Pulp of the Week - The Inexplicables

Cherie Priest
The Inexplicables
The Clockwork Century Book 5

The zombie filled, blight ridden, great-walled Seattle returns in this 5th book in the Clockwork Century series by Cherie Priest. The story focuses on the young Rector Sherman, a victim of the blight, though he grew up in the region of Seattle outside the walls. That giant wall did not protect him enough, as he grew into an addict of that most addictive byproduct of the blight, its distilled and cooked up form called sap.

I found this tale a delightful return to the city that we first saw in Boneshaker, the first and best of the series, and Priest picks up the characters lives farther down their road of life, but she focuses on the young'uns - Rector, Zeke, and the Chinese boy inventor, Huey. That trio of friends propel the book through several new mysteries that shake up the landscape of the walled city. Where are the rotters (the zombies) going? Who are the strange newcomers and what are they doing to the wall? What is the Inexplicable?

The answers to those questions power this highly enjoyable novel that begins taking the walled city into a new era, and provide hope for the future.

The amazing cover painting of The Inexplicables is by Cliff Nielsen and I was thrilled to find that it is an illustration of a scene in the book as opposed to a thematic piece. When Rector and his pals reach this point, I flipped the book to the cover and marveled at the view.

Now for the rating... In terms of this series (which I like quite a bit) I would rank The Inexplicables as third favorite of the series, right in the middle, though only by the smallest fraction above Clementine. I would rank the books in this order [the bracketed number is the series number] from best to least best (I won't say worse, because these books are all good.)

Boneshaker [1]
Ganymede [4]
Inexplicables [5]
Clementine [3]
Dreadnought [2]

With all that said, I give The Inexplicables an 8.75...

Pulp of the Week - Ganymede by Cherie Priest

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Author Cherie Priest returns to the Clockwork Century in her new book, Ganymede.  This marks a glorious fourth book in the series. In Ganymede, Priest turns her eye again to Andan Cly, the airship Captain, and sometime pirate, introduced in the excellent novel Boneshaker. If you have not read Boneshaker, go buy that book, read it, then read Ganymede.

In this adventure, Captain Cly is trying hard to escape his pirate ways. He gets a mysterious offer from an old flame from New Orleans, Josephine Early, who is in need of an airship captain. But Cly is looking to settle down a bit in Seattle, finding himself attracted to the local Sheriff (remember the end of Boneshaker?), but decides to take the offer which when finished will allow him to pick up a load of supplies that Seattle desperately needs. Cly and crew take his airship to New Orleans, but as it turns out, Josephine doesn't need his ship at all. She wants Cly and his crew to pilot a captured ship prototype and deliver it to the Union forces. She is hoping the new ship's capabilities will bring an end to the war.

New Orleans is a city occupied by the Texians on behalf of the Confederacy. Rebels are fighting this occupation, but the battle is tough and Texas is looking to rout the rebels from their hideaway in the swamp. Josephine and her brother are part of the rebels.

I loved the interplay between Andan Cly and Josephine Early. They have the tug of lost love and the reality of the now. Can the flames rekindle, or not. Josephine runs the Garden Court Boarding House which is better known as "Miss Early's Place" and the home of "Miss Early's Girlies." Josephine is a great character; tough, sassy and vulnerable. The scenes with the two of them are outstanding.

The novel is chock-a-block with other great characters, some new, some familiar. There is Ranger Korman from Dreadnought, Josephine's rebel brother Deaderick, a few of the "Girlies", Airship Naahmah Darling crew Huey and Fangand, and mysterious voodoo priestess, Marie Laveau. Rest assured, there are rotters here, their presence has spread to the bayou, though the locals call them zombis (not a typo) not many of them are convinced of their reality. Hardly anyone knows about or believes the zombis exist.

There are air pirates and sea battles, and tons of inventive adventure in between. I loved this book and will not spoil it in this review (as usual). Cherie Priest has delivered the goods here and I look forward to further books in the series.

The cover once again is by Jon Foster. He has done all four books in the series.

I give Ganymede a 9 out of 10.

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Pulp of the Week - Cherie Priest's Dreadnought

Dreadnought

Cherie Priest

 Dreadnought takes place after the events of Boneshaker and Clementine in Cherie Priest's Clockwork Century series. I guess you have to be a vehicle to get Cherie to name a book after you. The Clockwork Century stories are set in an alternate history American Civil war. The war has been going on a very long time.

