Cherie Priest

The Clockwork Century — (2009-2011) Related steampunk novels.

Boneshaker — (2009) Publisher: In the early days of the Civil War, rumors of gold in the frozen Klondike brought hordes of newcomers to the Pacific Northwest. Anxious to compete, Russian prospectors commissioned inventor Leviticus Blue to create a great machine that could mine through Alaska’s ice. Thus was Dr. Blue’s Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine born. But on its first test run the Boneshaker went terribly awry, destroying several blocks of downtown Seattle and unearthing a subterranean vein of blight gas that turned anyone who breathed it into the living dead. Now it is sixteenyears later, and a wall has been built to enclose the devastated and toxic city. Just beyond it lives Blue’s widow, Briar Wilkes. Life is hard with a ruined reputation and a teenaged boy to support, but she and Ezekiel are managing. Until Ezekiel undertakes a secret crusade to rewrite history. His quest will take himunder the wall and into a city teeming with ravenous undead, air pirates, criminal overlords, and heavily armed refugees. And only Briar can bring him out alive.

Boneshaker

CLASSIFICATION: Set in an alternate history Seattle, sometime around the year 1880, Boneshaker is a steampunk-flavored adventure that incorporates elements of zombie horror, pulp fiction and post-apocalyptic retrofuturism. Think The Wild Wild West meets Fallout (a videogame series) meets George Romero...

FORMAT/INFO: Page count is 416 pages divided over 28 numbered chapters, an Epilogue, and an excerpt from Unlikely Episodes in Western History which serves as the prologue. The book also includes a map and an Author’s Note regarding the historical and geographical liberties taken in the novel. Narration is in the third-person, alternating between Briar Wilkes and her son Ezekiel, with biographer Hale Quarter providing the bookends. Boneshaker is self-contained, but is the first volume in the CLOCKWORK CENTURY series which already has two more books (Clementine and Dreadnought) scheduled for release in 2010. Much more information about the books and setting can be found HERE, including the free short story “Tanglefoot.”

September 29, 2009 marks the North American Trade Paperback publication of Boneshaker via Tor. The gorgeous cover art is provided by Jon Foster.

ANALYSIS: Despite owning a number of Cherie Priest’s novels including last year’s Fathom, I’ve never actually read anything by the author until now. Boneshaker immediately intrigued me because I’m a huge fan of steampunk and zombie fiction, but what really hooked me was the prologue — an excerpt from Hale Quarter’s Unlikely Episodes in Western History detailing the “Boneshaker incident.” From there, I fell in love with the concept of a walled-in Seattle full of such dangers like the deadly Blight gas, rotters (living dead), and various communities that found a way to live in the unlivable city. It is in this nightmare that the bulk of the novel takes place.

Plot-wise, Boneshaker is pretty straightforward. 15-year-old Ezekiel Wilkes has grown tired of the animosity he’s had to deal with his entire life because of the deeds committed by a father he never knew, and one day he enters the city hoping to discover evidence of his father’s innocence. Briar, Zeke’s mother, learns of this journey and enters the city as well, hoping to save her son’s life before it’s too late. Along the way, the two encounter a diverse and interesting cast of characters: Alistair Mayhem Osterude, Jeremiah Swakhammer, Miss Angeline, Lucy O’Gunning, and the mysterious Dr. Minnericht who may or may not be the infamous Leviticus Blue. The book also features tons of heart-pounding action (zombie attacks, airship battles, etc), inventive gadgets (the Waterworks, fresh air apparatuses, a mechanical arm, the Doozy Dazer, the Sonic Gusting Gun), one or two surprises, and an ending that mostly wraps up the novel’s most pressing questions, like “what really happened during the Boneshaker incident?”

I didn’t really have any major issues with the book. I thought Zeke was a bit annoying at times, and felt the characterization of some of the secondary players could have been a little bit deeper, but overall the writing was top-notch, led by accessible and skillful prose, crisp dialogue, and cinematic-like pacing. On top of that, the story was a lot of fun, the setting was creative, and I cared about the characters, especially Briar. In short, I immensely enjoyed Boneshaker and can’t wait to read more books in the CLOCKWORK CENTURY series. Cherie Priest, congratulations. You’ve just acquired a new fan.
—Robert Thompson

Boneshaker

Boneshaker, by Cherie Priest, is set in your typical steampunk, alternate-history, Civil-War period world, more precisely Seattle. Or actually, what’s left of Seattle after an experimental mining machine seemingly went out of control, tunneling under the city and releasing a strange yellow gas that turned folks into zombies. Cut to a few years later and Briar Wilkes, the widow of the inventor of the machine (whom all assume died in the city) is eking out a hardscrabble life on the “Outskirts” with her son Ezekiel, though it’s tough thanks to the ignominy of their husband/father. Ezekiel, in an attempt to clear his father’s name, decides to enter the now-walled-off city, braving the zombies to try and clear his father’s name. Briar, showing her maternal instinct, goes in to rescue him. And unexpected adventures occur.

