Denver Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Club

BONESHAKER
by
CHERIE PRIEST
Boneshaker cover Boneshaker (2009)

2009 final ballot for Nebula Award
2010 Hugo Award nominee

Tor books trade paperback, A Sci Fi Essential book
416 pages
cover art by Jon Foster (left)		  
Blurb from the back cover:
       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.

Read for group discussion on April 28, 2010
RATINGS:
How we each rated this book
Dan - Amy 8 stack of books 10   Wow! Don't miss it
8-9  Highly recommended
7    Recommended
5-6  Mild recommendation
3-4  Take your chances
1-2  Below average; skip it
0    Get out the flamethrower!
U    Unfinishable or unreadable
-    Skipped or no rating given
Cheri 8 Barb -
Aaron 7 Cynthia -
Jackie 7.5 Ron 6
Bob 8 Molly 6.5
Bibliography:
Cherie Priest (1975-    ) is a US writer of alternative history or steampunk, Southern Gothic, horror, and contemporary fantasy.

The Clockwork Century books, alternative history steampunk
-- Boneshaker (2009)
-- Clementine (forthcoming 2010), novella
-- Dreadnaught (forthcoming 2010)

Eden Moore books, feature a psychic who can communicate with ghosts
-- Four & Twenty Blackbirds (2003, revised and expanded 2005), her first novel
-- Wings to the Kingdom (2006)
-- Not Flesh Nor Feathers (2007)

Other novels
-- Dreadful Skin (2007), a mosaic novel
-- Those Who Went Remain There Still (2008)
-- Fathom (2010), contemporary fantasy and horror

Links:
Aaron's book review of Boneshaker on Fantastic Reviews
Cherie Priest - Wikipedia
Cherie Priest - author's website
Strange Horizons Reviews: Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
scottmarlowe.com | Book Review: Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

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 This page was last updated May 31, 2010