short post today (really, i mean it this time) because i must've been sitting funny during my 7.5 hours of data entry today because the muscle of my right shoulder feels like someone's holding a match to it. ow.anyway, the upshot of today's quick hit -- or whatever you want to call it -- is that cherie priest's boneshaker is quality dystopic steampunk if you find yourself in the mood for that kind of thing.
i thought i knew where there was a review of it on tor.com, but apparently i imagined the whole thing. but, really, she does blog over there -- see? she was a big presence during steampunk month in october -- duh on that one, really -- and i think you can probably follow her on twitter, too, if you're into mild celebrity-stalking.
in any case, boneshaker is the first of priest's novels that i've read and i'm going to go find more. boneshaker is a divided narrative, telling the story of a mother and her son living outside a seattle at the end of the nineteenth century. some years in the recent past, there has been an "accident," releasing poisonous gas from beneath the earth's surface. the gas kills -- and then reanimates. sometimes. in any case, seattle is nowhere anyone now wants to live, but, because the gas is heavy and slow-moving, they walled it in. (yeah, i'm not sure about the science either.)
there isn't a great deal of surprise about the overall arc of the story -- bar the end which was pretty damn cool -- but there are some great characters along the way. i particularly liked the mother, briar. anyone who's response to "yeah, well, your son has disappeared into the poisoned city filled with slowly rotting zombies and there probably isn't any real way to get him out" is to dig out her dad's old leather overcoat and rifle and head out after him has my vote. and if briar doesn't get your attention, hang on 'til lucy shows up. lucy is awesome.
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