Boneshaker

Steampunk, zombies, airships... pretty awesome right?

Well, for a variety of reasons this one feel short for me. The steampunk was more background than I usually like. Less obvious and used in the plot (apart from the rides in the airship, more on that in a second). Though quite interesting I felt that we could have seen more and learned more about the current steampunk tech level. The tech we did see had cool names (a plus) but felt like tools to get the protagonists out of danger (the Daisy is a prime example) and not really integrated well. The airships were similarly background trappings and while "necessary" for steampunk, and lauded by others, they are only a method of transport in this book and not a focal point. I'm sure the next published book in this series, Clementine, would cover the airships more thoroughly (though it is hard to find and not published by the same publisher as the rest of the series). I am also very, very OVER zombies. While the method for creating the zombies was new, the zombies themselves, "rotters", were quite standard and only mildly interesting. Zombies generally lead to a darker book and I felt like that was present but not overly so. This was a story about a mother and son, and their search for knowledge and each other (whether they knew it or not). The alternate history was well done and researched, though I know little of that area of the US during that time period. It felt believable and complete.

In the end this book took me a long time to get into a groove with. The early part of the book was not exciting for me and by the end I was tired of the zombies. I've heard great things about this series and author, so while I was MEH about this book I will eventually try the rest of the series.