I picked up this book--my first steampunk novel--thinking it would be a lot of fun. What a disappointment it turned out to be. Not only was it not much fun, but more than a steampunk story, it turned out to be more about zombies. Zombies! I'm really getting tired of zombies. Zombies are being so overdone in popular culture that, unless a storyteller has a new way of portraying them (e.g. the "fast" zombies of "28 Days Later"), they just become a tired convention. And Boneshaker proved to have to no other way to redeem it. The characters were hardly compelling. The story takes place in an alternative-history Seattle where an outlandish machine called the Boneshaker--invented to assist goldmining efforts in the Klondike--has been used to tear up the downtown in an brutal multi-bank robbery. As an unintended side-effect, the Boneshaker has torn a rift in the earth, releasing a zombifying gas called the Blight. Escaping for their lives, escapees have since isolated downtown Seattle by ringing it with a 200-foot wall, for the gas is apparently heavier-than-air. Some health folks (along with a megalomaniacal villian) have chosen to stay in the walled-off city along the zombies, and we meet some of them. But with none of them are we ever given a sense of character as to what would have had them make such a choice. Furthermore, the villain seems only villainous for villainy's sake. And the protagonists have motivations of hardly any more depth. The prose is penny-dreadful. Unlike what one of the blurbs says recommending the book, it is not taut. Instead, we have too many passages like these: As soon as Squiddy was gone, Lucy turned to Briar and said, "Are you ready?" "I'm ready," she promised. "Lead the way." In front of her, Lucy was battling her arm to make her mask stay in place. Briar offered, "Can I help you with that?" "Maybe that'd be a good idea." Briar adjusted the other woman's mask until it settled firmly and buckled behind her ears. She noticed that Lucy had traded the one-hour model she'd sported for a more substantial mask. "It's not sticking in your hair or anything, is it?" This is not taut writing. This is padding needing an editor. In another instance, we're told that a character "didn't look so hot." C'mon, Cherie, that's lazy prose! You can express yourself in a better phrase than that. Why make such an effort recreating life in mid-19th century America if you're going to use such 20th-century colloquialisms as "didn't look so hot"? The final thing that bothers me is that, while I'm willing to engage in the whimsy of a steampunk world, as long as that world supposes to exist on this planet, it still needs to abide by the laws of physics. The Blight, for instsnce, is obviously a heavier-than-air gas, or a wall wouldn't be able to hold it in. And yet, those living their lives out in the walled city do so predominantly underground! Underground would be the worst place for survival in Blight-world, as a heavier-than-air gas would seek the lowest spot to settle. And here I'm also brought back to those zombies. In numerous places, the decrepitude of their flesh is emphasized to us. Indeed, the characters can step on prone, inert zombies and their bodies essentially crumble. And yet, when the zombies are on the chase, they seem to have superhuman strength, busting through doors and such. Wouldn't oak and iron be impervious to crumbling flesh? I only ask of steampunkers the same thing I ask of any writer: weave me a world, but make it behave according to come consistent law. A story can be filled with the fantastic, but that doesn't mean that it has to be arbitrary.
Review by kvrfan (LibraryThing), April 25, 2015 This is a book I started ages ago, but I lost track of it on my Kindle (I keep forgetting that it stores galleys as documents, not books). When I managed to unearth it, I was thrilled to be back in the world of Boneshaker by Cherie Priest. It’s set in the wild and woolly Seattle of the 1880’s, with some major revisions. The city, its population swelled from the Klondike gold rush, has been devastated. The Boneshaker, a mining machine designed to dig through the Klondike ice, has malfunctioned and run wild beneath the city, collapsing buildings, creating tunnels, killing hundreds, and releasing deadly gas from deep underground. The gas, called Blight, boils up from the tunnels and clings like a thick fog. It kills plants and animals, corrodes metal, and turns the humans who breathe it into a sort of zombie, called Rotters. In an attempt to save what they could, the city was walled up, trapping the Blight and the rotters inside. The walls created a lost city, crumbling into ruin, inhabited by the walking dead and those hearty souls who have carved out a living in the basements, vaults, and any place that offers a little clean air. Briar Wilkes has gone back to using her maiden name, because being the widow of Leviticus Blue does not endear her to her neighbors; Leviticus Blue invented the Boneshaker, after all, and many still hold him responsible for the devastation in the city. She has tried to shield her son, Zeke, from his awful history, but the curiosity of a teenage boy is a powerful force. Zeke has decided to sneak into the walled city, find his mother’s home, and bring back evidence that his father was innocent. When she realizes what he’s done, Briar has no choice but to go in after him. Their adventures in the city make for a great read. There are pirates and villains, the Chinamen who built and maintain the machinery that keeps the underground inhabitable. There is a good-hearted woman, Lucy O’Gunning, with her strange mechanical arm, and a mysterious villain named Dr. Minnericht, who hints at an even more villainous past. It’s about a mother’s love for her son – all that she’s done, all that she’s tried to do, and all that she is still willing to do to protect him, even if he hates her for it. It’s about how you keep going after tragedy strikes and find a way to live with yourself. And all through the book there are great stories of underground palaces, murderous rotters and shifting alliances – enough to keep you turning pages well past the time you should blow out the candles and turn in for the night. The ending was great (and I’ve had too many disappointing endings lately) and makes me want to pick up the next book right away. It was a great story and my only regret is that I didn’t finish it sooner. The bonus is that the sequels are all lined up for me!
