Author: Cherie Priest
Series: Clockwork Century #1
Audiobook Narrator: Karen Redding and Wil Wheaton
Genre: Steampunk, Science Fiction, Dystopia, Alternate History
Summary (From Amazon.com):
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:
Boneshaker is my fourth steampunk book that I finished reading (while listening to the audiobook version also for better experience. The story center around Briar Wilkes(narrated by Karen Redding)attempts to rescue her son, Ezekiel (or Zeke on which geek extraordinaire, Wil Wheaton was the narrator) who has his own personal quest on recovering his (in)famous father's science equipment inside the blight "zone" which is infested by "rotters" (aka zombies).
The overall story is very unique as it projects a semi-dystopian/post-apocalyptic feel once the the main character enters the "blight" area of the city. As with any steampunk books that I have read, the setting is held around the 1800's (around the American Civil War period). Boneshaker is a great beginning to a great steampunk series and I can't wait to read the next book "Celementine".
