Fiddlehead

Fiddlehead: A Penny Dreadful Review

            It has finally happened. I have spilt tea on a book. The unfortunate victim of this tragedy is Fiddlehead, by Cherie Priest. Fortuitously, my copy of Fiddlehead was still readable, so I read it, tea stains and all.

            Cherie Priest’s epic Clockwork Century series, which began with Boneshaker, concludes in Fiddlehead. The walking dead have spread like a cancer from city to city, in both the Union and the Confederacy, until they have become a larger threat than anyone could have imagined. Gideon Bardsley, inventor of the calculating machine known as the Fiddlehead, discovers vital information concerning the ongoing war. It must stop, or the whole continent will be destroyed. Unfortunately for Gideon Bardsley, certain war profiteers want to keep the war lumbering on, so they send assassins. Fortunately, Bardsley has some very powerful allies, such as Abraham Lincoln (who has here survived the attempt on his life at the Ford’s Theatre, thanks in part to Bardsley’s inventions).

            This story is more focused on grand political movements and less on the actions of one woman as most of the other Clockwork Century novels are. The action is split over many locations as the protagonists struggle to stop a horrific war crime, spread the word that the zombis are an international threat, and survive multiple assassination attempts. If a character can be said to take center stage, it is President Ulysses S. Grant. Cherie Priest’s portrayal is sympathetic and it is an absolute pleasure to see the man in action (once he is goaded into action, that is).

            I would award Fiddlehead four gears out of five. It was not my favorite Clockwork Century novel, but it was a satisfying conclusion all the same. It is worth reading and reading again.

Your Correspondent From The Bookstore,

Penny J. Merriweather

The Inexplicables: A Penny Dreadful Review

When a character goes off and has an adventure, what happens to the characters that get left behind? When Zeke Wilkes slipped underneath the wall into zombie-infested old Seattle to learn about his father in Boneshaker, he left behind Rector Sherman, an orphan who's fallen in with the wrong crowd. Haunted by guilt and drug hallucinations, Rector finds his way into the walled and poisoned city of Seattle. What he finds there is much more frightening than a few zombies. There's a drug war, a city crumbling at a touch, and something horrific in Seattle. Something huge. Something wild. Something that isn't and never was human.
The Inexplicables is a brilliant addition to Cherie Priest's Clockwork Century series. I love her broken characters rebuilding their lives with whatever they find at hand. Rector - abandoned, drug-addled, directionless - is more broken than most. I love him as the focus of this book. In the hands of a lesser writer, the story would be as confused as Rector.
         Almost all your favorite Clockwork Century characters are back and being awesome, especially Princess Angeline Sealth. She identifies the strange creature in Seattle, and... Nope, I'm not going to spoil it.
I give The Inexplicables four and a half gears out of five. It's a marvelous addition to one of my favorite series. I adore every chance I get to read Cherie Priest.


Your Correspondent from the Bookstore,

Penny J. Merriweather

Boneshaker

Boneshaker: A Penny Dreadful Review

What could be better than alternate Steampunk American history with zombies?  Cherie Priest’s fantastic Boneshaker has it, and a touching story of the relationship between a mother and her son.
In Ms. Priest’s world, introduced with an excerpt from a “historical text,” a man called Leviticus Blue invents the Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine, or Boneshaker, intended to mine gold from under the thick ice in the Klondike.  Instead, it burrows under the streets of 1862 Seattle, releasing Blight Gas from deep underground.  Many of those the Blight kills do not exactly stay dead…
Sixteen years later, the story proper begins. It is obvious that the “historical text” of the prologue which you thought explained everything hasn’t given you more than a vague idea of what actually happened.  A wall surrounds the Blight-affected areas and the widow of Leviticus Blue lives with her son in the dystopian Outskirts.  The exposition unravels with tantalizing hints at the true story of the Blight.
Briar Wilkes, the unfortunate widow of Leviticus Blue, is a tired, close-mouthed, practical woman who isn’t quite sure how to relate to her son, Zeke.  Zeke, or Ezekiel, is an idealistic boy of fifteen who decides to discover how much of what he’s heard about his father is true.
When Zeke crawls under the wall into the Blight-ridden city of Seattle, Briar must follow him and face the past she’s tried to forget.  The zombies crowd the streets, the Blight Gas has only thickened, and the tyrannical mad scientist Dr. Minnericht rules what is left of the city.
What follows is a twisting, rollicking, zombie-crammed adventure that takes our heroes far above and far below the walled city with a cast of distinctive rough-and-tumble characters who have made lives for themselves among the zombies.
The prose is touching and gritty.  The no-frills characters are harsh and human by turn.  Each of them seems alive.  Well, excepting the zombies, or rotters.
I give Boneshaker five gears out of five.  It is a work of art as well as a gripping adventure.

Your Correspondent from the Bookstore.
Penny J. Merriweather