Boneshaker by Cherie Priest (The Clockwork Century #1)

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Jacket Blurb: 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.

Read for August 2020 book group. Read as an audio book.

Premise of the book is young Zeke has lived his life beyond the wall that contains the Blight, a horrific anomaly that was caused by his deceased father. Zeke wants to try and find information that will redeem his father and grandfather, but his Mother has always been firmly against such actions, preferring to let the past stay in the past. Zeke has other plans and embarks on a quest to get into the Blight Zone, leaving his Mother no choice but to follow.

The steampunk was truly steampunk, mixing historical fiction with fantasy and some speculative (for 1800's) science fiction.

This was an "okay" read. I was entertained, but not engaged enough to want to read further into the series. I was disappointed with the zombies (just not a fan of the zombie genre), there were a few too many redundant questions being asked by the main characters (a peeve of mine), and an excessive amount of running. It was almost as if the author kept the characters moving to show as much of the Blight City and its strangeness as possible. While the ending had one small but quite enjoyable surprise, the full resolution was somewhat underwhelming.

This selection definitely straddles the line between Young Adult and Adult. I think any mother reading this will be able to relate to Briar's struggles in raising Zeke. I think most pre-teens will be able to relate to Zeke's character and his quest to find the truth and subsequent adventures.

Recommended with reservations - an enjoyment of steampunk, zombies, and young adult genre is a must for this book.

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