in a live drama that simulates the destruction of a miniature Japanese metropolis. If the demonstration succeeds, the Japanese will surrender, and many thousands of lives will be spared; if it fails, the horrible mutant lizards will be unleashed. One thing is certain: Syms Thorley must now give the most terrifyingly convincing performance of his life.In the dual traditions of Godzilla as a playful monster and a symbol of the dawn of the nuclear era, Shambling Towards Hiroshima unexpectedly blends the destruction of World War II with the halcyon pleasure of monster movies.
The Shadow Revolution
Clay Griffith - 2015
But they’re going to need a lot more silver.As fog descends, obscuring the gas lamps of Victorian London, werewolves prowl the shadows of back alleys. But they have infiltrated the inner circles of upper-crust society as well. Only a handful of specially gifted practitioners are equipped to battle the beasts. Among them are the roguish Simon Archer, who conceals his powers as a spell-casting scribe behind the smooth veneer of a dashing playboy; his layabout mentor, Nick Barker, who prefers a good pub to thrilling heroics; and the self-possessed alchemist Kate Anstruther, who is equally at home in a ballroom as she is on a battlefield.After a lycanthrope targets Kate’s vulnerable younger sister, the three join forces with fierce Scottish monster-hunter Malcolm MacFarlane—but quickly discover they’re dealing with a threat far greater than anything they ever imagined.
The Inventor's Secret
Andrea Cremer - 2014
Though they live by the skin of their teeth they have their health (at least when they can find enough food and avoid the Imperial Labor Gatherers) and each other. When a new exile with no memory of his escape from the coastal cities or even his own name seeks shelter in their camp he brings new dangers with him and secrets about the terrible future that awaits all those who have struggled has to live free of the bonds of the empire’s Machineworks.The Inventor’s Secret is the first book of a YA steampunk series set in an alternate nineteenth-century North America where the Revolutionary War never took place and the British Empire has expanded into a global juggernaut propelled by marvelous and horrible machinery.
The Andre Norton Megapack
Andre Norton - 2012
15 Classic Novels and Short Stories by a Grand Master of Science Fiction!The People of the Crater (1947 under pseudonym Andrew North)The Gifts of Asti (1948 under pseudonym Andrew North)Plague Ship (1956)Star Born (1957)All Cats Are Gray (1953 in the August-September Fantastic Universe Science Fiction)Murders for Sale (1953 written with Grace Allen Hogarth)The Time Traders (1958)Voodoo Planet (1959)Storm Over Warlock (1960)Star Hunter (1961)The Defiant Agents (1962)Key Out of Time (1963)Ralestone Luck (1938)Ride Proud, Rebel! (1961)Rebel Spurs (1962)
Dies the Fire
S.M. Stirling - 2004
What follows is the most terrible global catastrophe in the history of the human race-and a Dark Age more universal and complete than could possibly be imagined.
The Clockwork Scarab
Colleen Gleason - 2013
But when you’re the sister of Bram and the niece of Sherlock, vampire hunting and mystery solving are in your blood. And when two society girls go missing, there’s no one more qualified to investigate.Now fierce Evaline and logical Mina must resolve their rivalry, navigate the advances of not just one but three mysterious gentlemen, and solve murder with only one clue: a strange Egyptian scarab. The stakes are high. If Stoker and Holmes don’t unravel why the belles of London society are in such danger, they’ll become the next victims.
The Hunchback Assignments
Arthur Slade - 2009
The mysterious Mr. Socrates rescues Modo, a child in a traveling freak show. Modo is a hunchback with an amazing ability to transform his appearance, and Mr. Socrates raises him in isolation as an agent for the Permanent Association, a spy agency behind Brittania's efforts to rule the empire. At 14, Modo is left on the streets of London to fend for himself. When he encounters Octavia Milkweed, another Association agent, the two uncover a plot by the Clockword Guild behind the murders of important men. Furthermore, a mad scientist is turning orphan children into automatons to further the goals of the Guild. Modo and Octavia journey deep into the tunnels under London and discover a terrifying plot against the British government. It's up to them to save their country.
The Star Wars Trilogy
George Lucas - 1976
Together, the three original Star Wars movies–A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi–told one epic: a heroic tale of innocence lost and wisdom gained, of downfall and redemption, of the never-ending fight between the forces of good and evil. Read the story of the movies–all three in one trade paperback volume–and rediscover the wonder of the legend that begins:
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away . . .
Luke Skywalker lived and worked on his uncle’s farm on the remote planet of Tatooine, but he yearned to travel beyond the farthest reaches of the universe to distant, alien worlds. Then Luke intercepted a cryptic message from a beautiful, captive princess . . . and found himself catapulted into the adventure of a lifetime.Luke Skywalker, proud Princess Leia, and headstrong Han Solo . . . merciless Darth Vader, wise Obi-Wan Kenobi, loyal droids R2-D2 and C-3PO, and the inscrutable Yoda . . . Chewbacca the Wookiee, shifty Lando Calrissian, and the vile Jabba the Hutt . . . all the vivid characters from the Star Wars universe spring to life in these thrilling pages.The Star Wars Trilogy is a must-read for anyone who wants to relive the excitement, the magic, and the sheer entertainment of this legendary saga–now and forever.
Mogworld
Yahtzee Croshaw - 2010
His fireballs fizzle. He's awfully grumpy. Plus, he's been dead for about sixty years. When a renegade necromancer wrenches him from eternal slumber and into a world gone terribly, bizarrely wrong, all Jim wants is to find a way to die properly, once and for all.On his side, he's got a few shambling corpses, an inept thief, and a powerful death wish. But he's up against tough odds: angry mobs of adventurers, a body falling apart at the seams - and a team of programmers racing a deadline to hammer out the last few bugs in their AI.
The Damnation Affair
Lilith Saintcrow - 2012
But there is gold, and whiskey, and enough room for a man to forget what he once was--until he can no longer can.Jack Gabriel's been the sheriff in Damnation almost since the town grew out of the dust and the mud. He keeps the peace--sort of--and rides the circuit every dawn and dusk with the chartermage, making sure the wilderness doesn't seep into their fragile attempt at civilization. Away from the cities clinging to the New World's eastern rim, he doesn't remember what he was. At least, he tries not to. Good enough.But Damnation is growing, and along comes a schoolmarm. Catherine Barrowe is a right proper Boston miss, and it's a mystery why she would choose this town where everything scandalous and dangerous is probably too much for a quality lady like her. Sometimes the sheriff wonders why she came out West--because everyone who does is running from something. He doesn't realize Cat may be prickly, delicate, and proper, but she is also determined. She's in Damnation to find her wayward older brother Robbie, whose letters were full of dark hints about gold, trouble...and something about a claim.In a West where charm and charter live alongside clockwork and cold steel, where hot lead kills your enemy but it takes a blessing to make his corpse stay down, Cat will keep digging until she finds her brother. If Jack knew what she was after, he could solve the mystery--because he was the one who killed Robbie.The thing is, Cat's brother just won't stay dead, and the undead are rising with him...