The plot is fast-paced but not breakneck. Priest shows a good sense of timing, intermingling action scenes (zombie attacks and the like) with quieter, slower scenes (Briar explaining to a newly-met group why she’s there and nearly breaking down as she does so). The story never bogs down and carries you along quickly to the end.

Briar is a sympathetic character throughout and holds the reader’s interest through both her strong and weak moments. Ezekiel is less successful, though part of that may simply be due to his realistic portrayal as an adolescent boy with all the attendant annoying traits. The secondary characters vary in richness and interest. The airship captains as a whole are a pretty compelling and unique group, and Lucy, the owner of a bar inside Seattle, matches Briar’s strength (her mechanical arm doesn’t hurt her interest either). Other characters are mostly solid, though perhaps the one who should have been the most rich for exploration — the one who may or may not be Briar’s inventor husband — I actually found the least interesting and most one-dimensional. As that gets us into the end of the book and possible spoilers, though,  I won’t say anything else about it.

While it’s a very narrowly focused story in terms of plot and setting, Priest drops in enough small details of the larger world outside to give a sense of its fullness and pique our interest enough so that we want to hear more. Luckily, she has two other books set in the same world (the books stand on their own, however) and based on my enjoyment of Boneshaker, I’ll be picking up the next soon. Recommended.
—Bill Capossere

Clementine — (2010) Publisher: Maria Isabella Boyd's success as a Confederate spy has made her too famous for further espionage work, and now her employment options are slim. Exiled, widowed, and on the brink of poverty... she reluctantly goes to work for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency in Chicago. Adding insult to injury, her first big assignment is commissioned by the Union Army. In short, a federally sponsored transport dirigible is being violently pursued across the Rockies and Uncle Sam isn't pleased. The Clementine is carrying a top secret load of military essentials — essentials which must be delivered to Louisville, Kentucky, without delay. Intelligence suggests that the unrelenting pursuer is a runaway slave who's been wanted by authorities on both sides of the Mason-Dixon for fifteen years. In that time, Captain Croggon Beauregard Hainey has felonied his way back and forth across the continent, leaving a trail of broken banks, stolen war machines, and illegally distributed weaponry from sea to shining sea. And now its Maria's job to go get him. He's dangerous quarry and she's a dangerous woman, but when forces conspire against them both, they take a chance and form an alliance. She joins his crew, and he uses her connections. She follows his orders. He takes her advice. And somebody, somewhere, is going to rue the day he crossed either one of them.

Clementine

One of the most entertaining novels I read in 2009 was Cherie Priest’s Boneshaker. Full of exciting cross-genre adventure (zombies, steampunk, post-apocalyptic retrofuturism), memorable characters and a cool twist on American history, Boneshaker was a blast to read. I couldn’t wait to see what else Cherie Priest’s CLOCKWORK CENTURY had to offer. Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait long thanks to Subterranean Press and their publication of Clementine.

Clementine is a 208 page novella that expands on characters and events briefly introduced in Boneshaker, specifically runaway slave Captain Croggon Beauregard Hainey and the theft of his airship, the Free Crow. In Clementine, Hainey and his two-man crew (Lamar and Simeon) are in hot pursuit of the stolen airship — renamed the Clementine by the thief Felton Brink — as it travels across the Midwest and towards Kentucky. The novella also revolves around real-life historical figure Maria Isabella Boyd (Belle Boyd), an ex-Confederate spy newly employed by the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, which has tasked her with ensuring the safe arrival of the Clementine and its precious cargo in Louisville, KY.

There’s a bit more going on with the plot, such as the construction of a powerful new weapon that could finally end the Civil War, as well as some spy intrigue, but for the most part Cherie Priest keeps things simple and to the point. Personally, that’s what I like about novellas. They are usually more concise than novels, without any extraneous fat. In Clementine’s case, the smaller word count results in faster pacing and fewer lulls than Boneshaker, while delivering a nearly non-stop barrage of crowd-pleasing entertainment rivaling anything currently produced by Hollywood.

Of course, there are downsides to a smaller word count. The most glaring problem with Clementine is the shallow characterization of the novella’s supporting characters, in particular Ossian Steen, Doctor Smeeks and a young boy, who all play important roles in the book’s conclusion. There are also a couple of unresolved plot threads regarding the mysterious Phinton Kulp and an old acquaintance of Maria’s, as well as themes of racism and loyalty that lack the punch they could have had if given more room to grow. Apart from these minor issues, Cherie Priest delivers another impressive performance, highlighted by her accessible writing style, skillful execution, and invigorating dialogue, especially the verbal exchanges involving Belle Boyd:

• “... and since you’ve already so eloquently confessed to your wartime activities, I might assume that once or twice, you’ve been known to hurt a man or two.”
  “Once or twice, plus half a dozen more. And if you don’t vacate these premises, perhaps that tally will rise.”
• “There are people in this world who steadfastly refuse to understand anything unless it’s couched in terms of violence. In my experience, it is most expedient to simply accomodate them.”
  “Expedient?”
  “You may as well communicate in the language they best understand.”

