05.02.2020
58
Inventor Leviticus Blue creates a machine that accidentally decimates Seattle's banking district and uncovers a vein of Blight Gas that turns everyone who breathes it into the living dead. Sixteen years later Briar, Blue's widow, lives in the poor neighborhood outside the wall that's been built around the uninhabitable city. Life is tough with a ruined reputation, but she and her teenage son Ezekiel are surviving-until Zeke impetuously decides that he must reclaim his father's name from the clutches of history. Maybe if I’d read Cherie Priest’s steampunk novel Boneshaker when it first came out I would have been more excited about it. But something about the confluence of time and self and book did not add up to a really great experience even though I can’t pin down anything about the book that might cause this.It’s an alternate 1880s Seattle where 15 years ago a mad scientist named Leviticus Blue built a giant drilling machine and accidentally unleashed the Blight, a gas that turns people into zombie-like Rotters.
This story is about Blue’s son, Zeke, going over the wall into the Blight-ridden parts of Seattle to find some answers about his father. It’s also about Zeke’s mother, Briar, trying to go find her son and bring him back safe.The storylines don’t exactly alternate chapters, but we see both Zeke and Briar try to navigate the deadly world inside the wall in their different ways. There are airships and grand railway cars and drugs and big suits of armour and mechanical arms and you see a number of characters from both Zeke and Briar’s perspective at different times.The portrayal of the Chinese people in the city bothered me. They were inscrutable, or scheming viziers, or mindless automatons or “amazingly bright” with technology and language but treated with casual racist condescension by the heroes. I know the 1880s weren’t a wonderful enlightened time, but there’s enough anachronism in steampunk I think you don’t have to reinforce all the racist stereotypes at once.It’s a well-put-together tale, but I kind of felt like it was all just a chain of scenes to the end.
Boneshaker Cherie Priest Epub Download
There wasn’t anything that made me think differently about life or technology or mothers and sons or whatever. For something kind of similar that I loved, I’d recommend Mechanique. Boneshaker was the kind of steampunk historical fantasy novel that I didn't see coming.
I get frustrated with a LOT of the Victoriana steampunk novels out there, for their sheer stupidity and likewise, I'm charmed by steampunk novels that show me something new. That's where this one lands.Because steampunk. And the kind that are scary and fast.I loved that the main character is not some young heroine, but a late 30's aged mother.
And the other women in this book are suitably kick-ass, and also in their 50's and beyond. I loved that the Seattle Underground and 1880's Seattle infrastructure plays such a key role, even given the liberal fact changes for story's purpose. I loved seeing characters plucked out of Seattle history and dropped into this story. And it was a rollicking ride, especially after about halfway through.This was my first Cherie Priest novel, but not my last. It's a must-read for steampunk fans and zombie fiction fans, and I also recommend it for fans of historical fantasy, Seattle lovers especially. And if you've never been on the Seattle Underground tour (and you SHOULD DO THIS), suffice to say her description of the tunnel areas isn't far off to what actually exists today.
Parts of the story are implausible, of course (it IS fantasy), but the touchstone of Seattle's true underground and layout are delightful. I agree 100% with Erika2525. She is a weak writer with a good story line. She takes too much time on describing the settings (and pretty much none on the characters) and most seem to be repeated sceens ( it's dark and hard to see thru the Blight there are trash and boxes.ect) stop going into detail on things that don't make the stroy move along.
I know the characters move around in the book but to me it felt like they were in the same 3 types of scenarios and it got very boring. I also thought for a steampunk book it really didnt have much in the way of steampunk itself. Yeah ok it had a few interesting weapons but nothing that makes steampunk good. I will not be reading anymore from this writer. Save your time! I feel the same way about Boneshaker as I do about Priest's Eden Moore series, namely that she has a lot of great ideas, but can be a weak writer overall.I enjoy her vision of Southern Gothic and Northwest Steampunk alike, but she nevertheless can wind up creating non-sympathetic characters, writing scenes that seem better suited for cinema (in Boneshaker's case), and using way too much exposition and resorting to deus ex machina when she writes herself into a corner (in the Eden Moore trilogy).I definitely feel that she could use a better editor.