Living for the Past: 8 Sci-Fi Books that Channel the Victorian Era

Sci-fi has long had a fascination with the Victorian era, a time period that spanned most of the 1800s. If the genre wasn’t precisely born during those years, it certainly began a coming of age in the works of writers the likes of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne. It was also a time period rich with portent for the present day: the old world began to fall away with the advent of recognizably modern technology. The popularity of steampunk has filtered the aesthetic of the period of Queen Vicky’s reign through a contemporary lens, but there are plenty of works that take cues from the the period. Here are five science fiction books that tell stories inspired by the age of empires. Though few would be at home in steampunk, the line between genres is razor thin, so you’ll pardon us the occasional dirigible or parasol.

Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America, by Robert Charles Wilson
Citizens of the United States of America of 2172 are bound by a rigid class system, with property qualifications for voting. Indentured servitude is back, and fundamentalist religious forces are hard at work erasing the ideas of Charles Darwin and generally suppressing technological advancement.  Any of that sound familiar? Robert Charles Wilson’s rather brilliant novel deftly imposes 19th-century morals and mores onto a 22nd century American oligarchy. Without ever directly referencing our modern world, Wilson says a great deal about the ways in which the past influences the future, and suggests that we might not have come quite so far as we think we have.

The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer, by Neal Stephenson
Neal Stephenson’s novels are packed with ideas, so much so that it can be tough to tease out individual thematic threads from the larger tapestry of a given book. In The Diamond Age, however, his allusions to the Victorian era are explicit: in a future in which nanotechnology has lead to a post-scarcity utopia (for many, but not nearly all), the Pygmalion-like lead character develops into a leader under the tutelage of a purloined interactive book, A Young lady’s Illustrated Primer, a work originally intended for a wealthy member of the Neo-Victorian tribe. Even the protagonist’s name, Nell, is an allusion to the lead of Charles Dickens’ The Old Curiosity Shop.

Fullmetal Alchemist, by Hiromu Arakawa
In writer/artist Arakawa’s beloved manga series, she takes the period of Europe’s Industrial Revolution, filters it through Japanese sensibilities, and blends it all together with singular style. In the fictional world of Amestris, magic is the most essential technology, with alchemy serving as a stand-in for the scientific advances of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Brothers Edward and Alphonse are terribly disfigured when trying to resurrect their mother through the science of human transmutation. Everything in this series (which became an incredibly popular anime) comes with a cost, and the brothers spend much of it gaining knowledge and working to restore themselves.

The Peshawar Lancers, by S. M. Stirling
In this alternate history novel, S.M. Stirling rewrites the year 1878 in a devastating fashion: a meteor shower called “The Fall” struck in that year, wreaking havoc across the Northern Hemisphere. The damage was such that the Industrial Revolution ground to a halt, and technology is only beginning to recover in the year 2025. The British Empire, lead by Queen Victoria herself, survived by decamping to overseas colonies, essentially abandoning the British isles. What follows is a Kipling-esque adventure set in a near-future world of telegraphs and steamships.

The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman
Also known as Northern Lights, the opening volume of Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy takes place in an alternate universe displaced from our Victorian England not by time, but by dimensions of space. The world of heroine Lyra Belacqua is a hodgepodge of fashions, technology, and styles, but the Victorian trappings are unmistakeable. The dialogue is intentionally anachronistic, as are the clothes. The primary setting for the first book is the fictional Jordan College at the very real Oxford University, a setting that would generates a distinct feeling of past-ness, even if the story were set in modern England.

Soulless, by Gail Carriger
Carriger’s entire Parasol Protectorate series is set during Queen Vicky’s reign, in an alternate take where vampires and werewolves not only exist, but are full members of society—sometimes even the upper classes. Alexia Tarrabotti literally has no soul, making her immune to the manipulations of the supernatural. It also makes her rather useful to the Queen. There’s no question that the books have all the trappings of steampunk, but they’re worth including here for archaeologist Carriger’s ravishing attention to detail. The Victorian era wasn’t all fancy dress gatherings and tea, but the author’s love for the fripperies of high society England during the period is evident on every page.

Anno Dracula, by Kim Newman
This one’s cheating a bit, as the point of departure from the Victorian era occurs not years or decades prior to the narrative, but just before the book begins. It’s the rest of Kim Newman’s series that takes its inspiration from the era, with the subsequent three books (and counting) running through the 1980s. The point of departure? Newman imagines a world in which Dracula wins, having defeated Professor Van Helsing and carried forward with his plans for global domination, marrying the unwilling queen to establish himself as the power pulling the strings of the British Empire. It doesn’t work out quite as he planned, but the shadow of Dracula’s influence carries forward for decades.
What’s your favorite bit of sci-fi Victoriana?