While there are connections between Clementine and Boneshaker, and the novella makes several references (Dr. Minnericht, the Blight, Andan Cly, etc.) to the earlier novel, it reads independently of the opening volume in the CLOCKWORK CENTURY. In fact, the two books are different beasts altogether. Where Boneshaker reminded me of a cross between The Wild Wild West, Fallout and a George Romero zombie movie, Clementine combines Western pulp, steampunk, swashbuckling adventure and a dash of espionage for an experience more akin to The Wild Wild West meets Indiana Jones meets Pirates of the Sky Caribbean. In short, readers don’t need to be familiar with Boneshaker in order to enjoy Clementine, but I would still recommend it.

As for the novella overall, as much fun as I had with Boneshaker, I enjoyed reading Clementine even more, and my expectations are sky high for Cherie Priest’s Dreadnought, the third volume in the CLOCKWORK CENTURY, which is scheduled for publication on September 28, 2010 via Tor.
—Robert Thompson

Dreadnought — (2010) Publisher: Nurse Mercy Lynch is elbows deep in bloody laundry at a war hospital in Richmond, Virginia, when Clara Barton comes bearing bad news: Mercy’s husband has died in a POW camp. On top of that, a telegram from the west coast declares that her estranged father is gravely injured, and he wishes to see her. Mercy sets out toward the Mississippi River. Once there, she’ll catch a train over the Rockies and — if the telegram can be believed — be greeted in Washington Territory by the sheriff, who will take her to see her father in Seattle. Reaching the Mississippi is a harrowing adventure by dirigible and rail through war-torn border states. When Mercy finally arrives in St. Louis, the only Tacoma-bound train is pulled by a terrifying Union-operated steam engine called the Dreadnought. Reluctantly, Mercy buys a ticket and climbs aboard. What ought to be a quiet trip turns deadly when the train is beset by bushwhackers, then vigorously attacked by a band of Rebel soldiers. The train is moving away from battle lines into the vast, unincorporated west, so Mercy can’t imagine why they’re so interested. Perhaps the mysterious cargo secreted in the second and last train cars has something to do with it? Mercy is just a frustrated nurse who wants to see her father before he dies. But she’ll have to survive both Union intrigue and Confederate opposition if she wants to make it off the Dreadnought alive.

Dreadnought

CLASSIFICATION: The Clockwork Century series is set in an alternate history America, circa 1880, flavored with steampunk, western, intrigue, and horror.

FORMAT/INFO: Dreadnought is 400 pages long divided over twenty-two numbered chapters. Narration is in the third-person, exclusively via the nurse, Mercy Lynch. Dreadnought is self-contained, but loosely connected to Boneshaker and Clementine, the first two volumes in the Clockwork Century series. September 28, 2010 marks the North American Trade Paperback publication of Dreadnought via Tor. The beautiful cover art is provided by Jon Foster who also did the artwork for Boneshaker and Clementine.

ANALYSIS: How can a novel be both a pleasure to read and a disappointment at the same time? When that novel is Dreadnought, a satisfying reading experience when judged by its own merits, but disappointing when compared to its predecessors...

Dreadnought is the third volume in Cherie Priest’s Clockwork Century series after Boneshaker and the short novel Clementine. Like Boneshaker and Clementine, Dreadnought is self-contained, though loosely connected to the other volumes. In particular, Dreadnought stars Vinita “Mercy” Lynch, the daughter of Jeremiah Swakhammer who was introduced in Boneshaker, while other connections include sap and rotters. Dreadnought is also like Boneshaker and Clementine in that the book offers a different reading experience from the other volumes, which is where my opinion of the novel starts to diverge.

On the one hand, I applaud Cherie Priest’s decision to make each volume in the Clockwork Century series different from one another. After all, as much as I loved Boneshaker, the series would get stale quickly if every subsequent volume were just like the first one. So from this perspective, I’m able to appreciate some of the ways in which Dreadnought differs from the other Clockwork Century books. For instance, Dreadnought finally offers readers an intimate look at the Civil War that has been raging for nearly two decades in Cherie Priest’s Clockwork Century setting, a war that had been mostly relegated to the backdrop in Boneshaker and Clementine. As a result, Dreadnought possesses a darker, more serious atmosphere than its predecessors, one more appropriate to the book’s subject matter. Additionally, Dreadnought takes the time to develop thought-provoking themes that were only hinted at in Clementine including racism, loyalty, gender roles, and the rigors of war.

On the other hand, there were some differences I could have done without. For starters, Dreadnought is just not as entertaining as either Boneshaker or Clementine. That’s not to say that Dreadnought doesn’t have its moments. The scenes involving a crashed dirigible, giant mechanized walkers, raids against the Dreadnought-pulled train, and a climactic race against the Confederate engine, Shenandoah, are truly breathtaking for example. It’s just that these moments are few and far between, especially compared to how long it takes to get to the good parts, thanks to an inordinate amount of time spent on tedious matters like securing passage on various forms of transportation or becoming acquainted with fellow passengers. The author does incorporate some mystery and intrigue into Dreadnought in the form of missing Mexican soldiers, spies, sabotage, an inexplicable illness caused by sap addiction, and the Dreadnought’s mysterious cargo. Unfortunately, these subplots either take too long to develop with little payoff, or are too easy to figure out in advance, especially if you’ve already read Boneshaker. In short, I believe Dreadnought would have worked much better if it had been written as a novella. With a smaller word count, much of the unnecessary parts could have been cut out, resulting in a faster-paced and more engaging reading experience.

