Björn recenserade Boneshaker av Cherie Priest (The Clockwork Century, #1)
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3 stjärnor
OK, so let's say the Klondike rush happened a few decades earlier. Seattle swells from a little border trading post to a major metropolis a little earlier, and the influx of cash has a profound change on US history by enabling the South to continue the civil war indefinitely, using armed airships.
And then everything goes to hell when an inventor tests some new mining equipment in downtown Seattle; not only does he wreck the entire downtown, but he opens up a crack in the earth's crust that lets out volcanic gas from Mt Rainier. Within a week, Seattle has turned into a zombie-infested wasteland, around which the government (what government there is - Washington isn't a state yet, and the war is swallowing all the funds) erects a high wall. Outside, a few homeless stragglers hang on. Inside, death rules.
16 years later, in 1880, the young son of …
OK, so let's say the Klondike rush happened a few decades earlier. Seattle swells from a little border trading post to a major metropolis a little earlier, and the influx of cash has a profound change on US history by enabling the South to continue the civil war indefinitely, using armed airships.
And then everything goes to hell when an inventor tests some new mining equipment in downtown Seattle; not only does he wreck the entire downtown, but he opens up a crack in the earth's crust that lets out volcanic gas from Mt Rainier. Within a week, Seattle has turned into a zombie-infested wasteland, around which the government (what government there is - Washington isn't a state yet, and the war is swallowing all the funds) erects a high wall. Outside, a few homeless stragglers hang on. Inside, death rules.
16 years later, in 1880, the young son of the inventor, who never met his father, goes inside the wall for some answers. And his mother has to get him out again, so she straps on an old gas mask and hitches a ride from a passing zeppelin into hell.
Yes, Boneshaker is western steampunk with zombies, female protagonists and mad inventors. Predictably, it's a lot of fun. At some point, though, it starts to tread water. Priest is a decent enough writer, but language-wise she can't seem to quite decide whether to write a modern novel or a 19th century pastiche, and the plot becomes a little too one-dimensional. When you have a set-up like this, why only focus on three characters running around in tunnels under Seattle? (Yes, there are sequels which apparently expand on the wider aspects of her alternate history.)
Still, y'know, it's western steampunk with zombies, female protagonists and mad inventors. Fun, fun, fun.