Dreadnought

Publishers Weekly
[Starred Review ] Dreadnought
Cherie Priest, Tor, $14.99 paper (480p) ISBN 978-0-7653-2578-5

An intimate, well-crafted portrait of a nurse on a mission adds depth to this exceptional Civil War steampunk thriller, the self-contained sequel to 2009’s Locus Award-winning Boneshaker. Mercy Lynch, recently widowed and taxed to exhaustion by caring for Confederate wounded in Richmond, must cross the war-torn nation to reach her estranged father, who lies dying in the Washington territories. After her dirigible is shot out of the air, Mercy joins Horatio Korman, a Texas Ranger with an agenda, on the Union’s famous steam engine, the Dreadnought. On their trail are desperate Confederate soldiers and a zombified Mexican legion. The battles and intrigue are entertaining, but the real draw is Priest’s latest no-nonsense heroine, who comes equipped with a full measure of sharp judgment and brutal competence as well as a nurse’s kind (but not saintly) heart. (Oct.)

Clementine

Publishers Weekly
Cherie Priest. Subterranean (www.subterraneanpress.com), $25 (208p) ISBN 978-1-59606-308-2

Piracy meets politics head-on in this steampunk thriller, loosely linked to Priest’s much-lauded Boneshaker (2009). Maria Isabella Boyd, a notorious former actress and Confederate spy, is on her first mission for the renowned Pinkerton Detective Agency. The airship Clementine must deliver its cargo unimpeded, but its former owner, escaped slave–turned–air pirate Croggon Hainey, is determined to recover the ship he stole fair and square. A simple pursuit quickly evolves, and soon Maria and Croggon are forced to fight on the same side. Explosive battle scenes, riveting action, and a sharp-eyed examination of the mistrust between Croggon’s all-black crew and very white, very Southern Maria play out in a desperate race against the clock. Though the unflinching portrayal of complex race relations is aimed at adult readers, Priest’s swashbuckling tale is also quite accessible for older teens. (June)

SciFi Magazine
March 2010

The latest in Priest’s steampunk series about an alternate Civil War that still rages in 1880, thanks in part to the wide availability of hydrogen airships, is an over-the-top romp driven by pirates, aerial battles, revenge, conspiracies, secret weapons, and a forced alliance between deadly enemies. (Just about the only thing it doesn’t have is true love.) … There are cliffhangers aplenty, and the world Priest has set up is a promising one, but the book’s real attraction is the well-realized portrayal of [Maria Isabelle] Boyd, who is as resourceful, charming, and dangerous as she was in real life.

The Mad Hatter Bookshelf and Book Review
April, 2010

Clementine is a much more subtle story than Boneshaker, but it is no less enthralling as every chapter moves at a brisk pace. Airship fights, spies, thieves, and giant guns all make Clementine a seriously steam-powered wild ride through the sky, which showcases a larger part of Priest’s Clockwork Century fractured North America. The war of the North versus the South is still on going in the late 19th century filled with steam-powered weaponry and mad scientist trying to turn the tide of the war one way or the other.

Boneshaker

Publishers Weekly: Starred review – Boneshaker, Cherie Priest. Tor, $15.99 paper (416p) ISBN 978-0-7653-1841-1

Maternal love faces formidable challenges in this stellar steampunk tale. In an alternate 1880s America, mad inventor Leviticus Blue is blamed for destroying Civil War–era Seattle. When Zeke Wilkes, Blue’s son, goes into the walled wreck of a city to clear his father’s name, Zeke’s mother, Briar Wilkes, follows him in an airship, determined to rescue her son from the toxic gas that turns people into zombies (called rotters and described in gut-churning detail). When Briar learns that Seattle still has a mad inventor, Dr. Minnericht, who eerily resembles her dead husband, a simple rescue quickly turns into a thrilling race to save Zeke from the man who may be his father. 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.

Library Journal:
(Where Boneshaker is dubbed one of the 20 “core titles of steampunk.”)

