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Boneshaker (The Clockwork Century, #1)

Cherie Priest

Start date: January 1, 2013

Finish date: January 31, 2013

Discussion: Book Discussions

Why we're reading this: January 2013 Contemporary
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Sep 03, 2015 Scott Firestone rated it liked it

Seattle in 1880 is a harsh place. Sixteen years earlier, a man named Leviticus Blue crashed his wondrous ice-breaking machine under the city while on a test run, releasing a mysterious gas that turns people into the living dead. But Boneshaker is (thankfully) not a zombie book. It's a book about Leviticus' teenage son Zeke impetuously heading into the now-walled-off city center to seek answers about his father. And it's about Leviticus' wife Briar going after her son into this dangerous place, f Seattle in 1880 is a harsh place. Sixteen years earlier, a man named Leviticus Blue crashed his wondrous ice-breaking machine under the city while on a test run, releasing a mysterious gas that turns people into the living dead. But Boneshaker is (thankfully) not a zombie book. It's a book about Leviticus' teenage son Zeke impetuously heading into the now-walled-off city center to seek answers about his father. And it's about Leviticus' wife Briar going after her son into this dangerous place, filled with zombies, airships, heroes, and villains.

First: zombies. I'm so dang sick of zombies. The only way you're going to come close to keeping my interest with them is if they're somehow different than normal zombies, or there's a twist, or anything. (Even then, I'd be fine if this fad would just fade away.) Here they're just your run-of-the-mill zombie. So...boring.

Overall, the book is fine. But it's never more than fine, and I feel as though this setup promised me more than fine. Briar and Zeke should be the most interesting characters in the book, but they're the least interesting. Everyone around them has personality, and unique aspects, and backstories that make you want to find out more about them. Zeke and Briar are lifeless.

And they're aimless, too. Other than Zeke's decision to head into the city, and Briar's decision to go after him, they're moved through the book by other people. They're always being taken somewhere by someone else. Things or people might interrupt that trip, but then they're back heading somewhere with someone--possibly someone new. They feel like passive characters that things happen to, rather than active participants in their own story.

There are a few things that just didn't make sense to me--the biggest being the fact that people live in the walled-off area at all. Super dangerous. Gas masks constantly. Zombies everywhere. Horrible life. They're not trapped, so why not just leave? The book hints at some answers but it just doesn't ring true. It feels more like Priest needed people to live there, so people live there.

I've been super harsh, but it really was a fine story. The world was evocative, and the secondary characters were well-drawn. I just kept waiting for something surprising to happen, and it never did. (Until the end, where there's a "twist" I hated.) This is one of Priest's earlier works, and it shows. But friends who have read further into the series seem to feel they get markedly better from here. I'm hopeful that's true, and I'll read on to find out for myself. ...more

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Oct 04, 2012 Daran rated it it was amazing

I don't think I've ever read about a town infested with zombies, and thought "I wish I lived there," and certainly not one where poisonous gas is a constant threat. Until now.

Boneshaker's great setting, a quarantined 1880's Seattle, sets off a truly original cast of oddball characters, and is driven by a well-paced story.

The characters; Briar Wilkes, Jeremiah Swakhammer, Lucy O'Gunning, and others, are easy to root for, in part because they are underdogs, and also because they are very easy to r ...more

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