Boneshaker

By: Cherie Priest

Narrated by: Wil Wheaton, Kate Reading

Length: 13 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

In the early days of the Civil War, 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 16 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.

©2009 Cherie Priest (P)2010 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"Intelligent, exceptionally well written and showcasing a phenomenal strong female protagonist who embodies the complexities inherent in motherhood, this yarn is a must-read for the discerning steampunk fan." ( Publishers Weekly)

many directions

the story did not seem focused at first. but it coellesked soon enough. the good narrators helped. it left an obvious opening for a sequel. which I will read want to read of course.

Real people and Zombies that support the story

Here's the book that totally turned my mind around about Steampunk. It even had zombies and for once they did not make me yawn.

But in contrast to many other stories this one does not rely on witty comments about stiff Victorian gentlemen or basic romantic plot. Its about family or rather about a mother and her son with a long unspoken history lurking somewhere in the past.

The world, characters and nuances feel very real and plausible. People are actual persons and the absence of absolute good and evil feels very good for a change.

yuck.... trust me. Not creative. worst wheaton.

ugly characters going nowhere in an illogical world...
It does not deserve 15 words

Zombies, Zeppelins, and Zeke, Oh My!

I really enjoyed the book and especially the narration by Kate Reading and Wil Wheaton. I’ve listened to other audio books where the female narrator just can’t do male voices convincingly (Emily Gray botched a Jasper Fforde novel so badly that I couldn’t get past the second chapter) but Kate Reading does a great job. And Wil is top-notch. Unlike some reviewers, I didn’t mind the narration switching back and forth between these two voices. In fact, it seemed to give the characters more dimension somehow.

As for the book itself – what a delicious concept. Zombies, zeppelins, sky pirates, a mad scientist, a Wild-West society underground in the ruins of “Old Seattle”, and a resourceful mother’s desperate search for her son. The book was a bit slow in places, and some dialogue dragged on much longer than it had to (hence my 4-star, not 5-star rating), but that’s okay. The slow beginning led to a dynamite ending, and a perfect set-up for future novels.

This novel isn’t what I would really call “steampunk.” I think it’s only called that because the publishing world has to put everything in a slot. It’s more like “Wild West Zombie punk,” if such a category can be imagined. But the female characters are strong and fully imagined, the desperation of the characters feels real, and the ideas are wonderful.

And the outrageous names – Leviticus Blue, Doctor Minnericht, Jeremiah Swakhammer – LOL!

I highly recommend this book.

Great... but inconsistencies in voice

I thoroughly enjoyed Boneshaker. The plot was fantastic and the characters were well-developed (steampunk + zombies, what's not to like?). I only have one small quibble. The audio book used two different narrators throughout the work. This tactic was effective for the majority of the book since each narrator provided the perspective of one of the main protagonists. When the protagonists meet up towards the end of the book there is some conflict with the narration. A character that was voiced by one narrator was suddenly voiced by the other narrator. The discontinuity is jarring. It would have been worth a bit of post production to overcome this small problem in what was otherwise a fantastic read.

Should've been Wil Wheaton all the way through

Good story, but I found the switch of narrators distracting. In some books it works well ("The Help" comes to mind) but not this one. There was just no reason to justify it.

Of the two narrators I found Wil Wheaton's reading preferable and I think I would've enjoyed it more if he'd read it all the way through.

Reading's reading (dang... I'm probably the millionth reviewer to use that phrase) makes Briar's personality too drained and dispirited to listen too for very long.

steampunk+zombies+Wil Wheaton= infinite awesome!

I loved how the story switched between the two narrators. The story had depth and I found myself captivated by every character. I would recommend this story to anyone and already have.

Performance was decent

Kate reading is a good reader. Will Wheaton is ok until he starts doing voices which are terrible. He is not a good actor.

Great Book

I remember hearing about this book when it forst came out but I kept putting it off... well after audible had it on one of there monthly sales I finally got around to picking it up. Now I see what the buzz was all about, and I wish I had not waited so long to pick it up. I hope the rest are as well written.

Red Dead Redemption Meets Bioshock Meets Left4Dead

The storyline was interesting, though the characters were a little lacking. I never really felt invested in the characters and what would happen to them. Overall, it was a good read.

I love Will Wheaton, and honestly, seeing he was the narrator was the deciding factor in me buying this book. But for as much as I usually love him, i really didn't like his characters in this book. I enjoyed his narration, but his character voices were awful. Kate Reading did a great job. I loved her narration and characters.