Boneshaker

A Novel of the Clockwork Century

By: Cherie Priest

Narrated by: Wil Wheaton, Kate Reading

Cherie Priest's long-awaited steampunk debut, Boneshaker, opens in the early days of the Civil War when rumors of gold in the frozen Klondike brought hordes of newcomers to the Pacific Northwest. Anxious to compete, Russian prospectors commissioned inventor Leviticus Blue to create a great machine that could mine through Alaska's ice. Thus was Dr. Blue's Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine born.

But on its first test run the Boneshaker went terribly awry, destroying several blocks of downtown Seattle and unearthing a subterranean vein of blight gas that turned anyone who breathed it into the living dead.

Now it is sixteen years later, and a wall has been built to enclose the devastated and toxic city. Just beyond it lives Blue's widow, Briar Wilkes. Life is hard with a ruined reputation and a teenaged boy to support, but she and Ezekiel are managing. Until Ezekiel undertakes a secret crusade to rewrite history.

His quest will take him under the wall and into a city teeming with ravenous undead, air pirates, criminal overlords, and heavily armed refugees. And only Briar can bring him out alive.

A good, rollicking read/listen

Cherie Priest's Boneshaker is well-told, well-narrated, and despite the zombie gore, manages to tell a rather sweet story about mothers and sons. I decided to download this novel after listening to the first two books in the Leviathan series by Scott Westerfeld because I felt the need for more steampunk in my life, and I wanted to see what it might look like outside of YA-novel-world.

I was not disappointed. Both Kate Reading and Will Wheaton do an excellent job with narration, and even though they don't use exactly the same voices for the same characters, it wasn't hard to follow who was speaking because there are good cues in the text itself. Besides the quality of narration, the story arc is well-plotted and has a good mix of action and dialogue. Briar's quest to save her son, and his quest for the truth about his father, avoids schmaltz and sentimentality but is still moving.

My only caution is that you should avoid listening while eating once the action of the novel moves into the sealed-off section of Seattle. I was eating a snack and listening when zombie mayhem broke out in the story, and the descriptions of what exactly happens to a zombie's head when it gets shot made my snack much less appetizing. Other than that, which was my own fault for not knowing better, I wholeheartedly recommend this book!

A good time

Overall this was a fun listen, it had potential to be great, but needed to be longer so as to further develop the characters. Zombies, guns, and action, don't expect it to be anything more and you will not be disappointed.

Well narrated Seattle Steampunk

I picked this title because I like the narrators, then I discovered it took place in Seattle and had a strong woman protagonist so I jumped in.

Good enough story about a Seattle ruined in a freak or not-so-freak accident and a mother's journey to rescue her curious son in a hostile environment. I'm not a zombie fan, but these weren't too distressing.

Great Book, Decent Performance

If you could sum up Boneshaker in three words, what would they be?

steampunk, zombies, and zeppelins

Who was your favorite character and why?

I think that Captain Cly might be one of my favorite characters. He's no-nonsense and does what he has to in order to survive, but he loves his ship and is an honorable and decent man in his own way. Second on the list would probably be Jeremiah Swackhammer.

Have you listened to any of Wil Wheaton and Kate Reading ???s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have listened to Wil Wheaton narrate Ready Player One. To be honest, I would have preferred he narrate this entire book. Kate isn't bad, but I found some of her characterizations a little annoying (like Swackhammer with his mask on).

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I didn't have any extreme reactions to the book except for enjoyment. It's a great blend of genres and Priest does a marvelous job of simple descriptions that are complex in their meaning. Many times I've had to pause the audiobook to consider the way she described something and just mull it over in awe.

Somehow it's boring

really struggled with this one. I don't know why, but it was just so horing and hard to pay attention to. Nothimg against the book, I jist couldn't get into it.