![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The first book of 2011.
Jan. 11th, 2011 07:56 amLight spoilers follow, but nothing that you don't find out from the cover jacket or the first couple chapters.
The first book I read through this year that was not either a compilation of Arthurian legend or a bad tie-in novel was Boneshaker, by Cherie Priest. It's a rollicking steampunk adventure with airships and zombies, and I enjoyed it a great deal. The main character is a middle-aged single mom, chasing her rebellious teenaged son into the walled-off zombie-filled ruin of 1870s Seattle, where he hopes to find evidence that will redeem his father... his father being the reason Seattle is walled off and full of zombies. She is realistic and ass-kicking as a character, and I liked her a great deal. Her son, being a rebellious teenager, is clueless and a bit of an ass, but I liked him too. The book is at its best when exploring the landscape of this world, with its still-ongoing Civil War, its criminal subcultures within Seattle, the factions and the way people have done their damnedest to stay alive in appalling conditions. That said, toward the end of the book it felt like the action flagged... not because the action itself was lacking, but because the perspective characters were only on its periphery, the catalyst causing action but not themselves the primary actors. So, points for a compelling and well-realized world, but Priest is interested enough in the world beyond her characters that from time to time they feel a bit neglected, dragged from place to place for no better reason than to show the audience that place, not because they have something to do there.
Despite that slight flaw, I loved the entire cast of characters, heroic to villainous and in between. They all felt like people, full of conflicting motivations, moral complexity, flaws and sentimental attachments and biases... and I loved the ending, which I will not spoil, but which packs a hell of a lot of emotional impact in a way that is inevitably the result of the character development leading up to it (so our main cast isn't TOO neglected. Just a little). I definitely look forward to reading more books by Priest, especially if they're set in this world.
Has anyone else read this? I'd love to hear what other people thought.
The first book I read through this year that was not either a compilation of Arthurian legend or a bad tie-in novel was Boneshaker, by Cherie Priest. It's a rollicking steampunk adventure with airships and zombies, and I enjoyed it a great deal. The main character is a middle-aged single mom, chasing her rebellious teenaged son into the walled-off zombie-filled ruin of 1870s Seattle, where he hopes to find evidence that will redeem his father... his father being the reason Seattle is walled off and full of zombies. She is realistic and ass-kicking as a character, and I liked her a great deal. Her son, being a rebellious teenager, is clueless and a bit of an ass, but I liked him too. The book is at its best when exploring the landscape of this world, with its still-ongoing Civil War, its criminal subcultures within Seattle, the factions and the way people have done their damnedest to stay alive in appalling conditions. That said, toward the end of the book it felt like the action flagged... not because the action itself was lacking, but because the perspective characters were only on its periphery, the catalyst causing action but not themselves the primary actors. So, points for a compelling and well-realized world, but Priest is interested enough in the world beyond her characters that from time to time they feel a bit neglected, dragged from place to place for no better reason than to show the audience that place, not because they have something to do there.
Despite that slight flaw, I loved the entire cast of characters, heroic to villainous and in between. They all felt like people, full of conflicting motivations, moral complexity, flaws and sentimental attachments and biases... and I loved the ending, which I will not spoil, but which packs a hell of a lot of emotional impact in a way that is inevitably the result of the character development leading up to it (so our main cast isn't TOO neglected. Just a little). I definitely look forward to reading more books by Priest, especially if they're set in this world.
Has anyone else read this? I'd love to hear what other people thought.
