BoneShaker story article - Kindle Copy
by: RobertKolr2
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Word Count: 878
Date: Sat, 1 Jan 2011 Time: 7:14 PM
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Snappy SYNOPSIS: Briar Wilkes tries to catch her son, Zeke, who enters the walled up, zombie-ridden city of Seattle to wipe his father's name.
MY REVIEW:
PROS: Riveting excitement story; great characters; wholly grabs the flavors of the steampunk and zombie subgenres.
CONS: Some drama elements might look to be cliche?, but that's critically little potatoes next to the entertainment value this epic provides.
BOTTOM LINE: This is a phenomenal setting that demands more stories. I can't wait.
Genre mash-ups are one of the creditable pastimes of the blogosphere. ("Hey, wouldn't a steampunk zombie story be wonderful?") The theory is that off-the-cuff statements like that are not necessarily easy to pull off. Authors still have to fear about dramatelling, characterizations, drama, and an a few more elements that make up fairy tale -- and all towards the goal of producing something that has to be amusing at the same time. It's no little feat, to be sure. But damn, Cherie Priest makes it appear easy with her new novel, Boneshaker.
The epic stems from a chain of events involving the Russian crusade for gold during the American Civil War. Seattle experimenter Leviticus Blue is appointed to create a computer that will dig for gold through Alaskan ice. While testing his gadget (dubbed the Boneshaker) something goes badly wrong: Seattle is broken as the Boneshaker carves out the earth below the city. Worse still, the digging has also unleashed a slow-spreading vapor that begins to turn people into zombies. A barricade is thus constructed anywhere the city to keep the loaded "Blight" fumes under cover while the survivors head for to the safer outskirts. Year's later, Briar Wilkes (Blue's widow), who makes a miserable living by employed in a factory, is still blackballed by society. Her son, Zeke, not satisfied with the family's condition and his bedraggled family name, sets out to fix 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 landscape of the undead.
That's a fantastic hook; a steampunk/zombie mash-up is as soon as possible appealing. The question is whether it can last the length of a story. In short: absolutely. Boneshaker really pulls you in and doesn't let go.
Here's why:
* Boneshaker is all about the romance of science fable and the essence inherent in the genres it smashes together:
o It's an romance book that moves promptly, puts the stars in great hazard, and makes the reader desiring to see what happens next.
o It's a steampunk romance, set in the 19th century during the Civil War (although that's happening abroad). Noted here is that the author bends hilegend a bit, but as she says in the afterward, that's the press of steampunk, isn't it?
o It's a zombie fairy tale as evidenced by the "rotters" that inhabit the walled-in city of Seattle. Rigidly speaking, this legend element serves to a great extent as another act of world building, but it definitely holds up more than its fair share of nail-biting action.
* The author simultaneously accomplishes excellent feats with Boneshaker:
o She uses the genre staples to a good degree; there's not just an airship scene, there are individual blimp scenes, and they're all as as you'd hope they'd be.
o She pays extraordinary attention to detail -- for example, having the characters constantly fear about wearing their stream masks; or the initial book background chapter -- without pushing the prose into fluff.
o There's great world building. One of the best examples is the underground populace that emerges from the disaster.
* It's got gutsy characters
o Briar Wilkes is an intelligent and resolute female character. Naturally, she tries to find Zeke and follows him into the city. The bit in which she prepares to go gathering gas mask and axe) is evocative of Ripley in Aliens. Briar isn't kidding around.
o Fifteen year-old Zeke is expressed as a young, independent go-getter. No teen angst here, folks. Zeke Wilkes voluntarily makes the fatal hike into the confined city of Seattle, haven to the Blight that changes individuals into the walking dead. Zombies, I express!
* It's got a laid-back supporting cast:
o Lucy O'Gunning - the resilient subterranean barkeep with a heart of gold and one (very) first-class arm.
o Dr. Minnericht - the absolute and perplexing leader of the latest underground community that matured after the loss of the city below.
o Jeremiah Swakhammer - a professional soldier who knows how to get around the Blight-ravaged city and gloomy underground caves.
o Captin Cly - who trek by zeppelin into and out of the city.
o Angeline - A creditable comrade of the underground society.
* The family's history uses book that not only plays the "Whatever happened to...?" badge, but ups the ante by wheeling it anywhere and around until you don't know which way it'll go. And you'll adore the way it goes.
This is a magnificent setting that demands more stories. I can't wait.
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