Author: Cherie Priest
Publisher: Tor Books
Copyright: 2009
ISBN: 9780765318411
Reading Level/Interest Age: Grades 8-12
Genre: Science Fiction--Steampunk
Reader’s Annotation: Before Zeke was born, his father destroyed Seattle with his Boneshaker drill, freeing a gas from deep under the earth that turned much of the populace into zombies. Now Zeke is heading into the ruined city in search of redemption.
Plot Summary
In the alternate history of the Boneshaker world, the American Civil War has stretched on for decades and the Pacific Northwest has experienced a gold rush that has brought people flooding to Seattle. In the midst of it, inventor Leviticus Blue made a drilling machine, the Boneshaker, that could penetrate the arctic ice. He took it for a test drive under the streets of downtown Seattle and into the bank’s vault. In the course of his destructive ride he released the Blight, a gas that turns people into zombies. The survivors fled the city and built an enormous wall around it to keep the Blight and the zombies, or “Rotters,” in.
Now Blue’s widow, Briar, and their son, Zeke, are barely scraping by. They don’t get along very well, and Briar won’t talk to Zeke about the past. So Zeke heads under the wall with a gas mask and a few supplies to try to find out the truth about his father, whom he believes must somehow be innocent. When Briar finds him gone, she heads after him, getting a ride over the wall from dirigible pirates. There are more people living inside the wall than you would think, and Briar and Zeke meet a variety of colorful characters, some friendly and some dangerous. Everything seems to lead back to a man calling himself Dr. Minnericht, a mad scientist who seems to have an awful lot in common with Leviticus Blue.
Critical Evaluation
Boneshaker is disappointing because its setting and history are so promising—an almost-abandoned city with a few hardscrabble folks trying to stay a step ahead of the zombies seems like a place ripe for adventure and redemption. When I started this blog entry I remembered the setup perfectly, but had to refresh my memory as to what more was revealed in the course of the novel—these revelations didn’t leave much of an impression. The grim mood is sustained throughout, but the suspense lets up as the plot wanders. Priest makes other promises she doesn’t deliver on, too. The ominous black birds that hang around wherever there are Rotters are mentioned in a foreshadowing sort of way several times, but they never end up playing a role in the action. Similarly, several interesting side characters, such as the villain’s cunning enforcer, either cut out early from the action at the end or are left behind along the way. The ending is unsatisfying, perhaps because not much has changed—a couple of mysteries have been explained, but no redemption has come for old Seattle. There is enough material left for a sequel, but the ending is pretty final and no sequel has been written as yet.
Curriculum Ties: N/A
Booktalking Ideas: Explain steampunk. Then explain that this book is steampunk with ZOMBIES.
Challenge Issues: Mild gore
In the defense file, I will include my library's selection policy, ALA's Library Bill of Rights, ALA's guidelines on free access to libraries for minors (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/freeaccesslibraries.cfm), and ALA's strategies and tips for dealing with challenges to library materials (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/challengeslibrarymaterials/copingwithchallenges/strategiestips/index.cfm). I will also include my library's reconsideration form, in case challenges to this book cannot be defused with "tea and sympathy." I'll include the reviews from Publisher's Weekly and Booklist (both positive).
About the Author
Cherie Priest is the author of eleven novels, including the steampunk pulp adventures Dreadnought, Clementine, and Boneshaker. Boneshaker was nominated for both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award; it was a PNBA Award winner, and winner of the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. Cherie also wrote Fathom and the Eden Moore series from Tor (Macmillan), Bloodshot and Hellbent for Bantam, and three novellas published by Subterranean Press.
In addition to all of the above, she is a newly minted member of the Wild Cards Consortium - and her first foray into George R. R. Martin's superhero universe, Fort Freak (for which she wrote the frame story), will debut in 2011. Cherie's short stories and nonfiction articles have appeared in such fine publications as Weird Tales, Subterranean Magazine, Publishers Weekly, The Living Dead 2, and the Thackeray T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities. Though she spent most of her life in the southeast, she presently lives in Seattle, Washington, with her husband and a fat black cat.
http://www.amazon.com/Cherie-Priest/e/B001IOFIHM/ref=sr_tc_2_rm?qid=1321974639&sr=8-2-ent
Why is this title included?
Steampunk is a trendy genre. Boneshaker was nominated for or received numerous awards.