Another difference I did not appreciate was the author’s decision to write Dreadnought solely from the point of view of Mercy Lynch, whereas both Boneshaker and Clementine featured narratives that alternated between two different characters. I understand it would have been difficult to incorporate additional perspectives into Dreadnought considering the book’s plot, but I believe doing so would have kept things more interesting, while speeding up the pace.

On a related note, I also had issues with the characters in Dreadnought. One of the things I loved most about Boneshaker and Clementine were the memorable characters, both the leads and the supporting cast. In Dreadnought, Mercy Lynch may be a strong and resourceful protagonist, but she just doesn’t measure up to the much more interesting Briar Wilkes from Boneshaker or Clementine’s Belle Boyd. Part of the problem is a personality that lacks distinctiveness, although my main issue with Mercy Lynch is that she seemed to get caught up in events not because it was in her nature to do so, but because of her profession as a nurse. To make matters worse, the supporting cast — including the Ranger Horatio Korman, Miss Theodora Clay, Captain MacGruder, the scientist Malverne Purdue — also fail to impress, especially compared to the likes of Andan Cly, Lucy O’Gunning, Jeremiah Swakhammer, Algernon Rice, Phinton Kulp, etc. That all said, it’s hard not to appreciate Mercy Lynch as a character. After all, how many speculative fiction novels feature a nurse as the main protagonist? In particular, a nurse that eschews the stereotypes usually associated with the profession in favor of a more esteemed representation.

Despite the various issues I had with Dreadnought compared to its predecessors, I’m pleased to report that Cherie Priest’s performance is once again excellent, even if the dialogue falls short of the brilliance displayed in Clementine. In fact, Dreadnought may be some of the author’s best work yet, highlighted by such vivid prose as the following passage:

Moving up and down the aisles was like crashing through someone else’s nightmare, and it was an increasingly dark nightmare, with exponentially more terrors, as the light faded and the confusion mounted.

CONCLUSION: Judged by its own merits, Cherie Priest’s Dreadnought is a satisfying reading experience highlighted by skillful writing, a strong female protagonist, and heart-pounding action sequences. The problem I had with Dreadnought is when comparing the novel to the highly entertaining Boneshaker and the even more impressive Clementine. Compared to those books, Dreadnought, despite its many virtues, just doesn’t offer the same kind of fun, nonstop entertainment or unforgettable characters that can be found in the pages of Boneshaker and Clementine. Thus, my disappointment in the novel. That said, I’m still going to be one of the first people in line for Cherie Priest’s next Clockwork Century novel, Republic of Texas... —Robert Thompson

Dreadnought

Dreadnought is Cherie Priest’s follow-up to Boneshaker. Sort of. While it takes place in the same alternate America at roughly the same time, and while we see a few familiar characters by the end of the story, Dreadnought is an otherwise indirect sequel. Instead, Priest introduces Mercy Swakhammer (yes, his daughter for Boneshaker readers), a nurse at a Confederate hospital during the decades-long Civil War.

Mercy’s adventure begins after she receives two important pieces of news. First, her Union husband has been killed. Second, her father is near death out in Seattle, and though he abandoned Mercy and her mother while she was still a child, he is desperate to see her once more. The first leaves her free to do what she wishes with her life and the second propels her on a risky cross-country journey from one coast to the other. The trip is rife with adventure, involving battles, airship crashes, raids on the trains, zombie attacks, mysterious cargo cars, missing Mexicans, a mysterious Texas ranger, and a possibly mad scientist. Will Mercy ever make it to the other side of the country?

I thoroughly enjoyed Boneshaker, but found Dreadnought to be a bit of a slog at times. I kept picking it up and putting it down, which is always a sign that I’m not particularly enjoying a book. I typically finish books in a sitting or two, and if it takes me more than three days to get through 400 pages, I’m just not that excited about it.

The pacing of Dreadnaught never quite falls into a smooth rhythm. The book starts off a bit slow, has some rollicking moments, then really slows down as we endure a lot of travel plans, an info dump, ticket buying, etc. For the record, I don’t need constant action, and I’m a fan of character-driven novels.

Unfortunately, the cast wasn’t that compelling, particularly the secondary characters. Whether it’s the Union commander, the fellow women passengers, the porters, or the mad scientist, they all felt a bit perfunctory. They play their role, but do little beyond it. I can’t say that I would have felt much had any of them not made it. Mercy, simply by being on stage all the time, is obviously more fleshed out, but even she lacks a consistently distinctive personality. Although she has a somewhat assertive personality, the plot often forces Mercy to be passive: ordered to do something rather than choosing it, reacting rather than choosing to act, etc.