Review by LisaLynne (LibraryThing), March 7, 2015 I passionately love this book. It's weird, it's steampunk, it's SEATTLE (my home) in the 1800s, it's zombies, and it's ladies who are truly kickass and fascinating. The story starts out so dark and dreary, perfectly evocative of Seattle weather, and it chases its way to hope and goodness (but not without a little bit of bittersweet, a trace of shadow). There is so much adventure and risk in this story, don't let the depressing beginning fool you. I fervantly hope that Cherie Priest writes another in this universe!
Review by Xandylion (LibraryThing), January 19, 2015 This book had a solid start that sucked me in right away. It is a blend of the West during the Civil War with steam punk alterations. It is written really well with an interesting cast of characters. The two main characters, mother and son, were great to start out with, but I got more attached to the supportive roles. The book is gripping the whole way through. My only complaint is that there is a build up at the end, but then it feels like it just ends.
Review by renbedell (LibraryThing), October 30, 2014 I don't know what to say about this book. It was enjoyable enough to finish and to keep it above the one star rating, but I can't quite see why it has gotten the attention it has. Maybe the zombie-steampunk genre just isn't my thing.
Review by tlockney (LibraryThing), September 7, 2014 I dipped my toe into the literary pool of Steampunk for the first time this past week. I didn’t choose an old standby. I chose a new one that will eventually become a classic, and I rather think it will be soon. The Boneshaker by Cherie Priest is a story set in Washington Territory in 1880, with references to the Alaskan Gold Rush and an unusually extended American Civil War. Imagine, if you will, a contest to create a machine to extract gold from the ground as fast as possible. Imagine, then, the pressure put on an inventor to get it up and going. The inventor has grandiose plans for this particular invention of his…and it all went awry the day he tested it. Or did it? The impact on the frontier city of Seattle was catastrophic. When the devastation was over, Seattle had built around its commercial area a wall 200 feet high to protect those in the Outskirts from Blight, Doornails, the undead and various and sundry other atrocities that came in the wake of the ensuing disaster. Questions, speculation and rumours about The Boneshaker’s inventor, Leviticus Blue, spun both inside and outside the walls for 16 years. Stories about Briar’s father, 15-year-old Zeke’s grandfather, also grew. Within the walls, Maynard Wilkes truly was a hero. Outside the walls, his reputation was questionable, but not as evil or protracted as that of Briar’s husband, the infamous Leviticus Blue. Some said he was still alive and had taken another name. Others said he was dead, and someone else had taken over his penchant for ingenious gadgetry, as well as new and deadly extractions of the Blight most welcome on the clandestine drug market. In an effort to find the truth, Zeke takes off through the underground to get inside the walls and learn more about his grandfather and his father. Briar takes to the skies to find him before it’s too late. The chapters that follow introduce you to sky pirates, the living, the undead, and all sorts of magical gadgets. Primary to the story are the characters of the imposing Jeremiah Swackhammer, sly but knowledgeable Princess Angeline, sinister Yaozu, the evil Dr. Minnericht, the daring Lucy O’Gunning, and the zombie-killing contraption lovingly known as Daisy. The traps, pitfalls, encounters and lovely, lovely gadgets will enthrall most readers who enjoy Steampunk. I know I enjoyed it, and – true to form – it will become a film in 2013.
Review by mreed61 (LibraryThing), August 10, 2014 Very fun read. I really enjoyed it. I was a bit sad when I finished. Would've liked to keep reading. At least there are some more books in the series to look forward to.
