HANDS ON GUIDE

Be inspired: books & comics

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, by Alan moore and Kevin O'Neill

Several famous figures from Victorian fiction are reluctantly drawn together to form a most exceptional team that's tasked with saving the Empire from unconventional enemies.

Gotham by Gaslight, by Brian Augustyn & Mike Mignola

When Gotham city was as filthy as Victorian London, Jack the Ripper decided to pay a visit. Only a shadowy vigilante known as the Batman can identify him.

Transformers: Hearts of Steel

America is young, and the railroads are being built, but what if warring intelligent automatons from another world disguised themselves as trains, biplanes and ironclads?

The Difference Engine, by William Gibson & Bruce Sterling

First published in 1990, this novel was influential in bringing Steampunk to a wider audience. It's set in a world in which the information age and the changes wrought by computers happened 100 years earlier than they did in reality. Byron is the Prime Minister, and the USA never happened; instead, helped by mass-produced, readily available Difference Engines, the British Empire still rules the world.

Mortal Engines, by Philip Reeve

Post-apocalyptic Steampunk in which Victorian-style mobile towns and cities hunt each other across a ruined earth, with pirate and rebel airships trading above them.

Larklight, by Philip Reeve

Brilliantly illustrated young person's story of adventures in the aether of the British Empire. Think aliens in top hats, perambulating Crystal Palaces and spaceships with conservatories.

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