(All links and rec posts)

Steampunk is all well and good, but the genre’s kinda run aground in tedium.

What’s great is steampunk-adjacent stuff that fully grapples with how horrible and mystical the setting can be: Dishonored, Fallen London, and Running with Rats.

Vashe is The Best.

It opens with a richly-defined Gothic setting, and unravels itself one piece at a time from the narrator’s perspective. Every detail fits into some broader custom or industry I want to know more about, and I’m especially curious about the mechanics of extracting dreams.

There are just a few short chapters up so far, but catching up is easy, and for anyone who likes weird morbid steampunk-without-the-worst-of-steampunk, this is your jam.