BoneShaker book synopsis - Kindle Release

Snappy SYNOPSIS: Briar Wilkes tries to identify her son, Zeke, who enters the confined up, zombie-ridden city of Seattle to clear his father's namesake.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Riveting nostalgia fiction; exceptional characters; wholly captures the tastes of the steampunk and zombie subgenres.
CONS: Some fairy tale elements might look cliche?, but that's severely little potatoes next to the entertainment value this fiction provides.
BOTTOM LINE: This is a great setting that needs more stories. I can't wait.

Genre mash-ups are one of the respected pastimes of the blogosphere. ("Hey, wouldn't a steampunk zombie fantasy be extraordinary?") The reality is that off-the-cuff statements like that are not automatically easy to pull off. Writers still have to fear about fabletelling, characterizations, drama, and an assorted more elements that make up legend -- and all towards the goal of generating something that has to be charming at the same time. It's no little feat, to be sure. But damn, Cherie Priest makes it seem to be easy with her fresh novel, Boneshaker.

The epic stems from an array of events involving the Russian mission for gold during the American Civil War. Seattle architect Leviticus Blue is appointed to create a computer that will drill for gold through Alaskan ice. While measurement his machine (dubbed the Boneshaker) something goes seriously wrong: Seattle is ruined as the Boneshaker carves out the real estate beneath the city. Worse still, the pitting has also unleashed a slow-spreading smoke that begins to change people into zombies. A wall is thus erected anywhere the city to keep the weighted "Blight" smoke within walls while the survivors go away to the safer outskirts. Year's later, Briar Wilkes (Blue's widow), who makes a miserable living by working in a factory, is still blackballed by populace. Her son, Zeke, not content with the family's rank and his blackened family name, sets out to right the situation by clearing his father of any wrongdoing - and that means a trip back into the city, back into the Blight, and into the base of the undead.

That's a perfect hook; a steampunk/zombie mash-up is promptly appealing. The question is whether it can last the length of a paperback. In short: in fact. Boneshaker simply pulls you in and doesn't let go.

Here's why:

* Boneshaker is all about the nostalgia of science book and the essence inherent in the genres it mixes together:
o It's an excitement legend that moves fast, puts the stars in mortal hazard, and makes the reader thirsty to see what happens next.
o It's a steampunk romance, set in the 19th century during the Civil War (although that's happening elsewhere). Noted here is that the author bends hifiction a bit, but as she says in the afterward, that's the press of steampunk, isn't it?
o It's a zombie fable as evidenced by the "rotters" that inhabit the walled-in city of Seattle. Rigidly speaking, this legend element serves abundantly as another incident of world building, but it definitely holds up more than its fair share of nail-biting action.

* The author simultaneously accomplishes enjoyable feats with Boneshaker:
o She uses the genre staples to a substantial degree; there's not just an zeppelin scene, there are assorted dirigible balloon scenes, and they're all as good as you'd hope they'd be.
o She pays incredible attention to detail -- for example, having the characters constantly stress about wearing their vapor masks; or the initial fiction background chapter -- without pushing the prose into fluff.
o There's downright world building. One of the best examples is the underground association that emerges from the disaster.

* It's got brave characters
o Briar Wilkes is a brave and earnest female essence. Naturally, she tries to detect Zeke and follows him into the city. The act in which she gets ready to go collecting gas mask and dagger) is reminiscent of Ripley in Aliens. Briar isn't fooling around.
o Fifteen year-old Zeke is portrayed as an undisciplined, independent go-getter. No teenager agony here, folks. Zeke Wilkes absolutely makes the pressing journey into the walled city of Seattle, homeland to the Blight that changes users into the marching dead. Zombies, I voice!

* It's got a wicked supporting cast:
o Lucy O'Gunning - the resilient subterranean barkeep with a heart of gold and one (very) first-rate arm.
o Dr. Minnericht - the particular and straightforward leader of the current underground nation that ripened after the defeat of the city aloft.
o Jeremiah Swakhammer - a warrior who knows how to get anywhere the Blight-ravaged city and gloomy underground caves.
o Captin Cly - who trek by dirigible into and out of the city.
o Angeline - A popular representative of the underground nation.

* The family's hilegend incorporates fiction that not only plays the "Whatever happened to...?" badge, but ups the ante by wheeling it around and anywhere until you don't know which way it'll go. And you'll admire the way it goes.



This is a staggering setting that needs more stories. I can't wait.

Want to read the book? Download Boneshaker eBook., or skim all 2009 nebula award winners,