Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Contemporary speculative fiction writers nowadays love to mix and match sub-genres. It illustrates a willingness to explore the limits of the possibilities open to them.
Take, for example the latest work of horror/sci-fi author, Cherie Priest, Boneshaker. It is alternate history - it takes place in Seattle, Washington, USA during the late 19th century at the time of when rumors of gold in the frozen Klondike brings prospectors to the area from all over the place, even as far as Russia. However, in this world's Seattle, the American Civil war hasn't yet ended and has been going on for decades now. It is steampunk (fast becoming a favorite of many new authors), where clockwork technology exists. And there are also zombies....
The story evolves when Russian prospectors commission a Seattle inventor named Leviticus Blue to create a machine that would make it possible to drill through the hard Alaskan ice. But when Blue tests his creation, things go awry which unleashes a wave of destruction on a major part of the city and caused many deaths. But that isn't the worst part. The machine inadvertently releases some sort of gas that was hidden deep beneath the city, which makes those who breath it turn into... zombies.
Turn the reader's attention to the widow of Leviticus Blue, now called Briar Wilkes, who now many years later tries to eke out a living on what is left of the Seattle outskirts trying, but not quite succeeding, to escape the past. She is with her son, Zeke, who was born just after the incident, whom she also tries to protect from the history of her family. The problem is that, Zeke does not want to distance himself from it and refuses to believe the bad name placed upon his family and himself. Frustrated, and exasperated at his mother for not telling him anything significant about the event, and interested in clearing his family's and his father's name, Zeke decides to find the truth by entering the inner city, now cut off by an encircling wall, entering the place where the Blight (the gas that was unleashed) runs rampant, entering a city full of "rotters"... yep, that's what they call the zombies.
This forces Briar to go after Zeke in hopes of ever seeing him alive again. She enters a city, surprisingly still full of people... who are still alive. Who earn a living by some means. A city now seemingly being ruled by some inventor who calls himself Dr. Minnericht, and very much resembles the man who was once Leviticus Blue. Needless to say, Briar must approach this man where her son will surely be drawn to, and somehow force herself to face the truth of the events that happened years ago with the rampage of the machine called the Boneshaker.
The idea of steampunk and zombies is quite appealing and Cherie Priest delivers quite well. The language and the style is light and an easy read. Her characters are fascinating - from the airship captains, the one-armed lady whose remaining limb is bionic, the armored tough guy and more. Although there is a feeling that some of these characters aren't developed enough in this story and the climax seems to happen a little bit too quickly. But the work is interesting, and more importantly, entertaining. And one couldn't go wrong with that. And being nominated for the Hugo and Nebula awards certainly shows that Ms. Priest did something right.
