Year 8 and 9 Aquinas students were recently treated to a visit by author Richard Harland, who introduced them to ‘steampunk’ literature. Steampunk is a subgenre of fantasy, a world identified by the Victorian style of clothing and jewellery, dirigibles such as blimps, steam-powered gadgets and transportation, and futuristic technologies. One of the first steampunk novelists was Jules Verne. His novels, such as “20,000 leagues under the sea”, were followed by “The League of extraordinary gentlemen”, which brought steampunk to the screen.

If you enjoyed “World shaker”, try its sequel, “Liberator” or one of the titles below:
F PRY – “Blaze of glory” by Michael Pryor
F PUL – “Northern Lights” series by Philip Pullman
F COL – “Airman” by Eoin Colfer
F CLA – “Mortal instruments” series by Cassandra Clare
F WES – “Leviathan“ and “Behemoth” by Scott Westerfeld
F MCG – “Ancient appetites” by Oisin McGann
F REE – “Infernal devices” series by Philip Reeve
F OPP – “Airborn” by Kenneth Oppel

In this Youtube clip, Richard Harland talks about steampunk:

I asked Richard Harland where he got the idea, that spark of inspiration, that led to ‘World shaker’ and ‘Liberator’. Here’s what he told me:

INVENTING THE WORLD OF WORLDSHAKER AND LIBERATOR

“The story of Worldshaker began with a couple of dreams ten years before I began writing the novel.

The first came after I’d fallen in love with the labyrinthine castle and gloomy gothic world of Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast trilogy. I’d been so frustrated that the third book in the trilogy left the castle behind and moved off in a new direction! In my dream, I was browsing the books in a strange spiral library and discovered the Mervyn Peake section—and a third Gormenghast book which wasn’t the one he actually wrote but the one I’d wanted him to write. I devoured every page, absorbed it through and through … and when I woke up, I was all ready to write out the whole story. But by the time I’d found paper and pen, it had all melteed melted away. No setting, no characters, no events, nothing! All that remained were the feelings it had given me. From that time on, I longed to write a novel that would live up to those feelings!

The second dream came a few months later. I was in a dark room, crouched over a slot-like hole in the middle of an iron floor. Far below, I could see a greenish light and signs of movement. I couldn’t believe it when someone told me thousands of people lived down there. Then, somehow, I tumbled into the hole, dropping down, down, down. I passed countless decks like wire racks, no further apart than cupboard shelves. Human beings crawled around on those racks, dirty, half-naked and malnourished. I was horrified and at the same time frightened. Would they attack when I reached the bottom? Even tear me apart and eat me?

I woke up before I found out. But that dream gave me the idea of a metal, mechanical world like a vast moving castle – the world of the juggernaut ‘Worldshaker’. And the dream actually appears in the novel—it’s what happens to the main character, Col, in Chapter 26.

Liberator didn’t need a separate starting point, it grew naturally out of Worldshaker. I think it’s the first ever time I’ve written a sequel that’s better than book one!”

Richard Harland 13-8-11