Book Chop: Boneshaker

Title: Boneshaker
Author: Cherie Priest
Genre: Steampunk/alternate history
Verdict: Great concept, exciting world, scattered focus, semi-disappointing by the end.

WOW. I am really behind. Sorry that it's almost been a month. A lot has been going on. I've been working on my writing, I've been dueling the Tech Support Demons of HP, and I'm trying to get my mechanic to fix a problem with my car that I'm quite certain he caused. Needless to say, I've been a busy boy.

So it's a miracle that I've found time to finish reading anything lately, except for audiobooks while working on stickers. I'm not really in the mood to Chop Enchantment by Orson Scott Card, 'cause it deserves a good Chop. So I'll Chop Boneshaker instead.

If you remember my Chop of Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan, you'll remember what "steampunk" is. Frequently it's an alternate history genre in which machines, clockwork devices and technology play a prominent role.

Cherie Priest is great with this genre. On her website she frequently writes steampunk essays and explains why the genre is becoming so popular lately. As far as Boneshaker is concerned, she does a great job thoroughly exploring the hows and whys of the world she's set up.

It's Seattle, Washington. The year is 1880. Washington is not yet a State, and the Civil War is still raging back east. (This is one thing she changed.) Also, Seattle's population is around 40,000 (not the 5,000 it actually had in that year). The California Gold Rush is over, and now people are setting their sights on the frozen north, on the Klondike region, searching for ore in the Alaskan ice. Many an investor are looking for ways to dig through the tundra, and one man--Leviticus Blue--claims to be able to build a machine that can do just that. All he needs a little cash.

Sponsored by Russian prospectors, Levi builds the Boneshaker, an underground drilling vehicle that can make short work of hard earth. Only problem is, on its test run the Boneshaker goes apesh*t and tears up half of the foundation holding up some of the most important buildings in Seattle. Not coincidentally, four of the buildings he brings to the ground are banks.

It doesn't end there: he strikes a vein of buried volcanic "Blight" gas, which destroys the bodies of those who breathe it in, turning them into zombie-esque "rotters". In the ensuing chaos, all those who survived Boneshaker's initial run and the Blight gas flee the city, building a 200 foot-high wall to keep the heavy gas from spreading any further. Levi was never found to be held accountable.

Fast forward sixteen years. Levi's widow, Briar Wilkes, is living in the Outskirts with her son Zeke. She never told him anything about his father, and spoke very little able the day the Boneshaker destroyed the city. Driven to recklessness by curiosity, Zeke runs away with some supplies--an air mask and a map--and sneaks into the city to see what he can learn about his father. When Briar discovers that he's gone, she follows her motherly impulses and goes after him.

What ensues is a lot of fun. You learn that there are survivors in the city, people who've found a way to pump air into sealed compartments in the underground. They have made a new life for themselves there, though they are divided into factions: the Chinese, who keep the billows running; the rotters, who wander around looking for whatever they can eat; Maynard's, a group of survivors who just try to get by; and Minnericht's men.

Minnericht is a doctor who builds all kinds of high-tech devices and uses them to subjugate the people of the city to his will. Everyone owes him something, and he has eyes everywhere. And there's a nasty rumor going around that Minnericht might not actually be his name. In fact, he has a frightening amount of traits in common with another man who brought the city to its knees sixteen years ago...

From there, you meet a ton of really cool characters--my personal favorite was a six-foot-eight Swedish bad@$$ named (get ready for this) Jeremiah Swakhammer.

Yes. Swakhammer. Please take a brief moment to consider the awesomeness of his name in comparison to the following:



I mean, those names are pretty butch, but come on. Swakhammer.

Overall, it's a story about a mother and her son; she's dealing with her past, while he longs to know the truth of it. Soon they'll have to confront it together in order to have any closure.

Pros of the book: Very descriptive, used the five senses, awesome machinery, completely thought-out, used familiar elements in a new way and explained them in a manner that made it believable (especially with the Blight gas). Lots of cool gadgets, and she doesn't baby her characters: it's hard for them to get what they're after.

Cons of the book: some parts just dragged, and were maybe too descriptive. There's a late reveal near the end that deals with the villain, and it left me thinking "Oh, really? That's it? Okay. Who's this guy and why's he important?" I don't think the setup for that was implied heavily enough. ***The next point is a matter of taste*** For how much awesome tech there was, and for how much potential @$$kicking could have happened, I didn't get to spend as much time in the brawling scenes as I would have liked. That is to say, Jeremiah SWAKHAMMER--SWAK. HAMMER.--didn't get enough screen time.

That's all. Fun book though. Oh yeah, and keep in mind that although Zeke is a teen character, it's not what I'd call a teen book. It's got a more mainstream fiction feel to it. There is also a good amount of profanity in it. It's not over-the-top, but it's there.