What saves Dreadnought probably more than several strong scenes (and there are several such) is Priest’s sharp prose. For instance:

Sunset took forever; with no mountains or hills for it to fall behind... The warm light belied the chill outside, and the passenger cars were bathed in a rose colored glow even as the riders rubbed their hands together and breathed into their fingers, or gathered over the steam vents. Porters came through on the heels of the sun’s retreating rays, lighting the gas lamps that were placed on either side of each door, protected by reinforced glass so the light wouldn’t blow out with the opening and closing of these same portals.

This precisely detailed and wonderfully rhythmic prose runs throughout the book. I actually would have preferred more of it to balance out the less than magical dialogue/interior monologue.

I finished Dreadnought perhaps more satisfied at the finishing than the reading. It is a mostly well-written book that just didn’t fully capture my attention due to issues with pace and character. While I’d call Dreadnought a disappointment, it won’t prevent me from reading the next book in the series.
—Bill Capossere

Ganymede — (2011) Publisher: The air pirate Andan Cly is going straight. Well, straighter. Although he’s happy to run alcohol guns wherever the money’s good, he doesn’t think the world needs more sap, or its increasingly ugly side-effects. But becoming legit is easier said than done, and Cly’s first legal gig — a supply run for the Seattle Underground — will be paid for by sap money. New Orleans is not Cly’s first pick for a shopping run. He loved the Big Easy once, back when he also loved a beautiful mixed-race prostitute named Josephine Early — but that was a decade ago, and he hasn’t looked back since. Jo’s still thinking about him, though, or so he learns when he gets a telegram about a peculiar piloting job. It’s a chance to complete two lucrative jobs at once, one he can’t refuse. He sends his old paramour a note and heads for New Orleans, with no idea of what he’s in for — or what she wants him to fly. But he won’t be flying. Not exactly. Hidden at the bottom of Lake Pontchartrain lurks an astonishing war machine, an immense submersible called the Ganymede. This prototype could end the war, if only anyone had the faintest idea of how to operate it…. If only they could sneak it past the Southern forces at the mouth of the Mississippi River… If only it hadn’t killed most of the men who’d ever set foot inside it. But it’s those “if onlys” that will decide whether Cly and his crew will end up in the history books, or at the bottom of the ocean.

Ganymede

CLASSIFICATION: The Clockwork Century series is set in an alternate history America circa 1880, flavored with elements of steampunk, horror, intrigue, and Western pulp.

FORMAT/INFO: Ganymede is 352 pages long divided over 17 numbered chapters. Also includes a Map and an Author’s Note discussing the actual history used in the book. Narration is in the third-person, alternating between the prostitute Josephine Early and the air pirate captain Andan Cly. Ganymede is self-contained, but is connected to the previous volumes (Boneshaker, Dreadnought) in the Clockwork Century series. A couple of matters are left unresolved in Ganymede, but hopefully they will be explored in the next Clockwork Century novel, Inexplicable. September 27, 2011 marks the North American Trade Paperback publication of Ganymede via Tor. The cover art is once again provided by Jon Foster.

ANALYSIS: Compared to Boneshaker and the novella Clementine, Dreadnought was a disappointment, failing to deliver the same level of fun, thrills and entertainment found in its predecessors. Fortunately, Cherie Priest returns to form in her latest Clockwork Century novel, Ganymede. For the most part at least.

One of the biggest issues I had with Dreadnought was how all of the exciting parts were sandwiched in between seemingly endless pages of boredom. Ganymede still suffers from a few boring lulls, but overall the book is a more entertaining affair thanks to faster pacing, a smaller page count, tighter plotting and a narrative that once again switches between two different POVs. It also helps that the tone of Ganymede is not as dark or serious as it was in Dreadnought, while the author has reined in her exploration of such themes as racism, gender roles and war, even though they are still present.

As for the novel’s characters, Josephine Early is another strong and interesting female protagonist in the vein of Briar Wilkes and Mercy Lynch. However, apart from her profession and the color of her skin, there is very little to differentiate Josephine from Briar and Mercy. Besides sharing the same traits and a similar narrative voice, Josephine’s relationship with her younger brother is strongly reminiscent of Briar’s relationship with her son Zeke and the relationship that Mercy establishes with her father. That’s why it’s nice there is a second POV in the book. Especially when that second POV is Captain Andan Cly. Cly is a personal favorite of the Clockwork Century’s supporting cast, so it was very rewarding to see the air pirate in a starring role. Plus, he provides a nice counterpoint to the familiarity of Josephine’s narrative.

Plot-wise, Ganymede is pretty straightforward. There are subplots involving “zombis/Dead Who Walk” and the pirate bay of Barataria, some romance, and even a little bit of voodoo, but mostly Ganymede is exactly as described in the synopsis. Because the story is so straightforward there are hardly any surprises along the way, but it’s a fun ride nonetheless. It’s also important to note that even though Ganymede is self-contained like its predecessors, the novel works better as a complement/sequel to Dreadnought than a standalone tale since it develops matters introduced in the previous book, while setting the stage for further developments in the next Clockwork Century adventure.

