Whether the reader is an expert on steampunk or a novice, he can gain insights and inspiration from this book with the energy coming off all the creative people interviewed, encouraging others to join in. Leaders and innovators in these fields provide instruction and encouragement to the reader to pursue his dreams and create something original within steampunk, bypassing the cliches that come to mind from their overuse. The book is divided into sections showcasing art and architecture, music and performance, fashion, and storytelling.

This book features all the basic areas in which a person can express an interest in this retro futuristic universe. I knew nothing about steampunk as a mindset and a way of life for those immersed in it. It is also very informative, taking the reader on a grand tour of the imaginative world from which it came.īefore reading this book, I only knew of steampunk as a sub genre within fantasy that inspired artwork in two and three dimensions. The Steampunk User's Manual is a well made, high quality book that is beautiful to look at, from cover to cover, with plenty of glossy photographs in between, highlighting the various components of the steampunk culture. I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway which didn't influence my review. They live in Tallahassee, Florida, with two cats and thousands of books.

Jeff is married to Ann VanderMeer, who is currently an acquiring editor at Tor.com and has won the Hugo Award and World Fantasy Award for her editing of magazines and anthologies. This experience, and the resulting trip back to the United States through Asia, Africa, and Europe, deeply influenced him. VanderMeer was born in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, but spent much of his childhood in the Fiji Islands, where his parents worked for the Peace Corps. He has spoken at the Guggenheim, the Library of Congress, and the Arthur C. VanderMeer served as the 2016-2017 Trias Writer in Residence at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. Other titles include Wonderbook, the world’s first fully illustrated creative writing guide. He has coedited several iconic anthologies with his wife, the Hugo Award winning editor. His nonfiction has appeared in New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Atlantic, Slate, Salon, and the Washington Post. Annihilation won the Nebula and Shirley Jackson Awards, has been translated into 35 languages, and was made into a film from Paramount Pictures directed by Alex Garland. His most recent novel, the national bestseller Borne, received wide-spread critical acclaim and his prior novels include the Southern Reach trilogy (Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance). NYT bestselling writer Jeff VanderMeer has been called “the weird Thoreau” by the New Yorker for his engagement with ecological issues.

Steampunk users manual