Without a doubt, this book lives up to its name. Inside the unbelievably beautiful cover--it lacks only the gilt-edged pages many bibles have--is an excellent overview of Steampunk, in its incarnations as a literary and film genre, a clothing aesthetic, and a sub-culture, from its roots and origins to its possible future. In addition, there are special sections and closer looks at certain topics written by well-known contributors, including a project you can do yourself. And as if that isn't enough, the book is also chock full of more beautiful pictures (some of them are even of beautiful book covers themselves). There are contraptions and costumes galore, in full color--or sepia-tones, as the case may be!
This is a pretty quick and easy read even if you do actually read all the words, which I recommend, but it's very quick and definitely still worth it if all you want to do is look at the pretty pictures. I was looking forward to this book so much (on a boring day at work, I got an email from Amazon that it had shipped and I whispered "Steampunk Bible" over and over again to myself for probably five minutes...or maybe more) that it would have been nearly impossible for it to live up to my expectations--and yet, apart from the afore-mentioned lack of gilt-edged pages, it did! I loved it. I kind of hope it will soon be outdated by a huge influx of new Steampunk and Steampunk-related materials into our culture and our bookstores (and maybe clothing stores), but for now, this book is a must have.
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Full Steam Ahead!
Knowing of my interest in all things steampunk, the Wife bought this book for me from Amazon. While the book may not have the full range it might have had (and no book can really cover it completely because of steampunk's protean nature)it does give a good explanation of what steampunk is, where it came from and where is it going. It provides a very good jumping off point for further exploration into a fascinating lifestyle that does not rage at the machine as much as it embraces a machine "of a different hue." Of necessity, it is complete in an examination of steampunk's influence upon popular culture (films, television and music)simply because of the nature of publishing -- the book is fairly current to the eve of the manuscript's last revision, but steampunk has the temperament of a charging steam-elephant and will not be stopped; each passing day brings yet another inroad into general life. As the band Abney Park stated in a recent music video (complete with more than 200 images of steampunk inventions, some working, some decorative), there's a steampunk revolution coming, and we've reset the clock to 1886...don't ask us why, that's how we get our kicks.
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- Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2011
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Top reviews from other countries
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- AshtreeReviewed in the United Kingdom on May 26, 2011
Nice compendium of Steampunky treasures.
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