Thursday, January 27, 2011

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest - review of a steampunk novel

This book had a couple of technical errors that really irritated me but other than that it was a pretty good read.
The technical things, probably minor for most, but that really irritated me dealt with the air pumps a some other random issues. For I quite a while the main character was caught in an air pump inlet and somehow she was being blown back and forth. That must be some really inefficient pump! She should only be getting sucked in not blown out. Then there's other random things like a 200 foot wall around all of Seattle that was built in less than a year? To get away from a heavy soupy gas they go underground? Nobody notices dirigibles flying into Seattle, a city surrounded by hills, just because of a 200 foot wall? Sneaking up behind someone and shooting the in the head causes their brain to fly backwards towards the gun? Questionable facts here.

Otherwise though it was entertaining but the zombies were rather boring, the reviewed "suspense" was non-existent, and the characters were quite unbelievable.
The main character has been working in a plant that boils muck and water for 16 years yet suddenly she's a crack shot action hero better than people that have been living with the zombies for 16 years. A 15 year old boy is a complete moron and afraid to shoot a gun? An ordinary lowlife is able to pretend to be a mad scientist for 16 years?

It would have been much better if they just killed on the damn rotter zombies. It didn't appear to be too difficult to do. Flamethrowers anyone?

On second thought I'm lowering my review.
2/5


Boneshaker (The Clockwork Century, #1)Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
My rating: 2 of 5 stars




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