Of the writing in Ganymede, Cherie Priest delivers another impressive performance, led once again by highly accessible prose. Other highlights include the vibrant depiction of a Texas-occupied New Orleans with an escalating rotter problem, and the interesting history & historical figures and places — Horace Lawson Hunley, Madame Marie Laveau, Barataria Bay — woven into the novel. I also loved the way references are made to the other releases in the Clockwork Century series. Sometimes it’s simply the mention of a name — Croggon Hainey, Dr. Minnericht, Mr. Pinkerton’s Secret Service, Captain MacGruder — but in most cases, familiar faces and plot developments make an actual appearance in Ganymede. These include the bartender Lucy O’Gunning, Miss Angeline, Jeremiah Swakhammer and his daughter Mercy Lynch, Briar Wilkes and her son Zeke, Ranger Horatio Korman, and so on.

CONCLUSION: From an entertainment standpoint, Ganymede certainly has more to offer than Dreadnought, but at the same time, the novel falls a couple notches short of the thrilling heights attained by Boneshaker and Clementine. For the most part, though, Ganymede is another rewarding entry in the Clockwork Century series. A series I very much look forward to continuing in next year’s Inexplicable... —Robert Thompson

Ganymede

When Hollywood makes a movie of Ganymede — and they have to — I hope they subtitle it “The Battle of Barataria Bay.” That sequence comes near the end of Cherie Priest’s latest CLOCKWORK CENTURY novel, and is fasten-your-seatbelt, grip-the-arms-of-your-chair exciting.

Priest’s books always feature strong women, and in Ganymede, the main character is Josephine Early. Josephine lives in New Orleans, running an upscale bordello. Nearly twenty years into the American civil war, the Confederacy is having trouble holding New Orleans and has called on its political ally the Republic of Texas to help occupy the city. Early’s hometown is filled with brown-shirted Lone Star soldiers and administrators, and she has grown to hate them. As a free woman of color, she is all too conscious of how easily she can lose that freedom just by traveling to the wrong state. For these reasons and others, she is spying for the Union, and her brother is leading a band of resistance fighters in the bayou. They have found the Ganymede, a vessel they believe will change the course of the war. It’s a ship that travels beneath the water and requires a special kind of pilot. Josephine knows one, and sends a telegram to Andan Cly.

Andan Cly is an airship pirate and smuggler who spends most of his time in the underground city of Seattle, in the Washington Territories. Cly is motivated for the first time to adopt a slightly less illegal lifestyle, because of his growing relationship with Briar Wilkes. This run to New Orleans will probably be his final act as an air pirate.

The Ganymede run is incredibly dangerous, but brown-shirts aren’t the only danger on the streets of New Orleans, as Joesphine finds out when she follows two Texian officers. They are mobbed by the Walking Dead on the waterfront. Josephine is nearly attacked herself, but assisted by one of New Orleans’s famous characters, Madame Marie Laveau. The Dead Who Walk, or “zombis” as Leveau names them, are increasing in number daily. No one in New Orleans knows their origin.

Ganymede parsed into three stories for me. The first is Josephine’s part of the Ganymede adventure. The second is the Ganymede run itself. The third section is the discovery of the zombis, and some theorizing about their origin. I thought this third part of the book was the choppiest, but the addition of Madame Laveau brought a convincing element of weirdness, and there is a section of the book, when Josephine is heading back to her house and trying to beat curfew, where Priest brilliantly evokes a strange, eldritch mood that culminates in a powerful and emotionally moving visual.

Ganymede itself is a wonderful, intriguing contraption, and one of my favorite bits in the book is the exquisite blind on the road to the bayou boys’ hideout, and the hideout itself, cleverly camouflaged. Priest creates the sense of southern speech without resorting to dialect, just by paying attention to the rhythm of the language. The writing here is some of Priest’s best: “Three were in uniform, three were not; but anyone who’d seen a Texian official knew the posture anywhere. Josephine recognized it as easily as the smell of baking bread.”

Houjin, Cly’s young apprentice, is a mechanical genius, stuffed to the brim with curiosity. “His passion for all things mechanical would draw him to the lake even if they told him it’d cost a dollar and he’d have to take a beating when he arrived.”

“The hands that clasped Josephine’s were as thin as twigs, despite the woman’s otherwise stout appearance. Gas lamplight twinkled on the silver of her rings, and on the red, blue and green of the gems or colored glass found therein. The queen smelled like sandalwood and sage, feathers and dust. And in her eyes, sunken with age, smoldered a deep, grim light.”

Her prose is so good that when Priest used anachronisms I found them jarring. Andan comments to himself that something “blew Josephine’s mind.” In the 1880s, really? This is as bad as if the characters suddenly shouted “Twenty-three skidoo” or something.

I have to forgive and forget this, though, because the epic air and sea battle for the Bay of Barataria blew my mind.

