Punk!

My Hubbin is a punk :-)  Not really, he is just into the various kinds of punk out there. So many kinds of punk out there, we have the original punk which was originally attached to the punk music craze, but then developed into several sub genres.  We now have Steampunk, Cyberpunk, Biopunk, Dieselpunk, and a potential new one called Mythpunk (which is where one starts with a myth or fairytale and some post modern elements to it) and I am sure many more.  As with all good movements each of these has a few unique books attached to them.  Here are a couple of my favorites in each category for you to peruse.

Howls Moving Castle

I consider this one of my favorite Steampunk books, it is set in an alternate Victorian era, has all kinds of clockwork machines, and females take a strong prominent role.  I'm sure there are more typical examples out there and I promise I will do a whole post on this genre next week to discuss it, but I love this one too much to not use it today

Cinder

Ok again a young adult novel clearly aimed at girls is probably not the first book you think of when I mention Cyberpunk, but again it has all the elements.  Cybernetics, clashes between the establishment and the working class, hacking, computers, creepy moon humans, viruses, gurbbing for a living, AND it is a great way to get females into all of it.

The Windup Girl

This book focuses on the genetic part of engineering, combing genetics with machinery and technology to produce a girl who while part cyborg is more importantly genetically imprinted to find and serve a master.  This is the basis for most of the Biopunk movement, pointing out the potential harm and misuse of to much genetic tinkering in all its forms.

Leviathan Series

I consider this book to be a bit more Dieselpunk then Steampunk, mostly because it is more about war type machines and set more in WWI-II era then a truly refined Victorian era.  The various machines and the added bonus of a bit of Biopunk in the form of the Darwinist beasties make this book a mix of punk aesthetics, but the overall feel places it in the Dieselpunk category for me. This is also a great introduction into the various forms of the different punk movements if you have never given them a try before.

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making

Of all the new proposed genres I think I like the idea of Mythpunk the best.  I am a sucker for fairytales and adding elements of clockwork, or the internet, or whatever modern invention tweaks your fancy seems to have endless possibilities.  This book incorporates a girl who uses a wrench as a sword and encounters all kinds of machinery and even some technology as she explores fairyland.

Hopefully some of these suggestions are able to show you that you don't have to be hard core punk to enjoy some these various subgenre's of a very popular phenomenon.  I love the possibilities that adding a "punk" to the mix can bring, I love that these genre's are more then just books, they are a look, a sound, a feel and when all the various mediums come together you have something very cool.  Hopefully Hubbin will also find something he likes...even if I did you a girl book for his beloved Cyberpunk.  I will continue with a full on Steampunk post sometime next week because as always I have a lot to say on the matter :-)  I hope everybody has a great weekend! Happy Reading Everybody!

What is your favorite sub-genre of punk? Do you think I am stretching a bit with my book picks? Do you think this whole punk craze has gone on long enough?