Sitting in an airport is excellent source of two things: anxiety and spare time. At least for me. I'm a huge fan of arriving at airports extremely early to handle the inevitable delay and/or big fat airport problem which always occurs whenever I come within 300 yards of the place with the intent of picking up a boarding pass. That being said I also am a big fan of crossword puzzles and books.
There's a point to this, I promise.
I recently spent a grand total of 11 hours in an airport or airplane and found a considerable amount of time available to read. I brought a book with me: Boneshaker by Cherie Priest.
I am so happy that I did.
It's got Zombies! It's got Steampunk! It's got History! It's got Drama!
When gold is found in the Klondike of Alaska, the Russians employ a man named Leviticus Blue to create a machine to bore through feet of hard permafrost to get to the precious metal in the earth. On the machine's (dubbed the Boneshaker) first test run it goes amok, wrecking much of Seattle and killing throngs of people. As people begin to pick up the pieces, attempting to find Leviticus (who has conveniently gone missing) the dying begins again as a near-invisible gas begins to eek from the hole in the earth the machine caused. The gas--if it doesn't kill you--causes you to become a flesh-hungry zombie. As people flee in terror, they construct a wall around the ruined parts of the city, walling the zombies and the gas--called "Blight"--inside.
It's nothing if not creative. I've never read a story like this before.
It's the duality of zombie literature and steampunk that real draws my fascination. I'm a recent fan of steampunk so I don't really have much of a comparison but I found Priest's fantastical creations both amusing and creative. The zombie aspect left a little to be desired, but then again the novel wasn't wholly about zombies so I may just be splitting hairs. It's not like she was attempting to make a horror/scary novel.
But it's the displacement of time period (somewhere around the American Civil War though the dates had been moved around, cleverly I might add) and the combination of the steam-powered water filtration and giant dirigibles and the like that really made me turn the page with fervor.
I also really enjoyed the characters. Our heroine is the wife of Leviticus Blue, who is on a mission to rescue her ill-informed son who has managed to climb the wall into a zombie-infested Seattle. I really enjoyed Priest's style of dialogue; it was easy to read and wasn't cheesy or unbelievable.
All in all I found the novel extremely enjoyable and would really recommend it to anyone.
Happy Reading!!
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