Steampunk is a sci-fi subculture that offers a fresh, romanticized view on technology by making it retro. Take a look and you'll see it all around you: in fashion, films, literature, bands, music videos, video games, maybe even in your own wardrobe.

If you like a little gadgetry, alternative history, Victorian suspense, and a slightly (or very) dark worldview to go with your science fiction, you will probably enjoy steampunk.

Here are a few examples of this genre, available in the stacks!

Leviathan by Scott Westerfield

In an alternate 1914 Europe, fifteen-year-old Austrian Prince Alek, on the run from the Clanker Powers who are attempting to take over the globe using mechanical machinery, forms an uneasy alliance with Deryn who, disguised as a boy to join the British Air Service, is learning to fly genetically-engineered beasts.

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

When sixteen-year-old orphan Tessa Fell's older brother suddenly vanishes, her search for him leads her into Victorian-era London's dangerous supernatural underworld, and when she discovers that she herself is a Downworlder, she must learn to trust the demon-killing Shadowhunters if she ever wants to learn to control her powers and find her brother.

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

Inventor Leviticus Blue creates a machine that accidentally decimates Seattle's banking district and uncovers a vein of Blight Gas that turns everyone who breathes it into the living dead. Sixteen years later Briar, Blue's widow, lives in the poor neighborhood outside the wall that's been built around the uninhabitable city. Life is tough with a ruined reputation, but she and her teenage son Ezekiel are surviving--until Zeke impetuously decides that he must reclaim his father's name from the clutches of history.

The Clockwork Three by Matthew Kirby

As mysterious circumstances bring Giuseppe, Frederick, and Hannah together, their lives soon interlock like the turning gears in a clock and they realize that each one holds a key to solving the others' mysteries.