Review by sffstorm (LibraryThing), June 9, 2014 this to me is more of a 3.5 than a 4. i hard time beleiving the premise of the book but as it is am running on empty having just arrived from maryland...will review later
Review by seaofsorrow (LibraryThing), May 20, 2014 Get ready for the steam-punk zombie apocalypse It's been sixteen years since an experiment gone awry turned Klondike-era Seattle into a walled prison for zombies and degenerates, while the survivors huddle together on the outskirts, clinging to a hard-scrabble existence. But when Zeke Wilkes, son of the man responsible for it all, comes of age, he cannot accept the story of his father's crimes. So when Zeke runs away to the zombie zone in search of the truth, his mother Briar risks everything to go in after him, but neither one of them is prepared for the truths that await them inside. On the surface, this appears to be a delicious genre-blending adventure - steam punk with zombies - but while it delivers on the mash up, I found it weak on the engagement, and by the half way point, when all hell seems to be breaking loose for our heroes, I found myself still indifferent to their plight. I just didn't care about Zeke or his mother. One struck me as a whiny teen with too much entitlement and not too little agency for me to look past his shortcomings, while the other was mired so deeply in her own self-recriminations that I found myself agreeing with her. It is all her fault. In the end I got bored enough to put the book down, and I haven't had the urge to go back to finish it, so I won't. The prose is competent but lacks subtlety or elegance. So if zombies do it for you, or annoying protagonists are your thing, then this might just be your ticket. But it isn't mine.
Review by Jefficus (LibraryThing), April 25, 2014 I was surprised by how quickly this book flew past me, I was completely entranced the entire time. I was surprised at how long it took to find out what happened to Leviticus Blue, but damn, I was not expecting that.
Review by AprilAnn0814 (LibraryThing), April 15, 2014 Not a bad book if you stick all the way through it. Brilliant opening and penultimate chapters save this book from a sluggish second act that offers neither wonderful world-building or solid character development. This is probably a good choice if you really love zombie horror and/or the conceits of steampunk alt-history.
Review by CBrachyrhynchos (LibraryThing), February 4, 2014 Steampunk combines historical elements with a lot of mechanical detail that may not be appreciated by all readers. Plus, Cherie Priest admits in the Author's Note that she has altered 1860s history to fit her story so some of the elements exist (in the book) before they were actually created. Aside from that, Priest's two main characters - a mother and her teenage son - are likable and brave. For most of the book, they act independently. After Zeke goes in search of the truth about his father, Briar is forced to enter the toxic atmosphere of blighted Seattle where the air is unfit to breathe even 16 years after her husband tested a gold-mining machine with disastrous results. The area is also crawling with rotters, people who were exposed to the air and have become zombies as well as a variety of people just trying to make a living and stay alive. Adventurous but quite detailed. Though it begins a series, Boneshaker also stands well on its own. Lots of violence but little (if any) profanity and no sexual content.
Review by bookappeal (LibraryThing), December 27, 2013 Love it so far. Great writing, fascinating subject. Plus, Steampunk FTW. Finished. Loved. Getting my hands on the next book. One thing I really liked about the story is that it's about a mother doing everything she can to protect her son. While I always enjoy a good romance in a story, this was refreshingly different, and not just because of the zombies.
Review by shellwitte (LibraryThing), December 11, 2013 Oh, Cherie Priest, I swear, it's me and not you! You wrote a well-crafted steampunk novel that was exciting and interesting and well executed. Alas, I didn't really care about it and forcing the book open seemed like a chore. It's odd really, because I thought the setting was well done; the characters were interesting; the plot and climax were satisfying. And yet, I never connected with or cared about the characters particularly, even with strong female characters. I even kind of want to read sequels, and yet I really did not connect or get emotionally invested in any way. Is this a product of my mood, or phase in life, or perhaps the two of us just don't have chemistry in some inexplicable, but fundamental and immutable way? I have seldom felt such apathy over a book I enjoyed so much.
Review by leduck (LibraryThing), November 2, 2013 Leviticus Blue builds a new-generation drilling machine in Civil War-era Seattle. Unbeknownst to him but knownst to all fans of mad science and zombie fiction, a test of the machine causes a cataclysmic disaster that destroys much of the downtown and causes the release of toxic blight gas, which predictably enough turns people into zombies. Predictably enough, Blue seems to have made himself scarce. As the events of the novel roll forth 16 years later, Levi Blue's wife Briar hears that her and Levi's son Ezekiel has gone to the walled quarantine zone - so what else there is for her to do than to go there and get him back, no matter what the cost... So - Steampunk stuff in post-apocalyptic Seattle. What's not to like? Most of the book seemed quite action-packed and filled with intrigue to me. Interesting characters! Fantastic environments! Rampant steampunkery! Friggin' zombies! Gas masks! Air pirates! Toward the end of the book, it seemed to me that the story lost some of its driving force, but I was quite happy to know that at least the end was quite epic. All in all, a very worthy novel - which I got for next to no monetary effort thanks to Humble Bundle. Would have bought for a full price too!
