I normally don’t take a week reading a book but this one was so good I just had to savor it. I think I found another favorite for books I have read this year.
The story starts with the boy Zeke and his mother Briar living in the outskirts of Seattle. Years before his father had run a machine called the Boneshaker through downtown Seattle. Originally the boneshaker was for mining gold under the frozen ice of the Klondike. However when it was run through downtown Seattle it caused a huge rift and the blight gas erupted. This gas burned anyone who came into contact with it. It also caused some people to turn into rotters. Zombies in other words. When Zeke goes into the walled off city to find the truth about his father who disappeared during the escape from the blight, there is an earthquake that blocks the entrance and exit tunnels so his mother goes in by dirigible to try and find and save him.
At the start of the year I had told myself I was going to try new genres of books. I tend to stick with literary fiction with a side helping of self help. I felt the need to broaden my horizons. This book was my first foray into Steampunk. And what a delightful trip it was! I am now going to explore the genre farther. So if you have any suggestion feel free to leave them in the comments.
Back to the Boneshaker. This was a plot and character driven book. Things happen quickly while also giving you necessary background information. I felt that I really cared about the characters in the book and actually fantasized meeting them in real life!.Even the secondary characters come to life.
The plot was believable. Ok, it required you to forget about when actual events happened and to suspend actual history but reading it you felt that it COULD happen. That I feel is really important in this kind of novel. This shows that the world building was excellent. You had such a complete picture that you felt you could really “step” into that world and feel what the characters were feeling.
The plot was really fast. There were no dragging in this book. Things happened one after the other. I was glad because I for one find that as I get older my attention span for long explanations that go on for pages is getting shorter. I could blame twitter and facebook but oh well.
Over all this book had excellent writing, and an excellent story. I would recommend this book to all who like steampunk.
