Steampunkery Review- Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

Steampunk elements: This book had it all!  Dirigibles, steam engines, weird inventions, even those weird masks that I couldn't describe but can picture so clearly in my mind...   This book is as Steampunk'y as a book can get!

   Details: Paperback, 416 pgs.
Published: Sept. 29th, 2009 by Tor Books

isbn: 0765318415 (ISBN13: 9780765318411)

Series: Clockwork Century #1

Reading Level: Adult

Received from:  Publisher for honest review

   

Description:

In the early days of the Civil War, rumors of gold in the frozen Klondike brought hordes of newcomers to the Pacific Northwest. Anxious to compete, Russian prospectors commissioned inventor Leviticus Blue to create a great machine that could mine through Alaska’s ice. Thus was Dr. Blue’s Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine born.

But on its first test run the Boneshaker went terribly awry, destroying several blocks of downtown Seattle and unearthing a subterranean vein of blight gas that turned anyone who breathed it into the living dead.

Now it is sixteen years later, and a wall has been built to enclose the devastated and toxic city. Just beyond it lives Blue’s widow, Briar Wilkes. Life is hard with a ruined reputation and a teenaged boy to support, but she and Ezekiel are managing. Until Ezekiel undertakes a secret crusade to rewrite history.

His quest will take him under the wall and into a city teeming with ravenous undead, air pirates, criminal overlords, and heavily armed refugees. And only Briar can bring him out alive.

My Thoughts:

WOW!  This is one of those books that the whole time your reading it your trying to think of words to describe it's awesome-ness in your review.   One word I know that describes it well is intense.  This book is intense, seriously.  I could not put this one down!  Particularly the last quarter of it.  I definitely advise reading the last bit in one setting without interruptions.  

I was a little concerned about the zombie aspect because I don't like things too scary.  But these zombie's worked.  They added that element that pulled the story together.  They needed one more issue to complicate everything and zombie's made that work.  And it wasn't cheesy!  The author made everything seem like it could really be true.  I mean scientifically.  Obviously it's science fiction, but you don't think about that when your reading it.  It's hard to explain, but anyone who reads this kind of thing should understand.  You want it to feel like it could be real.  

This book had those moments of holding your breath while waiting to see what happened.  Escaping from zombies, hoping mother and son wouldn't miss each other this time, just intense moments that I forgot to breath.  

There's not much I would change about this book, the things that were hard to read are what helped really make this story the intense read that it was.  All I would do is maybe throw in a teeny tiny bit of romance.  There were two people that I would have liked to see get together.  The story only takes place over a few days, so maybe they will in a future book?  I'm not sure if we'll maybe see glimpses, but I know the next books are focused on different characters in the same world so I don't know if we'll ever know.   The lack of romance wasn't a negative though and doesn't mark the book down any for me.  

I have to say that Cherie hit it on the head with this book.  It's completely unique, it's crazy, it has characters you love and you hate and well, it has everything (except romance).  And I loved it!

I give it 5/5 moons!

I'm giving away my copy on my giveaway post here. (Ends Nov. 25th 2010)

You can find Cherie Priest on her website

You can buy from your favorite bookstore, affiliate links are on the left sidebar (and amazon below, as well),  and would love to have you use them so I can earn some commission to fund the contests on here! 

  Disclosure: I received this book for review and giveaway on my blog.  I was not paid or compensated in any way.  The opinions expressed are my own.