Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tom Derringer and the Aluminum Airship | 2014 | Lawrence Watt-Evans | Buy |
| 2 | Tom Derringer in the Tunnels of Terror | 2017 | Lawrence Watt-Evans | Buy |
| 3 | Tom Derringer and the Steam-Powered Saurians | 2020 | Lawrence Watt-Evans | Buy |
The Adventures of Tom Derringer is Lawrence Watt-Evans’s foray into steampunk fiction. Set in an alternate version of 1880s America where airships and steam-powered technology are common, the series follows Tom Derringer, a young man who gets pulled into adventures involving mad inventors, underground tunnels, and mechanical dinosaurs. The tone is more lighthearted than most of Watt-Evans’s other work, closer to classic pulp adventure stories.
Tom Derringer and the Aluminum Airship introduces the main character aboard a prototype airship that runs into trouble. Tom Derringer in the Tunnels of Terror takes him underground into a network of secret passages beneath Washington, D.C. The third book, Tom Derringer and the Steam-Powered Saurians, involves exactly what the title promises: mechanical reptiles powered by steam.
The series is a departure for an author best known for secondary-world fantasy, but Watt-Evans clearly has fun with the steampunk setting. The books are shorter than his typical fantasy novels and move at a quick pace. Readers looking for something lighter from Watt-Evans, or fans of Victorian-era adventure stories with a science fiction twist, will enjoy these.