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In an alternate history setting of Seattle, Washington, during the late 1880's America, Briar Wilkes, wife of mad inventor, Leviticus Blue, blamed for the destruction and downfall of their city several years prior, enters the dangerous, walled up, toxic gas infested inner city, by airship, to find and retrieve her runaway son, Ezekiel, who's determination to clear Leviticus Blue's name - while hoping to answer who his father is - could lead him to his death at the hands of zombies or may worse, becoming one himself.

Briar Wilkes is a strong, amazing female protagonist, which says a lot for how far this genre has come, especially when you look back on where its roots came from: the late 1800's adventure fiction of Jules Verne and the beginnings of the horror zombie films of George Romero.

A lot of this book, however, centers on Ezekiel. An intelligent boy and a fine, mostly charming character in his own right. But, his character may need to ripen a bit more before he's quite like his mom.

I feel that if the book had kept the spotlight and focus more on Briar Wilkes, and a little less on her son, Zeke, it would've easily merited a full 5 stars for me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Briar Wilkes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Still. No doubt whatsoever I want to read the entire series. I thought it very engaging and was thoroughly interested in the gas-choked, beautiful, dusty world. Full of memorable, perfectly realized characters and sequences, with lots of eye-catching imagery, including, airships and air balloons, goggles, robotic contraptions, and... hordes of scary comin' straight atchoo zombies!

Optioned for a movie, fingers crossed it'll be pushed through to completion and be as closely impressive and representative to the book as possible.

Anyone that didn't like this book should GO SMOKE A BIG FAT ONE, chiznilla for a minute, re-read it, chiznill some more, and lemme know how that worked out for ya.

Peace out mofo's!