I just finished Boneshaker by Cherie Priest. I really liked Sci-Fi and Fantasy when I was younger but for some reason it just hasn't appealed to me in the last few years. However, recently I've been craving something implausible but grounded in reality. Therefore: Steampunk.
My last foray into the genre was with Soulless by Gail Carriger. That didn't go so well. There are only so many times I can read the same joke in 100 pages and the romance plot was silly, rushed, and took up far too much space.
Boneshaker seems quite popular so I decided to give it a try. I'm glad I did.
Seattle, 1880. Back East the Civil War rages on, kept going by British interference and Jackson not being killed. 16 years prior to the events in the book a giant drilling machine plowed through downtown Seattle leaving devastation in its wake and releasing a toxic gas from underground. This gas, Blight, kills and corrupts, raising the dead as canabalistic creatures known as "rotters." (The word Zombie wasn't in use colloqially at the time.) The area was evacuated and a huge wall was built around the area to trap both Blight and rotters.
Briar, the widow of the man who caused this sorry mess, works in the water purification plant and cares for her teenage son, Zeke. Zeke is convinced that his father didn't unleash Hell on Earth merely to rob a few banks, so he finds his way into the closed city to prove it. Unfortunately an earthquake collapes the tunnel he had used so Briar sets off after him by airship. Inside they seperately discover those people who stayed behind either because of sheer tenacity or because there's profit to be made through looting and the Blight-derived drug lemon sap. Over this wasted territory, where walking the street requires a gas mask and a gun, looms the sinister Dr. Minnericht. He has his own domain where he runs his crew, making crazy inventions and Blight drugs, and many of the locals are in debt to him one way or another. Briar and Zeke make their way through this dangerous area, moving from safe spot to safe spot, meeting those people who live there, who prove both help and hindrance.
Okay, I liked this book. Briar is a capable woman, tough and good with a gun but still human. She's a nice change from the tough female character that seems written to out-male most men. Briar worries, frets, cries, and becomes afriad but she really holds her own both verbally and physically. Zeke does something stupid in that "I'm practically a grown-up, of course I know what I'm doing" way that teenagers have to kick-start the book but he figures out fairly quickly that he's in over his head. He's pretty resourceful, in his own way, and recognizes when he needs help. I never wanted to smack him so I'd say his characterization was well done.
The other characters were memorable and interesting. The plot was dynamic and the action scenes were exciting. I had fun. I liked the ending. I like the way Priet lets main characters do bad things and doesn't excuse them for it.
The rotters are an animal-like, putrefying horde, inexorable and full of menace. They and the Blight form an ever-present threat throughout the book. There aren't that many clockwork devices but there are a few neat ones to set the tone and of course there are the airships. I could have used more gadgets though Swakhammer's armored and masked bulk made up for that a bit.
The one thing I don't get is why no one had gone in with masks to exterminate the rotters in those 16 years. Yeah, I get that territory status and the Civil War made things difficult out West but you'd think the locals could have mustered a few zombie hunting expeditions in that time. Cut the numbers down anyway. Oh, and what were the Chinese doing in there? They couldn't have just been in there to pump air down from the sky so why did they stayed in the closed off city?
That aside; good book and I'll be reading more of her stuff.
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