2. "Boneshaker" by Cherie Priest

I always enjoy reading books by local authors and/or books set in the place where I live. So I was intrigued enough to pick up Boneshaker by Cherie Priest a few months ago, especially because I've found a surprising lack of books set in Seattle. (I keep thinking there's a wealth of them and I just haven't found them yet, so please, feel free to recommend local titles and authors.) My copy, purchased at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park, is autographed in green ink. I like autographs, but the green ink is particularly cool.

Before I continue, I should confess that I'm perpetually perplexed by the concept of steampunk. Having read this book, I clearly recognize that it's steampunk, but I still don't think I could articulate any kind of cohesive or coherent definition if you dangled me off an airship above the Blight-ridden city of Seattle. But I'm getting ahead of myself....

Boneshaker is set in an alternate version of Seattle, in an alternate history in which the American Civil War lasts for more than 15 years, airships transport military squadrons and goods throughout the country, and an inventor named Leviticus Blue has created a monster in the form of a machine. His Boneshaker decimated Seattle and released a deadly gas known as the Blight, which transforms the people who breathe it into shambling, shuffling zombies. Fifteen years later, a high wall surrounds downtown Seattle to contain the Blight and the deadly "rotters." Blue's widow, Briar, and son, Zeke, live in the Outskirts, the area beyond the walls, where refugees fled during the chaos just after Boneshaker's only journey. When Zeke decides to seek information about his father, he finds a way into the walled city. His mother, tormented by guilt as well as love, resolves to follow and rescue him. Their separate journeys will bring them into contact with air pirates, a one-armed barmaid, a native princess, a conniving inventor trying to set himself up as Blue, a brilliant Chinese boy, legions of rotters, and a few unlikely heroes.


I had some trouble getting into the book, but the action picks up before page 100 and continues at a fast pace. Boneshaker is an entertaining, light read that would, I imagine, particularly appeal to sci-fi fans familiar with Seattle landmarks.