Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

Boneshaker is a book I got through a Humble e-book bundle, and it's been sitting on my Kindle ever since; I haven't been avoiding it, I just didn't know anything about it and it had no hooks to pull me away from other books I was actively interested in reading.
So when I saw S&L launching it as their book pick, I was intrigued, and when I heard it was steampunk I was excited (alt-history retro science-fiction ftw!), but then I heard about the zombies.

Sigh. Zombies. Again.
Oh well. At least now I know.

My "problem" with it is that as soon as I heard zombie steampunk I was expecting it to be trashy fun. However what Priest is doing is taking steampunk and trying to write something more sophisticated than there perhaps had been in the past.

As such it is something I will definitely try to read but it is not the disposable, throw a way fun I was perhaps initially expecting it to be.

I haven't read a lot of zombie books, because I'm just not a fan, but I don't feel overwhelmed by them in this book.

They are a looming threat for much of the first quarter of the book, and have only made a few appearances by the point I'm at now.

I can't speak for the ending, but they feel more like a plot point than the focus of this novel, so I wouldn't let their inclusion turn you away.

I'm 27% in and I haven't seen any zombies yet. It's a good read so far.

Sounds like the zombie aspect is rather overstated, eh? Perhaps this is a story that can help starve the zombie glut back to more reasonable proportions? It's certainly a concept that has used to good effect in the past. I feel a surge of optimism.
I will in any case withold judgment and further comment until I've had a chance to experience it for myself.

im expecting my delivery of boneshaker later this week. Can't say zombies put me off been some good zombie books and some stereo typical trash zombie books but hey whats new. There's good and bad in all genres.
My pet hate are romance books. Often gooie eyed gushing yuk that over powers a decent story. (I like magic bites that has a hint of romance but doesn't drive the story) Sorry rambling.. what I was going too comment on was can you believe there are even paranormal romance books about zombies?

Is it me or does that just seem like someone trying too hard?

Fredrik wrote: "Sounds like the zombie aspect is rather overstated, eh? "

Well you know they're out there - and you know you're going to stumble across them eventually - they just aren't centre stage at the moment

It has zombies in the way a book set in the wilderness might have mountain lions or bears. They're there, and they create some dramatic tension; but it's not about them.

I don't know if I agree with that the rotters are pretty central to the book. It is more or less the story of an absentee mom and her dumbass teenage son trying to find each other in a zombie infested city.

It's the "trying to find each other" part that's critical. You could replace the rotters with any other viable threat and the story would still work. They can be central without being critical in that way.

Gord wrote: "It's the "trying to find each other" part that's critical. You could replace the rotters with any other viable threat and the story would still work. They can be central without being critical in t..."

Yes, replace zombies with mountain lions and you get the idea of how they figure into the plot.

Sandi wrote: "It has zombies in the way a book set in the wilderness might have mountain lions or bears. They're there, and they create some dramatic tension; but it's not about them."

True, zombies work better in a pestilent infested city than bears. It seems like Priest had an idea for a destroyed Seattle walled off and filled with yellow gas then needed something in there to increase the tension—and the murders of crows weren't creepy enough.

Good to know. I am NOT a fan of zombies. So, mountain lions...

Well, I've read the first three chapters, and it's off to good start. No zombies yet, but from the way the story's set up I don't get the impression that they're going to dominate it. I guess I can nuance my position and say I'm not categorically tired of the undead in general, but mainly the tired zombie outbreak/apocalypse story.

Sandi wrote: "It has zombies in the way a book set in the wilderness might have mountain lions or bears. They're there, and they create some dramatic tension; but it's not about them."

That's a really good way to put it. It fits in with my feeling that Priest is drawing more from the well of Westerns than from SF or horror. I tend to think of Boneshaker and its sequels as alternate-history Westerns with a bit of steampunk tech, and zombies in the "dangers of the wilderness" role that you'd normally see coyotes and Comanches in.

Yea. I paraphrased Sandi in my review (with credit)!

lol.

This book reminds me of Night of the Living Dead. The zombies are the reason that people who wouldn't normally talk to each other are forced to interact. The people are the scary part, not the zombies. Although these are fast zombies...

With the societies of stragglers eking out a living among the ruins, evading 'rotters' and poison gas, it actually reminds me quite a bit of Metro 2033.
At the same time, the world has a fascinatingly low-key steam-punk style. This is definitely not Girl Genius.

Read it a few weeks ago, enjoyed it and zorched through the rest of the series, finished up book 5 today actually. The zombie aspect is definitely overstated for this book, perhaps for marketing reasons. This is not another story of the zombie apocalypse (not that there's anything wrong with that).

I'm about 35% in, and it seems like to far the book talks more about the danger the rotters pose than actually showing them being dangerous.

Now, if I picture all the rotters as zombie mountain lions, that brings it to a whole new level...

I was worried it would be The walking, dead steampunks, so I'm fine with this scenario.

I'm 70 pages in, and still no zombies. I think it's more about the characters then the zombies...

I've read a few books where the zombies/werewolves/vampires could be replaced by any other creepy thing, and it would be the same book. That monster of the week is just a plot device tothe push the plot along. maybe that's what this is?

Even Zeke comments many times that he is worried he will make it out of the city without actually seeing a "rotter". I would say the story has as much to do with zombies as it does with Seattle ;)

I was a little worried about the rotters also, but the story is good so I'm happy. They fit the story well so far.

I’m about halfway through so there have been a few confrontations with the rotters. I’m not very well-versed in zombie fiction, but Priest’s descriptions of the undead and the action are nice and concise. Some of the zombie books I’ve read drone on and on about attacks and such, but the attacks in this book are nice and short. Of course, this could change in the latter half of the book, but I somehow doubt it.

Fredrik wrote: "I was worried it would be The walking, dead steampunks, so I'm fine with this scenario."

Actually a Steampunk version of The Walking Dead sounds kind of cool :-)

What's saved this for me from being repetitive is the way zombies are treated as a threat- ordinarily the tension in a zombie-plot is that the main character might be killed by a zombie or turns into one. Here, even though those threats exist, they aren't primary. The threat is suffocation. Sure, suffocation leads to zombification, but thankfully the book still places the suffocation as primary; when characters are in danger of dying they're thinking "I need to breathe" not "I don't wanna be undead." Even when the zombies are attacking, since the characters are fairly well protected, the danger is often less that he'll be bitten, and more that in the confusion they might breathe in the blight and die. The fact that being bitten is treatable helps this out a bit too.

I do quite agree, Rob, that although the zombies did turn out in very traditional hordes of running dead, the atmosphere did remain the main threat of the story. A refreshing change of pace. It also provided a good way to include the gasmask trope common to steampunk.
All in all, I'm well satisfied by the story and give it my full endorsement!

The zombies did not bother me that much as they were more or less an environmental menace. Part of the background rather than up front and center of the story.