The Victorian era isn’t my favorite by a long shot, but the rigidity of its cultural roles makes it mighty fun to play with. I think the repression of the individual gave rise to the delightful flowering of the adventurous genres, bringing us horror, mystery, science fiction and fantasy in abundance. More recently, storytellers are returning to this milieu, for bespoke computing and aether-ship swashbuckling and the sheer thrill of removing stupidly impractical long skirts in order to do something.

• The Diamond Age: or, A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson
The Platonic ideal of a book: with a Heinleinesque sexual odyssey, nanotech and the Mouse Army, there’s something to lure in everyone.

• Agatha Heterodyne & The Beetleburg Clank: Girl Genius #1 by Phil Foglio, Kaja Foglio, Brian Snoddy  
Girl geniuses were sadly absent from graphic novels before. We are pleased with this development.

• The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
There have to be airships, but the panzerbjorn are a great innovation. No one is surprised to discover that Pullman also wrote a series about a Victorian girl.

• Larklight: Or the Revenge of the White Spiders! Or to Saturn’s Rings and Back!: A Rousing Tale of Dauntless Pluck in the Farthest Reaches of Space by Philip Reeve, David Wyatt
In which we see that the appeal of steampunk isn’t limited to chicks geeking out, it’s also a way to retroactively address Victorian racism. What if Huck Finn were Jim, with dreadlocks?   

• Flora Segunda: Being the Magickal Mishaps of a Girl of Spirit, Her Glass-Gazing Sidekick, Two Ominous Butlers (One Blue), a House With Eleven Thousand Rooms, and a Red Dog by Ysabeau S. Wilce  
The longer the subtitle, the more whimsical the book. It’s a pity “kilts” didn’t make it there, too.

• Anno Dracula by Kim Newman
The Victoria’s Prince Consort is Dracula, and Jack the Ripper is on the loose.