Boneshaker

I should say up front that I'm not fond of steampunk and I'm tired to death by zombies, so this book had two big strikes against it for me going in. That said, it says a lot in the book's favour that despite that, I didn't hate it. I didn't particularly like it either, but it had some good parts. I liked the not-quite weird west setting: I'd never seen steampunk done in a place like Priest's frontier Seattle and that helped give the usually tiresome goggles-and-gears cliches a fresh shine.

I also really liked the last hundred pages. The problem is you have to get through the first 300 pages to get there. For most of the book all I found myself looking forward to was the showdown between Briar and Dr. Minnericht. But before that there is a slow start and a saggy middle. After awhile one chapter of 'characters stumble around in dark tunnels and try to avoid zombies' starts to seem like every other chapter involving the characters stumbling around dark, underground tunnels. Both Zeke and Briar are strangers to the walled-up setting which means they have to rely on other characters to help them find their way around. Unfortunately this doesn't make for very interesting main characters, as they seem more directed by fate then directing it themselves. Sure they both (separately) decide to go into the city, but once that initial choice is made it feels like they don't make another big decision until the last hundred pages.

There's a blurb on the cover from Scott Westerfeld, and I think that's a good way to gauge how much you'll like Boneshaker. If you liked Westerfeld's Leviathan trilogy, than you'll probably like this. If you're not so hot on steampunk, then this will probably leave you cold.