VAMPIRES OUT? IS STEAMPUNK THE NEXT YOUNG ADULT CRAZE?

www.examiner.com: Of the ten books currently featured on barnesandnoble.com’s teen bestseller list, 7 are about vampires. And one is about a werewolf. As if we needed any more, this is clear evidence of the fact that vampires have all but consumed the Young Adult book scene.  From the world-obsessing Twilight books, to L.J. Smith’s massive volumes, to Somper’s Vampirates, to the local Cast duo and their House of Night series–not to mention the hundreds in-between–books about vampires are positively coming out of the woodwork.  But how much longer can this trend continue?  Will young readers ever get tired of these misunderstood, sometimes-heroic, and often-seductive bloodsuckers?

Stemming from the vampire trend are a great many paranormal books–many of them romances–that have taken the dark and the dangerous and channeled them into fresh ideas.  Ancient magic, unexplainable disappearences, forgotten legends, and terrible curses are among these new suspects, and will undoubtedly be seen in upcoming months as they are released in their various forms. 

And as for the slightly-distant YA future…?  Steampunk seems to be the word on the street.

Read more here.

Ok, to be honest I am not entirely sure what Steampunk is, so I looked it up on Wikipedia:

Steampunk is a sub-genre of fantasy and speculative fiction that came into prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century, and often Victorian era England—but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inventions like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or real technological developments like the computer occurring at an earlier date. Other examples of steampunk contain alternate history-style presentations of “the path not taken” of such technology as dirigibles, analog computers, or digital mechanical computers (such as Charles Babbage‘s Analytical Engine); these frequently are presented in an idealized light, or with a presumption of functionality.

 Hmm, very interesting. Now that I know, it sounds pretty cool!

Are you getting tired of Vamp stories? Are you intersted in reading Steampunk stories?