Boneshaker
Title: Boneshaker
Author: Cherie Priest
Genre: SciFi
Rating: 4.5/5
415 Pages
Summary from Amazon:
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.
This book flew by. It was suspenseful enough to make me want to keep reading more and the writing wasn't so bad either, which makes all the difference. Briar was a great character - she shows up in the beginning with many masculine aspects and pretty much kicks ass. The story starts off slow (I liked the very start of it, but once they go into the city, it takes a bit for things to really get good), but it does get better.
I do have a few complaints. My favorite character (Dr. Minnericht) was barely seen and the steampunk aspect of the book was on the side. I would have loved more of that since this was my first steampunk novel. Also, the book is set during the Civil War and most of the time I could easily picture it being modern. I just felt like there weren't enough details (or maybe it was the dialect, too) to really put me in that time frame. Other than that, I only have a plot rant.
So for 50+ pages they build up Dr. Minnericht, leading you to believe he could be and probably is Leviticus Blue, despite Briar knowing he's not. I figured that was just to stray the reader off - BUT NO. It really wasn't Levi, and I really really wanted it to be him. It goes back and forth with it, too. Oh maybe he's Levi. No, he's really not. Briar starts to question this. No, he's not. Then he's telling Zeke he really is! HE'S NOT. Yeah, I was pretty upset with that.
Though I do have to admit that it offered a nice plot twist. I definitely did not expect Briar to have killed him, let alone for Dr. Minnericht to be Angeline's son-in-law. I was also kind of upset that Minnericht died. I would love for there to be a prequel with Briar and Levi's story; I would definitely read that.