MatthewHunter

Such fun! Priest gets really creative in building the world of 1860s and 70s Seattle. A 200-foot-tall wall surrounding the city? Airships? Zombies? Pirates? A lengthened Civil War? Brown text? Dated language (negro, Chinaman) to make narration more authentic? An absolutely beautiful cover? Quirky steampunk gadgets? A mysterious, not-fully defined Blight? Darth Vader/Luke-like father-son drama? Repeated reference to vomit? Yes please! The crazy combinations worked well for me.

If you need deep philosophical currents in your novels, skip Boneshaker. But if you want a quick pace, creative world-building, great character development, a strong heroine, and a touching, believable relationship between a mother and son, give it a try.

Here are a couple of gems from Boneshaker to whet your appetite:

"The Blight had a density to it, and a color that was somewhere between shit and sunflowers."

"'It's hard to argue with a dead man. A dead man can't change his mind or make new rules, or behave like a bastard so no one will listen to him anymore. A dead man stays a saint.'"

Though the first installment in The Clockwork Century doesn't end with a cliffhanger, plenty of questions remain to be answered. I'm looking forward to reading and learning more.