I think Priest is writing the best steampunk around right now. Her world teems with inventiveness, emotional tension and vivid action sequences. I recommend Ganymede. —Marion Deeds 

Stand-alone novels:


Dreadful Skin — (2007) Publisher: I ducked into a niche between a cabin and the pilot house and hiked my skirt up enough to reach down into my garter holster. I've heard it said that God made all men, but Samuel Colt made all men equal. We'd see what Mr. Colt could do for a woman. Jack Gabert went to India to serve his Queen. He returned to London a violently changed man, infected with an unnatural sickness that altered his body and warped his mind. Eileen Callaghan left an Irish convent with a revolver and a secret. She knows everything and nothing about Jack's curse, but she cannot rest until he's caught. His soul cannot be saved. It can only be returned to God. In the years following the American Civil War, the nun and unnatural creature stalk one another across the United States. Their dangerous game of cat and mouse leads them along great rivers, across dusty plains, and into the no man's land of the unmarked western territories. Here are three tales of the hunt. Reader, take this volume and follow these tormented souls. Learn what you can from their struggle against each other, against God, and against themselves.

Fathom — (2008) Publisher: Before God created the earth as we know it, the planet was home to a race of monsters. In order to prepare for humans, He either banished or killed most of these natives creatures; but those who remain in exile have not forgotten. One ancient tale encourages their vengeance, speaking of an angel with the power to wipe out a quarter of the world's population. Together, the old ones form a plot to catch this being and use him to reassert their reign. But not every prophecy is a promise. Scattered throughout the globe a handful of unwilling heroes are preparing to intervene. One of these sits frozen in stone, mistaken for a statue and abandoned in a courtyard for eighty years. Though Nia finds it difficult tobelieve, that strange prison was her rescue — a cocoon that transformed and protected her until her story could truly begin. Fathom is an unapologetic mix of horror and urban fantasy that will appeal to fans of both genres. The resulting book is a sexy biblical monster story that will hold the attention of readers who appreciate a good fairy tale with an unusual point of view.

Fathom

Fathom is an entertaining horror novel once it gets going. Cherie Priest spends the first 100 pages of Fathom setting a scene, complete with pages upon pages of infodumps. One character will tell another character a story about a third character, for instance, or a character will have a prolonged recollection of a scene from his past. In addition, the time in which the novel is set does not become apparent until the last few chapters of the novel. A reader could easily conclude that the novel is set in the present day until the last 50 pages or so, when suddenly that appears not to be so, and all that has gone before must be reassessed. The Cherie Priest of Fathom does not seem to be the assured writer who turned out the superior Four and Twenty Blackbirds.

Priest starts her story (after a short initial chapter that has no meaning until much later in the book; really a prologue) with two strongly contrasting characters, Nia and Bernice. We learn quickly that the latter young woman is a spoiled rich kid with pronounced overtones of extreme violence, while the former is a poor kid up from the farm who finds herself in over her head, both literally and figuratively, very quickly. It isn’t long before Bernice is in the arms of Arahab, a water witch, and Nia is turned into stone, a decorative figure in the garden of the home that was to have been her residence for a summer’s visit.

Arahab has plans for which she needs Bernice and Jose Gaspar, a sea pirate from eighteenth-century Spain. She wants to waken the long-sleeping Leviathan, which she hopes will destroy the modern human world and bring the old gods back to their prominence. Bernice and Gaspar are set loose in the world in order for Bernice to savor her new-found immortality and the free rein she has been given to inflict as much damage on humans as she likes. That is not their only purpose on land, however, for they have a task to accomplish to aid Arahab in her quest. This requires a trip to see Mr. Poppo, a metalworker with pronounced similarities to the god Vulcan, in Ybor City, Florida.

Another elemental has plans for Nia; she will not spend the rest of her life as sentient stone. For a time she is an object of worship to those who apparently think that she is a representation of Arahab — and who think, as well, that Arahab is interested in their worship. With the help of Sam, an insurance fire investigator, the nameless elemental “hatches” Nia to a new life in order that she might stop Arahab.

Once all the characters are gathered in Ybor City, this novel really begins to cook. Suddenly the story, which had been composed of exposition and conversation with random bursts of action, becomes all action — and dramatic, high-tension action at that. This is the point at which the underpinnings of the novel start to make sense, and a devoted reader will now find it hard to set this novel aside without finishing it.

One gets the impression that Fathom could have benefited from a final rewrite. Priest has what it takes to write original, exciting horror, as the last half of this novel demonstrates. Moving the characters into place, though, poses a difficulty for Priest here. It will be interesting to read her next book to see whether she can pull together her considerable skills for a truly consistent, frightening story. —Terry Weyna

Fathom

If Sam squinted, he could make out a shape at the top of the steeple; but it was difficult to identify. He was just concluding that it was the strangest rendering of the Virgin Mary he’d ever seen when the front door creaked open and a tall, gray-haired man emerged.

Summer’s here, and it’s time for those summertime reads. You know the ones — the big splashy adventure books, perfect for a few hours out on the deck, in the folding chair on the camping trip, or on a towel by the pool or at the beach.

May I recommend Fathom, by Cherie Priest? Oh, wait, perhaps Fathom is not the perfect book for the beach or the pool, since the antagonist, Arahab, is a powerful water witch determined to destroy life as we know it and who can manifest wherever there is standing or running water.

