Books I Like...

Available at the library

This will be book recommendation #2.  I think I may have written about this book in the past, but I've heard that there is a possibility that it will be made into a movie (much as I thought <cough, cough>).

Title:                    Boneshaker

Author:                Cherie Priest

Catalog:               F Priest

Synopsis:

[From the HPL Polaris Library Catalog]  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.

Why I like this novel:

This novel fits into the Steampunk genre of fiction.  It is an alternate history story, which I find to be generally thought-provoking and fun.  With this book, it’s mostly fun.  However, Priest has a great way with words and keeps the story rolling along.  As I read the book, I could see many of the scenes as movie scenes.  I liked the Civil War-era setting and the pretty good attention to accuracy and detail given to the technology of the day.  The machinery and other “fantastical” creations in this alternate-history world reminded me a lot of Jules Verne.  This book really would make a great movie, I think.  It has all the elements of a good action film - that is, "good action".  It has some elements of romance, some good twists, and it has zombies and larger-than-life hero/characters.  Oh, and a capable and determined female lead character who kicks butt.