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The epilogue captured what I really liked about this book. At the end, Priest warned against writing her to explain how she'd gotten Seattle history all wrong. She knew she's done it all wrong.
I was impressed how well she actually knew Seattle history, to the point of using a Sanborn map (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanborn_...) to help develop her plot. She actually took Seattle history, dumped it out on the floor and remixed it. That's wonderful.
The plot/characters/action is good too. Very f ...more
I was impressed how well she actually knew Seattle history, to the point of using a Sanborn map (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanborn_...) to help develop her plot. She actually took Seattle history, dumped it out on the floor and remixed it. That's wonderful.
The plot/characters/action is good too. Very f ...more

I read Boneshaker because I haven’t read much Steampunk, and this one makes a lot of ‘best of” lists. It was fun, but ultimately lacking in depth. It was also fairly lazy writing, with a focus on providing a lot of pretty window dressing without putting much effort into building a solid foundation. The author acknowledges as much in the afterword, saying that much of the book is a stretch, but “isn’t that what Steampunk is for?” So in 1863 there are lots of airships, and factories full of people
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I really enjoyed the story and the world depicted is quite curious, but my main issue is that the book seems unfinished. Just realizes this is the first in a series and that is probably why so many story lines are left open. I like the whole Blue/Maynard name/history storyline, the decaying city and Seattle mismatch. The choices made by many of the characters were pretty suboptimal, to the point that I wondered how they survived in such a harsh environment. Loved the zeppelins however, those wer
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Seattle in the 1800's: the Civil war rages on, promises of gold in the Klondike bring new commerce and people to the city, and a machine is being built in an inventor's basement that promises to dig through ice and extract gold. Something goes horribly wrong with the boneshaker machine, causing it to rip through Pioneer Square leaving mayhem and wreckage in its path. A mysterious gas comes up through the churned earth, turning everybody that breathes enough of it into zombies known as rotters. T
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The best steampunk/zombie book I've ever read! I found it a pretty surface-level read (i.e. there's some social commentary, but not much), which is fine but may disappoint some readers looking for more.
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Apr 02, 2010
Judy
marked it as to-read

Apr 04, 2010
David Raffin
marked it as to-read

Apr 19, 2010
Atlas
marked it as to-read

Feb 03, 2011
Sara
marked it as to-read

Mar 13, 2013
Kit
marked it as to-read