Book Review of Boneshaker, by Cherie Priest

BoneshakerI picked up Boneshaker (by Cherie Priest) from my local library.

Description from Goodreads:
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 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.

Review:
I really quite enjoyed this. I liked that it wasn’t all action and blowing stuff up. I liked that there was a 35-year-old, tired out mother as a heroine. I like that the son wasn’t a sniveling baby, but also wasn’t overly confident. I liked that people were smart and could read between lines and such. I enjoyed the alternative world and the basic story-line. I also just plain enjoyed the writing style.

I did think it got a little slow at times and dragged a little here and there. I also would have liked to have known the fate of the City-crew after Briar and Zeke left and there did seem to be a number of convenient coincidences. But all-in-all an enjoyable read.

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