Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

I'd seen Boneshaker by Cherie Priest, a few times on the shelves and while a touch curious, I'd identified it as Steam Punk or Victorian Sci-Fi or whatever and avoided it. Lacking anything else of interest recently, I took a chance and have had to eat my hat. What an excellent read!

It's not what I'd describe as an 'adult' book either, there's no graphic language or violence, just a well told story, which as sexist as it sounds, I didn't expect from a female author. You get well-rounded characters (which is something female authors do tend to do well), good plot and zombies too.

The basic setting is the 1880s Seattle, which suffered a catastrophic event via experimental drilling machine some time ago, the 'Boneshaker' of the story. Besides largely causing the city to partially sink into the ground, it released a gas, the 'Blight' which killed many inhabitants and in some cases turned them into zombies. To contain it, the survivors built a 200 foot wall around part of the city.

It might sound like a really odd or unbelievable setting, particularly if I add in that the American Civil War is still being fought in the East (twenty years and still going strong!) and primitive airships are a common means of transportation.... but it works somehow. I struggled not to stay up all night and read it in a single sitting. So either it's that good or I'm easily pleased. I've since bought the follow-ups (which are loosely connected to the first book); Dreadnought and Ganymede, all within the space of less than a week... I started the last of the three earlier today.

I find the idea of a 20 year plus ACW a bit hard to swallow, even with Britain being involved with the Confederacy, so I had to suspend my disbelief there. The ACW features heavily in 'Dreadnought' and apparently in 'Ganymede' too. Priest writes about it from the 'civilian spectator' point of view and writes it well! Her sci-fi add-ins are not overdone and are all do-able within the technology available, there's no major science leaps made here!

Priest isn't H.G. Wells or Jules Verne, but I'd happily put her books on the same shelf. She is also quicker in pace and while the action isn't non-stop, she had me gripped and wanting more. If I were to award marks out of 5, she'd get a 4 and I'm a hard marker.