A Boneshaking Good Time
This is the third in a series of six reviews of the Best Novel nominees for the Nebula Awards.
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest – Highly Recommended
Airships, Sky Pirates, family secrets, toxic cities, and zombies. What’s not to love?! Seriously!!
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest is a blast and a half. I loved this book. It rides the wave of popular Steampunk novels that have cropped up lately and mixes in a little of the undead fad. Naturally, in my mean and skeptical mind, I thought this combination would be a disaster. I was quite pleasantly wrong. Cherie Priest blends these elements with its late-19th century Pacific Northwest setting to create a wildly fun experience.
The plot is simple, but well executed. When the Gold Rush comes to the Yukon, Seattle becomes a boom town. The Russian government starts a contest to design and build a digging machine that can read the gold buried beneath the ice and snow. Leviticus Blue wins the contest and the begins construction. When he first tests it he looses control and ”Dr. Blue’s Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine” proceeds to run amok under Seattle undermining foundations and destroying much of downtown Seattle, collapsing building and killing many. To make matters worse, the machine also unleashes toxic gas which begins to turn Seattle’s citizens into the walking dead. The city is evacuated and an enormous wall is erected around the city to keep in “the blight”. Sixteen years later, Blue’s son Zeke, frustrated by his inability to get any information out his mother Briar about his father or the incident, heads under the wall to find his own answers and try to clear up his father’s name. When Briar returns home from her job and discovers that he’s gone, she immediately sets off to bring him home. Briar knows her son is a smart kid but also knows that nothing he could do would prepare him for the world he was going into. Adventures ensue, culminating in a great, cinematic climax.
All parts of Priest’s world are well executed and interact convincingly. Nothing seems like a sell out or a cheat. She plays fast and loose with the historical facts but never claims to be writing a historical fiction novel. Her version of 1880s Seattle is distinctly her own with a detailed presentation that makes logical sense given the tweaks she’s made to American history (the Yukon Gold rush is early, the Civil War is over a decade old and is fought with airships and who knows what else as well as troops).
Boneshaker‘s cast is are well-drawn with thoughtfully crafted personalities and motivations. Everyone feels familiar without feeling like a cardboard cut-out. This is an important consideration for a book that is going to kick off a series.
This is a great steampunk novel that will be appreciated by fans of the genre. (Librarians who have older teens going crazy for Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld will find a great suggestion here.) This is also great for anyone who likes a fun page-turning adventure. Priest exposition is just as entertaining as her action oriented scenes and helps the story to move along at a good pace.
In short, very highly recommended.