Review by wwwwolf (LibraryThing), October 22, 2013 I want my money back. The writing was really simple and the descriptions of places was so bad you can't understand what she is talking about. I'm very disapointed. I gave it 2 stars instead of 1 because the plot was good but it needs a lot of work.
Review by MerryMeerkat (LibraryThing), September 26, 2013 I guess this is not the first Steampunk book I've read but it definitely will stick with me as obviously earlier ones have not. I liked that some women were front and center in the story, not shrinking violets, or playthings, or harridans. Set in Seattle, a single mother and her teenaged son struggle to survive in an environment which does not reward hard work, nor does it make going to school at all attractive. The son in a misguided impulse to investigate his father's and grandfather's deaths goes missing in a no-man's land, and the mother in a risky motherly impulse follows to rescue him. And so the adventures are on.... I laughed when the author had Seattle sitting on the edge of the ocean, which it does not. But otherwise the references to the city were enjoyable. Chief Seattle (really not named Seattle, more like Sealth) had a daughter who lived in the city longer than any others of her tribe and her name (or close to it), Princess Angeline, was used for one of the stronger and more interesting characters. The Smith Tower, which was the tallest building west of the Mississippi for a few years, was also used as an interesting landmark, as was Denny Hill (named after an early settler). That aside, the story was clever, original and definitely held my attention. I think I read it over just 2 -3 days which is unusual for me, as I have many other fish to fry.
Review by maggie1944 (LibraryThing), September 2, 2013 Steampunk and Zombies! What's not to love. Well quite a bit if you don't particularly like either of them, but this isn't too badly done. The steampunk works better than the zombies which were never explained and felt just shoe horned in because zombies were popular in 2009. The basic premise is that 1880 SEatle, one Levi Blue created a mining machine that ran amok. In the process of it's destruction it released some buried gas that creates zombies out of some of the newly/almost dead. The city through up a Wall which keeps both the zombies and gas in - which is already somewhat unliekly as gastight structures are hard! However there are always enterprising people around when situations are desperate, and now humans live inside by choice. The story features Blue's widow, one Briar, and her son Zeke. Zeke was born on the day of the wall, and now at 15 he is curious about his father, about whom Briar says nothing. Zeke decides to infultrate the wall, and a desperate Briar goes in after him, prepared to mix with all sorts of criminals that they find inside. It is all somewhat predicatable, no-one significant dies, even though they should. The zombies are annoying throughout as they appear to be inconsistent and are never explained. It is not obviosu where the Blight came from, why the arch nemisis is supposedly able to control them, except when he can't. why only some peopel get turned into zombies when the die - or have nearly died, unless they don't. The author also fails to appreciate the rarity of true genius and how unlikely anyone would be able to understadn let alone replicate Blue's undocumented work. That said the writing is enjoyable the characters mostly quite fun and belivable if somewhat too 'good'. Zeke is a well described teenager with a decent mix of youthful naitivity and impulsiveness without too much adult or childhood temperering. The pacing is well constructed with a good sense for the dramatic build up. The switches in viewpooint between Briar and Zeke mostly work quite well at a chapter each, however the internal chronology is woeful. One seem to be ahead of the other by days, but it isn't clear how much or when, and when they are ventually on the same timeline you've no idea how it happened. As ever it's these sorts of pernickty details (let alone the author's admitted freedom with the history of Seattle) that grate, and spoil what could have been a good book. I'm never really a fan of steam punk for precisely this reason - where do you 'harvest' electricity from to run your gizmos. Hydrogen or helium for the zepplins? again from where - in 1880 these are not easy questions, the author chooses to just ignore them, which is frequent in Steampunk, and a reason why I don't like it.