Priest’s point of inspiration is the Bok Singing Tower, an actual Florida landmark in Lake Wales, set atop the state’s one, 243-foot mountain. She sets the book in the 1930s and follows two female cousins. Aside from the bloodline, and missing fathers, the two young women have little in common. Nia comes from poverty, working with her mother and grandmother in the family orange grove. Bernice, wealthy and spoiled, grew up in New York and has only recently returned to Anna Maria Island in southern Florida.

The two women come to Arahab’s attention in a dramatic manner, and she offers them power and immortality. One accepts and one rejects the elder god’s offer, setting the stage for the inevitable confrontation.

Arahab intends to waken the Leviathan, another elder god who slumbers. She needs a human agent to do this. She recreates Bernice as a companion and partner for her earlier minion, a sixteenth-century pirate named Gaspar. Once before, Gaspar tried and failed to rouse the Leviathan. When they are paired, Arahab sends them on a mission, which at first seems to be merely to wreak havoc at a Tampa street festival, the Gasparilla, a mocking homage to the pirate himself.

Nia, meanwhile, is enveloped in rock for four years. During this time she is conscious in a way, and counseled by a strange entity that might — or might not — have humanity’s interests at heart. We have met this demi-deity before, at the beginning of the book, when he persuades a wealthy eccentric named Edward to build a carillon bell-tower in the center of the state.

Sam, a fire inspector and regular guy, gets dragged into the action. He runs afoul of the island’s cult of Arahab worshippers, and is forced to go on the run with Nia, who has emerged from her stone cocoon.

The relationships of the elder gods are lightly sketched rather than fully developed, or maybe I just missed them. I can’t tell if Leviathan is the father of Arahab and the others, the first-born, or just Arahab’s favorite sibling. I also can’t tell if he’s a water god (Leviathan, yes, surely?) or an earth god. The gods seem drawn from equal parts Greek mythology and H.P. Lovecraft. The demi-god who mentors Nia clearly has a history with Arahab, and it’s not a good one. They have issues.

In a similar way, the relationship between Gaspar and Bernice is done in shorthand rather than fleshed out. Gaspar thinks that he loves her because she is “wicked and wild” but there’s no emotional spark between the two, so it’s odd that he agrees to her mad scheme near the end. This is not a serious flaw in the book, though, because the crucial relationship is between Bernice and Nia.

Once we get past a few clunky plot points at the beginning, Fathom takes off. It feels like we’re riding on Sam’s shoulder as he explores the history of the strange statue he’s found, meets the duplicitous pastor Henry, and makes a run for the ferry landing, statue in tow, in an abandoned fire truck.

Priest’s prose is crisp, descriptive when it needs to be without being prettied up with curlicues and furbelows. The dialogue and rhythm of speech conjures up the south. Her use of detail paints the landscape perfectly, like here: “...a puddle pooled beneath it, and sparrows took the opportunity to bathe themselves, flipping their wings and splashing happily. A tin tub filled with water held stalks of sugarcane, submerged by a screen to keep the flies off them. Two little boys poked at the screen.” When the action moves to the mysterious tower, Priest creates a landscape filled with beauty, strangeness and ghosts.

While the place is exquisitely limned, the time isn’t. The book is set in the 1930s, yet the impact of the Great Depression is not addressed. Clothing, slang, street scenes — nothing stands out as uniquely 1930s. She uses President Coolidge’s dedication of the Bok Tower to timestamp the book but the period does not infuse the story the way Priest’s “clockwork century” infuses Boneshaker.

I have a final quibble. Arahab is a water witch. Several human characters complain about the oppressive humidity, yet Arahab cannot command the water in the air to coalesce and help her manifest. Why not? This is not a criticism, just a question.

Anyway, I recommend Fathom. Just put it down at least an hour before you go into the water.
—Marion Deeds 

Those Who Went Remain There Still — (2008) Publisher: Heaster Wharton is dead, and his passing might mean an end to hostilities between the Manders and the Coys. If the the elderly patriarch showed the kindness and foresight to split his land cleanly between his feuding descendants, then a truce could be arranged. But his final request is a strange one, delivered across the country to the straggling remnants of his tribe. Representatives from both families must visit a cave at the edge of his property in the hills of Kentucky. There, he promised, they would find his last will and testament. But there's more than paperwork waiting underground, as vindictive old Heaster was well aware. In 1775, Daniel Boone and a band of axe-wielding frontiersmen struggled to clear a path through the Cumberland Gap into the heart of Bluegrass country, and they did not work unopposed. Hounded and harried by an astonishing monster, the axe-men overcame the beast by sheer numbers and steel. They threw its body into a nearby cave. It was not dead. And now, it is not alone. Crippled and outraged, for 100 years something terrible has huddled underground, dreaming of meat and revenge. But its newest callers are heavily armed, skeptical of their instructions, and predisposed to violence. With their guns and their savage instincts, Heaster's grandchildren will not make for easy pickings.