I wanted to like this book. The premise seemed excellent, and I was drawn to Briar. Fantasy genres abound with plucky teenage heroines, but it can be difficult to find interesting adult female protagonists. Most of all, I was impressed by the glowing praise from Scott Westerfeld ("This book is made of irresistible") and Warren Ellis.

The premise is as excellent as is seemed. However, two problems plague the book.

First, a steampunk adventure story requires frequent and detailed descriptions of the settings, i.e., There were pipes and levers and copper thingies everywhere, and don't forget to put on your goggles! Unfortunately, these you-are-here descriptions bring the pace of the action to a screeching halt. It was difficult to get excited about the zombies when Briar spent as much time describing the surroundings as she did describing her fear of the hungry undead.

The second problem is that the writing often becomes so distractingly trite that it pulls me out of the story and into snark-land. Lines like "He was dead for no reason at all except that he'd once been alive," and "Briar stopped too--or she would have, if she hadn't already," and "she didn't disturb the disturbing silence," give me flashbacks to Creative Writing 101.

Again, the premise is excellent and would lend itself wonderfully to film. When is Boneshaker coming to theaters?