Steampunk is a sub genre of science fiction that typically features steam-powered machinery, especially in a setting inspired by industrialised Western civilization during the 19th century. Steampunk works are often set in an alternative history of the 19th century's British Victoria Era or American 'Wild West', in a post-apocalyptic future during which steam power has regained mainstream use, or in a fantasy world that similarly employs steam power.
Steampunk perhaps most recognisably features anachronistic technologies or retro-futuristic inventions as people in the 19th century might have envisioned them, and is likewise rooted in the era's perspective on fashion, culture, architectural style, and art. Such technology may include fictional machines like those found in the works of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne, or the modern authors Phillip Pullman, Scott Westerfeld, Stephen Hunt and China Miéville.
Mary Shelley's The Last Man, set near the end of the 21st century after a plague had brought down civilisation, was probably the ancestor of post-apocalyptic steampunk literature. Post-apocalyptic steampunk is set in a world where some cataclysm has precipitated the fall of civilisation and steam power once again gains ascendancy, such as in Hayao Miyazaki's post apocalyptic anime Future Boy Conan (1978), where a war fought with super-weapons has devastated the planet. Robert Brown's novel, "The Wrath of Fate" is set in a Victorian-esque world where an apocalypse was set into motion by a time-traveling mishap. Cherie Priest's Boneshaker series is set in a world where a zombie apocalypse happened during the Civil War era.The Peshawar Lancers by S.M. Stirling is set in a post-apocalyptic future in which a meteor shower in 1878 caused the collapse of Industrialized civilization. The movie 9 (which might be better classified as "stitchpunk" but had a large influence on steampunk) is also set in a post-apocalyptic world after a self-aware war machine ran amok.