Zombies, steam-powered technology, airships, pirates, and mad scientists—What more could you want? How about great storytelling, compelling characters, and an interesting plot? Priest combines all of these things and somehow even more.

Fantasy Magazine:

[Boneshaker gives] richly defined characters a real world to inhabit, no matter how fantastic the story. Add excellent characterization and a concept second to none, and Boneshaker proves to be one of 2009’s best novels and is not to be missed.

Kirkus Reviews:

Priest (Fathom, 2008, etc.) bravely, and successfully, ventures into steampunk and zombie-horror territory.

The action takes place in an alternate-history version of 1880s Seattle. In Priest’s variant, the Klondike gold rush came decades early. In 1863, Seattle scientist Leviticus Blue invented a massive steam-powered machine (Dr. Blue’s Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine) to drill for gold through thick ice. When tested, it went out of control and wreaked havoc throughout Seattle, destroying several buildings and killing dozens. Soon after, a mysterious gas, the Blight, turned many who breathed it into predatory zombies called “rotters.” Sixteen years later, Blue’s widow Briar and son Zeke have little beyond a ruined family reputation. When Zeke impulsively decides to revisit walled-off Seattle to find proof that his father wasn’t a villain, Briar follows him into the rotter-infested city. Priest, a Seattle resident, delivers a fast-moving story filled with cool steampunk technology and scary zombies. Fans of science fiction will find much to enjoy here. An impressive and auspicious genre-hopping adventure.

i09.com, review by Lauren Davis
October 12, 2009

Cherie Priest’s Boneshaker is a veritable grab bag of subgenre tropes. But, fortunately, it’s far less about clockwork and brass than it is about human adaptability and the shifting nature of the American Dream. …

…Boneshaker’s greatest strength is that Priest doesn’t overly fetishize the subgenres she plays with, never overwhelming the fairly straightforward stories of mother and son, and giving her clockwork machinations and zombie encounters more impact when they do appear. Though zombies and Blight certainly color the lives of Seattle residents, they aren’t obsessed with either; they simply accept that their routines occur in a deadly world. And Zeke and Briar may live in a world filled to the brim with elements of science fiction and pulp, but those are just the things and people they must navigate to reunite and survive. The only real downside is that, throughout the book, we visit too briefly with so many intriguing characters and concepts in favor of the novel’s core adventure. Fortunately, Priest is already setting a second novel in her strange and blemished world, so we will hopefully see a fuller, richer picture of what goes on inside.

Bookslut, review by Colleen Mondor
October 2009

… A mash-up of action, history and science that is everything good about steampunk while maintaining a decidedly original Pacific Northwest twist. If you like the genre, you’ll love this and if you’ve been worried that it’s getting stale or trendy then you will be thrilled with Priest’s way of taking the formula and turning it inside out. The setting is solid but the characters are what makes Boneshaker sing. Briar, Zeke and the people (good and bad) they meet are all memorable. Bored with vampires? (Of course you are.) Give Cherie Priest fifteen minutes of your time, trust me — you won’t look back.

SF Signal — “Riveting adventure story; great characters; perfectly captures the flavors of the steampunk and zombie subgenres. … [It's got] a great hook; a steampunk/zombie mash-up is instantly appealing. The question is whether it can last the length of a novel. In short: absolutely. Boneshaker simply pulls you in and doesn’t let go.”

Fantasy Book Critic — “Think The Wild Wild West meets Fallout (a videogame series) meets George Romero… the story was a lot of fun, the setting was creative, and I cared about the characters, especially Briar. In short, I immensely enjoyed “Boneshaker” and can’t wait to read more books in the Clockwork Century series.”

