The term denotes works set in an era or world wherein steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century, and often set in 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.
Although many works now considered seminal to the genre were published in the 1960s and 1970s, the term "steampunk" originated in the late 1980s,[1] as a tongue-in-cheek variant of cyberpunk.
[2] This article is a list of works in the science fiction and fantasy genres considered by commentators[who?]
Although the term "steampunk" was not coined until 1987,[1] several works of fiction significant to the development of the genre were produced before that.
[4][unreliable source] Steampunk was particularly influenced by, and often adopts the style of the scientific romances and fantasies of the 19th century.