I’d wear it on my lapel, with the nice pocket watch on my vest and my jeweled monocle.
I know. I’m a slob. But I could change! I’ve been reading fantasy regency novels
Also, I’ve been wondering…there are a lot of steampunk novels out there, stories about alternative histories in which the industrial revolution leads to elaborate technologies involving mechanical gears and steam engines. Has anyone written any biopunk novels, where 19th century Europe is revolutionized by radical biological technologies? That would be fun.
Firstly, I love Gail Carriger. She is a wonderfly nice woman with a great ability to capture an audience when speaking. I cannot recommend her books highly enough.
Secondly, you might consider Kate Locke to be a biopunk type novel, if I’m remembering the story correctly.
It’s set in the early 20th century, but Scott Westerfield wrote a trilogy where the Allied Powers in WWI had biopunk tech and the Central Powers were steam and dieselpunk.
It looks like Tiffany. I’d wear that.
Beat me to it Becca – Leviathan, Goliath and Behemoth. Cracking good YA adventures with bioengineered Skywhales and Clankers
I’m no expert on the genre, but I found The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi to be enjoyable biopunk.
Turns out, from the link in the caption that it is an invading species that damages Azealas and Rhododendrons.
Lovely to look at, perhaps even delightful to hold, but…
It is a jewel.
Pretty!
Try Mary Robinette Kowal’s Shades of Milk and Honey and the sequels (they get better by the novel, though I haven’t read the last one yet)
Aside from the points that relate to hygeine, all I got was snobbery.
There’s some out there like you describe, the titles of which escape me at the moment, but I give you fair warning that if you go looking for biopunk, there’s a good chance you’ll get near future stuff in which there’s a lot of (often rather fantastic) genetic engineering. The term was already grabbed by the cyberpunks, is what I’m saying.
Is that one of those bio-punk things?
Now I’m going to be obsessively inspecting my rhodies all summer. Those things, by the way, are tiny — about 3mm. The nymphs are quite hideous looking.
John Dies at the End by David Wong is a biopunk novel disguised as a horror story.
I think Ishiguro’s http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Never_Let_Me_Go_%28novel%29 should count partially. It is not as retro as something set in the 19th century, but it starts with the premise that human cloning was developed early (around the 1950s?) and had resulted in a separate class of involuntary organ donors who were not viewed as have human rights despite being obviously human.
I never read it, but I saw the film adaptation, which was disturbing but engaging. I don’t know how faithful it was to the original. Ishiguro is not considered a science fiction writer. His most famous novel is probably Remains of the Day. My favorite Ishiguro novel is The Unconsoled. I plan to read Never Let Me Go one of these days if I can find the time and can brace myself for what looks like a depressing story (The Unconsoled, despite its title, is actually very funny).
IIRC – in Westerfeld’s Leviathan series, the bio-tech side were referred to as “Darwinists” which is totally cool.