BookPage, Oct. 9
Steampunk in Seattle

There are plenty of alternate Civil War novels, but none quite like Cherie Priest’s Boneshaker (Tor, $15.99, 416 pages, ISBN 9780765318411). In the 1860s, Leviticus Blue builds a gold-mining machine in response to a Russian contest. But something goes terribly wrong—either intentionally or by accident, we don’t quite know—and the Boneshaker destroys the banking district of Seattle and unleashes a gas that turns the living into the living dead. A wall is built around Seattle to contain the gas and the zombies. Sixteen years later, Leviticus’ widow attempts to rescue their son, Ezekiel, who has braved the wall to vindicate his universally hated father. Behind the wall, a man who may or may not be Leviticus— and who may or may not have robbed the banks—has built a kingdom of the living, and he has other plans for Ezekiel and his mother. What follows is a fantastic whirlwind tour of an alternate history and a steampunk version of The Lord of the Flies. While slightly marred by a few too many similar chase scenes, Boneshaker offers fans of both steampunk and the New Weird much to enjoy.

Locus Magazine, October 2009

If anyone can force steampunk into the mainstream reader’s consciousness, it is Cherie Priest. Boneshaker, the first book in the Clockwork Century series, which Priest calls “her Discworld,” is just the title to get the job done … This world’s texture is luscious and deep — and it will be interesting to see what happens in it next.

Boneshaker arrives in September of 2009 from Tor Books, but people are already talking about it — and for that I do dearly thank them (and list them alphabetically here).

“So convincing, so evocative, so terrifying that I read this book with the doors locked and a gun on my lap. Boneshaker is a steampunk menagerie of thrills and horror.” –Mario Acevedo, bestselling author of the Felix Gomez mysteries.

“This exquisitely imaginative steampunk adventure is a joy to read! My favorite of Cherie’s books.” –Cassandra Clare, bestselling author of the Mortal Instruments series

“Everything you’d want in such a volume and much more … It’s full of buckle and has swash to spare, and the characters are likable and the prose is fun. This is a hoot from start to finish, pure mad adventure.” –Cory Doctorow, bestselling author of Little Brother

“Boneshaker is without a doubt Cherie Priest’s breakthrough work: this hollering, stamping, crackling thing is the best fun you’ll have with a book all year.” —Warren Ellis, bestselling author of Crooked Little Vein and award-winning writer of fine comics.

“A gorgeously grim world of deadly gasses, mysterious machines, zeppelin pirates, and a relentless plague of zombies. With Boneshaker, Priest is geared up to begin her reign as the Queen of Steampunk.” —Mark Henry, author of Road Trip of the Living Dead

“A rip-snorting adventure in the best tradition of a penny dreadful. Priest has crafted a novel of exquisite prose and thrilling twists, populated by folk heroes and dastardly villains, zombies and air pirates, incredible machines and a heroine who’ll have you cheering. BONESHAKER is the definitive steampunk story, absolutely unique and one hell of a fun read.” – Caitlin Kittredge, author of the Nocturne City novels and the upcoming Witch’s Alphabet

“A marvelous book, crammed with readerly pleasures–zombies, pirates, cracking adventures, historical conceits and characters that make you wish you could linger inside it long after turning the final page. Cherie Priest is one of my favorite fantasists.” —Kelly Link, acclaimed author of Magic for Beginners

“If Jules Verne and George Romero got together to rewrite American history it might go something like this. I loved it. I want more.” —Mike Mignola, creator of Hellboy

“If the Wild Wild West had been written by Mark Twain with the assistance of Jules Verne and Bram Stoker, it still couldn’t be as fabulous and fantastical as Boneshaker. Cherie Priest has penned a rousing adventure tale that breathes a roaring soul and thundering heart into the glittering skin of Steampunk. Stylish, taut, and wonderful, it’s a literary ride you must not miss!” —Kat Richardson, bestselling author of the Greywalker series

“A steampunk-zombie-airship adventure of rollicking pace and sweeping proportions, full of wonderfully gnarly details. This book is made of irresistible.” —Scott Westerfeld, bestselling author of the Uglies series and Leviathan

“It’s awesome. I loved everything about it, and I can’t wait for it to come out so the rest of the world can read it and understand why I loved it as much as I did.” Wil Wheaton, author of Just a Geek, The Happiest Days of our Lives