Review by reading_fox (LibraryThing), August 7, 2013 Boneshaker ~ Rate 5/5 This was my first 'steampunk' read and i wasn't overly sure what to expect from it but I'm glad I broke into the genre with this book. I was hooked from the beginning til end. The idea is really original and takes a new spin (the blight gas) on the your normal zombies (although the undead are not really part of the main story in anyway... they are just part of the furniture in the new Seattle.) The plot was really good and theres lots of action, slaying undead, crashing airships, mad Dr's, funky steampunk gadgets, but it felt like it was leading to something bigger at the end. It wasn't disappointing at all, there was a good twist in the end that i wasn't expecting and there are 4 other books in the series so all in all i really cant complain. It was a good read, id defiantly recommend it to anyone looking for some thing steam punk or just a bit of light fantasy. I'll certainly be reading the others (if i can get my hands on the elusive out of print 'Clementine')
Review by shelley.s (LibraryThing), June 17, 2013 I was quite looking forward to Boneshaker by Cherie Priest, a steam punk fantasy that takes place in an alternative Seattle, but unfortunately I was left a little flat by this book. I can’t quite put my finger on what was missing but I was never totally drawn into the story and often found myself flipping the pages and counting how many chapters I had left to read. This is the tale of a mother’s search for her sixteen year old son who has entered the blighted part of Seattle on a quest to clear his father’s name. Sixteen years ago her husband, scientist/inventor Leviticus Blue was testing an advanced drill when he released a poisonous gas that either killed people outright or turned them into shambling zombie-like creatures. A twenty foot wall was built around the blighted area but some residents remained behind the walls, learned how to survive and nefarious dealings are being conducted with the outside world. This strange inner city is now being run by the mysterious Dr. Minnericht who many people believe is actually Dr. Blue. This book has all the ingredients that I usually love and no one was more surprised in the resulting “meh” feeling it left me with than myself. Perhaps it was simply the wrong book at the wrong time, but I certainly don’t feel inclined to follow up with this trilogy and will probably drop the remaining two from my wish list.
Review by DeltaQueen50 (LibraryThing), June 15, 2013 A pretty good read, but a little depressing (Seattle doesn't do well in this alternative history). Also, the main character spends a lot of time moping about personal problems and is less interesting then the character she encounters! But eventually the action picks up, although the title is somewhat deceptive (it refers to something that happened in the past).
Review by lelanicarver (LibraryThing), May 21, 2013 Steam punk and alternative history should be fun but the zombie thing bores me to blubs. I couldn't suspend my disbelief and the book did not inspire me to persevere.
Review by ljhliesl (LibraryThing), May 21, 2013 my friend says this is utterly dire, I don't need to hear any more.
Review by lxydis (LibraryThing), May 11, 2013 A little bit slow for the first third, but the pace picks up once the protagonists are running from the zombies. Now here's my gripe--I *know* that white Americans in the 1800s were, by and large, racist and xenophobic (hence the Chinese Exclusion Act), but did the first Chinese character *really* have to be the mute, inscrutable Chinaman whom no one hears approaching? And then the other Chinese in the book are, for the most part, nameless/personality-less groups even though there are, for reasons that are never explained (and no one seems curious about exploring), groups of Chinese men who stay behind the walls to pump fresh air into the Blighted city.
Review by VikkiLaw (LibraryThing), April 4, 2013 (Refers to the audiobook.) "A boneshakingly good listen" Cherie Priest's BONESHAKER is a romp through an alternate Civil War era Seattle, torn apart by Leviticus Blue's Boneshaking Drill -- a Russian-funded experimental drilling engine designed to tunnel under the Alaskan ice, looking for gold. But something goes wrong when Blue tests the machine, and gas which would become known as "the Blight" begins to seep out of the ground, killing those who breathe it. And worse. So a large section of the city is walled off, Blue has disappeared, and his widow, Briar Wilkes, is left to raise the son she didn't know she carried when the calamity struck. She and her son, Ezekiel, are treated with disdain and open contempt by the remaining townsfolk, believing she must have known what Blue was up to, and so blaming her in part for the new way of life on the "Outskirts" around Seattle. Ezekiel, longing to clear the family name, heads into the city for answers, and Briar soon follows. Only then do they start to truly understand what has become of those who have been claimed by the Blight -- the "rotters" -- zombies whose appearance in the book is truly suspenseful and riveting. Add goggles and gasmasks (to protect against the Blight) and gadgets dreamed up to sustain human settlements within the ruins of the city, Civil War era airships, and a great cast of supporting characters, and it's no wonder that BONESHAKER has had the praise heaped upon it that it has. It's great fun and well-imagined. Here, Kate Reading gives a great deadpan Briar Wilkes, capturing the frustration and urgency of a tired, bitter mother looking for her son, and putting a great voice behind Jeremiah Swakhammer, the big, armor-plated -- well, I don't want to give too much away. And Wil Wheaton helps bring Zeke and the characters he meets to life, particularly taking the day with his performances as Zeke, a certain Princess (this one is great!), and the mysterious "Dr. Minnericht."
Review by montsamu (LibraryThing), April 3, 2013 More reviews: page 1 | [page 2] | page 3 | page 4 | page 5 | page 6