Boneshaker

I was all pumped up for this ambitious mash-up of historical fiction, zombie lore, and steampunk, but I went in with caution just because it was so ambitious. I'm glad I was cautious, otherwise I would have been severely disappointed.

It felt almost like Priest just cherry-picked everything she likes about SF and crammed it all into one big story. It didn't feel organic. Zombies? Check. Airships? Check. Drug abuse? Check. Oh, random airship battle over swarms of zombies? Check. It seems like a great combination of elements, but the story lacks the depth to explore them all. Maybe apple-cherry-rhubarb pie is good, but it's the nutmeg, cinnamon, and brown sugar that brings it all together.

Ultimately, the world of The Clockwork Century seems implausible based on what can and cannot be done. Why is it that steampunk technology can create a delicately manufactured robotic arm, but it can't develop a weapon to annihilate the "rotters"? We can mass-stun them, but we can't mass burn them? Really? Click the link below for my full review!