Boneshaker

I'm only reading this because I got it from Humble Bundle and it was nominated for the Nebula Award - honestly, I don't see why it was. The odd thing about all the positive reviews and recommendations was the praise for the setting - steampunk, zombies, action, thriller, and horror. I personally feel that it was wasted potential.

The main gripe I have with the whole setting is how it felt like it was moulded to fit the story the author was trying to tell - rather than telling a story within the setting.

How did the zombies come about? Some unexplained gas conveniently coming from underground. Why can't Briar follow her son through the sewers? Because an earthquake just so happens to knock only the sewers down. So how did she get past the wall? Just so happens that steam-powered airships had been invented. But how'd she get down from the airship? Just so happens that somehow people manage to construct a towering tube to suck air down to the ground that you can apparently just slide down in. Funny why the first airship won't just anchor to the tall tower that everyone later did. Why didn't she and her son move to the east? Why didn't the authorities investigate this strange gas phenomenon and the plight of Seattle's population? Just so happens that the Civil War went on longer than expected. Why would airships even want to enter zombie ground zero? Just so happens that the gas is extremely profitable as a drug that doesn't feature much. Why would people even want to live in there? Just because - even though life was dangerous, sucks, and a normal life can be had just by crawling out some sewers lots of people seem to know about.

I was expecting an apocalyptic steampunk but it turns out that the zombie part is very localised. And it's a very normal setting, but with some convenient historical tweaks and convenient (and somewhat typical - except maybe Daisy) steampunk technology thrown in. “Convenient” is the keyword here - anything that deviates from normal is just there as a plot tool.

But complaints about the setting aside, the story of a mother going after a foolish son is a compelling one. It has a good pace and all the action scenes were pretty well done - almost like an action adventure movie in the sense that things just happen to the protagonists and they get swept along.

I didn't empathise with the mother and son though. Not enough characterisation I guess. I get why a mother wants to go after the son, and while it is sort of explained, I just don't feel that the mother's desperately looking for her son. Some of the secondary characters were actually more interesting (like Angeline), but not much more so. I ended up not really caring much about the characters.

On the whole, I wouldn't quite recommend this book to anyone, except as a casual read. It's not a bad read at all, but just nothing that stands out enough as recommendation material. It's a pity for the setting as I felt like there could have been more exposition on how the world was different.