I really enjoyed reading the "His Dark Materials" trilogy by Philip Pullman. It is less in the sci-fi and more on the fantasy side of things, but still has that feel to it. And I know it's technically "young adult" fiction, but I think it's mostly that the main characters are only 12, and there's a coming-of-age component, that puts it there. Without being vulgar or overly graphic, it really didn't feel dumbed-down or neutered for the sake of kids, and the plot really moves well. Made me cry a few times, too. I couldn't put it down and I'm 30, lol.

Skip the movie "The Golden Compass", though, unless you just want the imagery (which is incredible), because I think they got some vital things wrong and kind of screwed up the ending really badly compared to the book. Drove me rather insane. Also, I didn't buy Nicole Kidman in that role at all, but that could be just me.

HIS DARK MATERIALS
A work of true genius. I'm not ashamed to say I cried when Lee Scrby and Hester died. (I cried again when I heard it on the audio version) So many good ideas.
The film was I'm afraid - pants. A typical Hollywood adaptation of a difficult subject. Lets fillet out all the contraversial stuff and go for a bland money maker. Shame it is the difficult content that makes the trilogy what it is.

I'm reading China Mieville's The Scar right now. All his books are steampunk fiction. I really don't like the main character in this book, but the setting is fantastic.

--Don't forget girlgeniusonline.com

I'd go with Jay Lake's works... particularly the first two books he's released of his new series "Mainspring" & "Escapement"

Though at any given moment, I can't always say I "love" these books... I still recommend them. They're fascinating.

And I'm not just biased 'cos he's a local boy. *innocent blink*

Anyone else read Infernal Devices by K.W Jeter. I never finished it although the parts I have read are quite good and set a lot of the look and feel of what has come later.

I am also fond of
"A
Descriptive and Historical account
of
Hydraulic and other machines
for
Raising Water
Ancient and Modern <- this should be in blackletter font.
With Observation on Various Subjects
connected with the
Mechanical Arts:
Including the progressive development of
THE STEAM ENGINE ..."

This is just the top of the title page There is a full paragraph of subjects in the book followed by

"Illustrated by nearly three hundred engravings

Fourteenth edition

Revised and Corrected - To which is added a supplement

BY THOMAS EWBANK <- in large block caps no less - after all this is the Author.

(I am not going to type in the quote from Robertson's India)

New York
Derby And Jackson
1858 "

The copyright page states "Entered according to the act of Congress, in the Year 1842, by Thomas Ewbank, in the clerk's office of the southern district of New York."

It is 603 pages and over an inch and a half thick. The spine just says "Ewbank's Hydraulics and Mechanics."

I found this at the Dickens fair Bookseller's, a Decade or two back sometime in the 1980s. This book is the definitive in required reading. (I am particularly fond of the digression titled "the history of the fork." Tracing the history of that useful device from the Italian renaissance.) This thing was Ewbank's blog and he writes what ever comes to him. I doubt he had an editor on the other hand it is amazing how much common knowledge has been forgotten, or dismissed as obsolete and irrelevant.

In any case, I would recommend seeking out these old textbooks. Decorators used to buy them by the yard to fill bookcases in older homes. Most booksellers do not bother with such trivialities. As primary source materials, they are wonderful. I steal from the nearly three hundred engravings all the time.

I also consider Dickens's _Little Dorrit_ to be an early Science Fiction (Now Steampunk novel.) This was recently adapted (and revised and stereotyped for modern audiences on PBS.) Get the book. Dickens never tells the reader what the invention is. It is shown in an engraving and is nothing other than the Difference or Analytical engine. The cams can quite clearly be seen in the engraving and the outline of the Difference engine is in the background. Dickens was good friends with Babbage and in the novel The inventor Doyce, speaks with Babbage's voice.

Which of course brings us to Babbage's own _Passages of a Philosopher_ , In effect his Autobiography. And the root source of t he Ada Myth.

Definitely the Anubis Gate by Tim Powers. I recently read Whitechapel Gods by S.M.Peters and it was VERY good. :)