Weird West is a literary subgenre that combines elements of the Western with another literary genre, usually horror, occult, fantasy or science fiction.
Steampunk, a genre of science fiction that has a historical setting and typically features steam-powered machinery rather than advanced technology.
"if you like steampunk, this is a great book for you"
a style of design and fashion that combines historical elements with anachronistic technological features inspired by science fiction.
"the essence of steampunk is homage to vintage fashion with a modern, sassy twist"
Now that we have the definitions of each genre the big question is this, are weird west and steampunk similar and if so just how similar are they? Yes they do have similarities and we will go over them and see just how alike and even how unalike they are.
-They are both lesser known underrated sub-genres
-Both can be considered to be a form of a sub-genre of Fantasy
-They both are weird, odd and unique in their own right and share a specific quality to them
-They take place during a certain time period
-They both introduce and contain the use of magical technology such as weaponry, forms of transportation and machinery
-Both tend to be associated with and combine Historical Fiction either using real people or places
-At times both create various situations involving the use of time travel
-Both tend to at times be set in their own utopia or interesting world
So in many ways Weird West and Steampunk are similar and sometimes tend to draw in the same audience. They are both unique genres that really capture the essence of creativity, magic and technology. They, like other small sub-genres tend to go unnoticed or underrated however over the last few years the popularity in each of them.
Here are some popular authors of each genre:
Weird West-
-Mike Resnick
-Joe R. Landsdale
-Jonathan Maberry
-Tim Curran
-Eric S. Brown
-Steampunk
-Michael Coorlim
-Scott Westerfield
-Gail Carriger
-Cassandra Clare
Paul Di Filippo
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