Review: Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

Title: Boneshaker

Author: Cherie Priest

Publisher: Tor

Published: November 2012

ISBN: 978 1447225089

Rating: 5/5 with merits

Just look at that cover! I adore it.  I can’t make out if it’s a digital cover or from artwork, but its spot on with the book, and sooo deliciously steampunk! Love, love, love it :) Incase you can't make it out, the reflection on the right goggle lens is a flying ship.

I’m so pleased to have found Cherie Priests books.  I devoured this book and hung off every word from every character, which was so easy to do.  Boneshaker is a steampunk dream; the backdrop created is both dark and believable.  Imagine a city full of poisonous gas, so much so that it had to be contained to prevent it killing everyone...now imagine your husband is blamed for this catastrophe having happened, and how you might evolve from there. You're also the daughter of a hero from that fateful night, at least to some.  Life is harsh, and when your son decides to go off by himself to find answers about his father, into the poisonous world...what would you do?

I felt like I had a connection with each of the characters.  I enjoyed the terrifying escapes from the rotters (flesh eating fiends who've been infected by the poisonous gas, blight) Boneshaker has so much steampunkery, from airships, guns, masks and mechanical arms with plenty of tubes throw in for good measure. It's also got some really hunky pirate types in, with some very interesting storylines of their own.  Queen of Steampunk books? You bet!

I enjoyed the suspense in not knowing who was a friend or foe and also in the suspense in finding out of exactly who Dr Minnercht is. Zek doesn't realise what he's getting into when he first starts out on his journey and can barely survive by himself.  As for my favourite character, how can I choose? I really can’t!  Briar keeps her son at arms length and comes across as a fairly cold person to start with, but in reality shes had to keep herself to herself because of her past.  I couldn't find anything I didn't like in the book, nor could I put it down once I'd started.

Boneshaker has several stories which all mingle, so it’s easy to see that there will be more books (yippee!)  I adored the characters, the setting and the storyline...I’m really excited that there’s more to come, the next one is due out on the 6th December.

Book synopsis:

At the start of the Civil War, a Russian mining company commissions a great machine to pave the way from Seattle to Alaska and speed up the gold rush that is beating a path to the frozen north. Inventor Leviticus Blue creates the machine, but on its first test run it malfunctions, decimating Seattle s banking district and uncovering 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.

Source- many thanks to the publishers, a copy was received in return for an honest review.