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2.5 stars. I'm still not sure what the purpose of this book was. Not that every book has to have a purpose, but there must be something that drove the author to write it, even if merely for entertainment. The Dreadnought is full of wonderful descriptions and a well-laid out story; it just wasn't a very interesting story. It started off well, and I was ready and willing to go for a steampunk-inspired ride aboard a Union train in a Civil War Era America populated with machines, dirigibles, and steamboats. But 170 pages in and....not much had happened. Mercy's character, back story, and future plans were established, but all that could have been done in a mere 100 pages, and held my interest better.

Finally she boards the train and I thought, now the fun will start! And for a while I was swept up in the secrets, possible conspiracies, Confederate/Union tensions, and the speckling of unique characters - the suspicious lawman, the charming captain, the nasty scientist, and the spunky seat-mate (a word I just made up), among others. But the potential found there just fizzled out. Much of this was due to Mercy.

Mercy is solid, useful, and level-headed, but utterly uninterested in making any sort of connections with other individuals. I appreciate that she was different than a typical heroine - less emotional (fine), contentedly alone (I can dig that), but she was just too distant for me to truly like her.

Why does she dislike the capable, clever Theodora but make friends with the two random "women of ill repute" who serve ZERO purpose to the story? Why spend time developing her relationship with the lawman, the captain, the porter, etc., if only to have her leave the Dreadnought at the end and never see any of them ever again? Why play up the mystery of the yellow sap and the half-dead people if all of us who have read the first book know exactly what's going on?

I like how Priest does not find it necessary to include romance in her stories, but that doesn't mean there can't be ANY meaningful relationships. Because of this, Mercy did not grow throughout the story. The person she was at the beginning was the exact same person who she was at the end. Which was unfortunate, because with some slight tweaking the Dreadnought could have been a real thrill of a read.