The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences has an audio book available as a podcast series that I would like to recommend. It has all the Steampunk goodness of the written format without the need of focusing your eyes on the printed page, and thereby getting distracted. Not terribly surprising, considering the author had a hand in creating PodioBooks and went on to write several physical books on the topic, starting with Podcasting for Dummies. Personally I love the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences books and universe, and hope you will find it as fun to hang out in as I do.
It has been a while since I have posted about reading, mostly because all the flashy visuals kick me into “Shiny, Pretty…” mode, and I get distracted. But two of my favorite authors, Rudy Rucker and Bruce Sterling, have written a story together that you can read online: Good Night Moon. This is a tasty little story that the two of them obviously had a good time writing, and they do poke more than a little fun at themselves in the course of it. Thanks to the authors and to TOR books for making it a free online read.
A book series I have been enjoying recently is the Parasol Protectorate, a Steampunk treat that has a field day turning the classic Victorian era Gothic novel on its ear, and presenting us with a world that should have been. The creation of Gail Carriger, I tend to think of them as the Less group, since the titles are Soulless, Changeless, and Blameless, with Heartless and Timeless coming soon. The writing is wonderful, the humor is intense, and the attitude is spot on. The description I have read that fits the best to me: They are either Jane Austen doing urban fantasy, or PG Wodehouse doing steampunk. The first novel in the series, Soulless, has already been turned into an Audio Book (you can listen to the first chapter here), and is now in production to become a graphic novel. I would love to see this become a miniseries in the UK; I have seen what they have done with Terry Pratchett, I know they would do these stories justice. You can find out more at Gail’s Blog, or at any of her many online interviews.