Technical issues

[sailor _stuck_at_sea]

I was just wondering if anyone else has the same issue with Cherie Priest's books, namely that most of her technical explanations doesn't make sense?
This is my one beef with what is otherwise an excellent story, but it keep breaking my immersion and it's really frustrating!

[sailor _stuck_at_sea]

Unfortunately I study marine propulsion so the inconsistencies are extremely glaring to me

[Daniel]

Hell, I don't know. I think that she leaves enough of the technology out of the story that I can imagine and fill it in with something that I think would work. I'm usually a stickler for the technology making sense in books and didn't get that hung up on this book. I will say that I liked Boneshaker a lot more that Dreadnought, but I'm hoping the next book is a bit more engaging.

[sailor _stuck_at_sea]

I agree with you there, Boneshaker is without a doubt the better book. I'm perfectly willing to accept that the Boneshaker works in universe, because it's a fairly minor point in the actual story. In Dreadnought the trains are the main setting as well as a major plot point which means I'm automatically going to demand more out of it. It's especially jarring to me because it would have been so easy to fix, just change diesel to oil burning and everything would have been fine.

[Daniel]

Maybe out on a limb, but Priest could have even gone with a something not quite this world-ish for fuel to run the trains and war machines in the east... sort of a blith fuel with the future moving towards more of this world. But I'm often wrong and enjoyed the read. I just felt that Dreadnought was a long introduction of new characters to get to the more interesting story line.

[Lynn]

I agree completely that the technical short comings were too large to overlook. I really wanted to enjoy it, steampunk, civil war, alt history, so may ways to love, but I had a hard time finishing.