Some Bone Shakin' Going On...

I try not to turn this blog into a book report vehicle too much, but sometimes it happens. And I love it when I get all gushy, mushy over a book.

I stumbled upon "The Boneshaker" by Cherie Priest through the Brass Goggles forum. (If you like Steampunk, you should check it out. I was referred there from the Romance Divas Steampunk Workshop. Just in case you were wondering, k?)

When people mentioned Seattle (a favorite city of mine) along with airships (how cool are they?) and THEN threw in Zombies, ohmigod, ohmigod, ohmigod! I walked through slush and snow to the bookstore across the street (See how dedicated I am?) to find it. I knew I was on the right track when the girl at the cash registered gushed at me. ("Ohmigod! Ohmigod! Ohmigod! That is the best book EVER!")

And you know what? Despite the fact that there was no romance involved (*sigh*), it was definitely one of the best books ever. And besides, romance can get you killed when you're avoiding a zombie horde in a bombed out, war zone of 1880s Seattle in search of your teenaged son. Just sayin'. It's tough to get all tight in the chest when everybody's wearing breathing masks.

We're dealing with an alternate sort of United States when the story opens. The British have aided the South in the Civil War and it's still raging throughout the U.S. No clear winner yet. Airships and alternate technology make for an interesting addition to the Wild West feel of our setting.

Briar Wilkes and her son Zeke live a tough life on the outskirts of a demolished, infected Seattle. Wilkes' former husband (Zeke's dad) invented a machine that could drill down fast and hard (in hopes of getting some of that Alaska oil), and when testing it in the city, he accidentally unleashes the "Blight" gas that turns those unlucky souls in Seattle into zombies. (Yay! Love the zombies! Yay!)

Zeke decides to prove his dad innocent (or something angsty like that) and sneaks into the city to find their old home/lab. Briar must follow.

There are some normal folks still making a life in the blight-infested city (which has a GINORMOUS wall constructed around it) and these secondaries help (or hurt) our two main characters in their quests. (Zeke to find some answers, and Briar to find her son.)

There's a villain in there, too, besides the swarm of rotters. He's Dr. Minnerecht and he smacks of Briar's former husband in ways that unsettle many folks.


Briar is one incredibly written character. She's had a hard life, she makes tough choices and she's not apologetic. Nor is she perfectly coiffed, dewey and glowy, or smarmy. She fits in her story so well, that it's almost impossible to do her justice in a review.

"The Boneshaker" has tons of fun fit into one little book--airship captains, zombies, Old West rifles, Indian princesses, zombies, big scary machines...did I mention zombies, people?

One final sidenote: I know I'd hit paydirt when this morning, on the bus, a college kid got on at his usual stop. He opened up his bookbag (normally his Calculus book comes out), and can you guess what followed? Yep. You got it. "The Boneshaker." What a small, happy little world we live in.

Happy writing!
h.