The Steampunk Boiler Room

I believe that magic can exist in Steampunk under certain circumstances. Without getting into the ideology-vs-aesthetic argument of placing steampunk onto other genres, I believe that there is a certain, intrinsic quality to the genre that lends itself to a broader spectrum than its original founding works. Steampunk can incorporate a number of ideas from other genres or sub-genres while staying true to the "steam-inspired, Victoriana" stories that people tend to envision when talking about Steampunk.

Someone mentioned a Fantasy or Science Fiction basis, and I believe this might be the best way to look at it. Stories that are more fantastically driven, might better lend toward magic in the world you've created. Anubis Gates, Moorlock Nights, and Court of the Air are all good examples of both secret society stories and stories that delve into magical elements, though not in the way that a traditional High Fantasy piece would normally look at it. On the other hand, you have a work like Infernal Devices that takes something typically seen as bogus (i.e. mental harmonics) and explains it as a scientific principal -- sort of like giving a scientific explanation to something magical.

I think the beauty of fiction in general is that it's your world to create and your world to build the rules for. So long as you've created rules, use them consistently, and write your characters so that their actions not only conform to those rules but make sense within them, then you have a believable story.

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J Boone Dryden
Managing Editor, The RetroFuture Engine