This Savage Tale (it indeed qualifies there) introduces us to a Civil War nurse, Mercy Lynch, who is working at a busy hospital. She is caring and competent, assisting the doctors and caring for her patients. It is not easy as the war is brutal and the soldiers on both sides are taking a beating.

After a series of tragic events, Mercy is compelled to take a cross country trip by airship, train, and other means to get to her ill father.

As you may recall, I thought Boneshaker was outstanding. It is my favorite book I've read this year so far. Unfortunately, Dreadnought is merely very good. I think the story took a bit too long to unfold and there were a few detours along the way.

Boneshaker had the benefit of the gripping dilemma of a desperate mother following her son into the heart of Zombieland. The book was also told in two perspectives. Dreadnought is told in a single voice, a single perspective.

Mercy is a great character, but the dead straight, linear path of this book played out a bit too long for me. I think the whole of it could have been 100 pages shorter and it could have had greater impact. As I said above, Dreadnought was very good, but I thought it was missing some additional element to push it to great.

Clementine was much shorter and just as enjoyable. Cherie is building a great world here and I will continue to follow the Clockwork Century books. After reading Dreadnought I got to thinking about the structure of my own stories. Many of them follow just one characters' perspective. I need to be sure that I don't allow my viewpoint to get stale.

However, my stories are short stories. When I do a novel, I will have to be sure to allow another character's viewpoint to lend a different perspective on the story and to provide the pace that converging story lines can give.

I give Dreadnought an 8 out of 10. The book is again graced with a gorgeous cover by Jon Foster and nice design work throughout. As with Boneshaker, Dreadnought's tan pages and brown ink are beautiful to look at and comfortable to read.

Pulp of the Week - Cherie Priest's Clementine

Clementine
Written By Cherie Priest
Cover Art By John Foster
Published By Subterranean Press

Clementine is the second novel in the Clockwork Century series written by Cherie Priest. It is about half the size of Boneshaker (the first novel), but it is a terrific read and if you have read Boneshaker, you will want to read this new book.

The next book in the Clockwork Century series, Dreadnought, is due out at the end of September so I wanted to have this one done so I can read that one when it comes out.

But this isn't much of a review so far, so here goes... Spoiler Alert for those who have not read Boneshaker. Don't read this review.

Clementine follows two characters and what happens when they meet and their destinies intertwine. Like Boneshaker, it has dirigibles, shoot outs, adventure, intrigue and a boy in trouble. But the similarity stops there, well except that Clementine is also an awesome book.

The first character is Captain Croggon Beauregard Hainey, whose airship, the Free Crow, is stolen at the end of Boneshaker. Hainey has taken off in another airship in hot pursuit. He is determined to get his ship back (even though he stole it in the first place) at nearly any cost.

Maria Isabella Boyd is a former Confederate spy who in desperation has taken on a job as a Pinkerton agent. Her first assignment is to be sure that whatever is on the  Free Crow makes it to its destination and to keep Hainey from getting his ship back.

Belle Boyd and Captain Hainey are great characters that I couldn't help but root for. Their unlikely alliance is the heart of the book and I loved their relationship as much as the ass-kicking both of these people deliver to their enemies.

What Clementine doesn't have is Zombies. Boneshaker was a Seattle story and because of the conditions there, there are zombies. The new book has plenty of action and thrills to take the place of the creeping undead. Hainey and his all black crew have to risk heading East to the heart of the Civil War where they are unwelcome by either side.

Cherie Priest is on a roll and writing some awesome pulp action. Even if you think you don't like steampunk, read the Clockwork Century books because they are big fun, full of pulpy action and awesome characters. Personally, I find Steampunk to be a weird label. I just call it pulp, or if you must  - alternate history SF.

I give Clementine an 8.5 out of 10. It is a lean 200 pages of pulp adventure. I can't wait for Dreadnought which releases on Sept 28. If you like the sound of this hurry over to Subterranean Press before they sell out. If you miss it there, it will be out in a trade paperback in 2011.

Pulp of the Week - Cherie Priest's Boneshaker

Boneshaker
Cherie Priest

One of the most talked about SF novels of last year, Cherie Priest's Boneshaker is a terrific adventure novel and could be the blueprint for a fantastic movie. The characters are great, the setting is unique and cinematic, and the action is fast, dangerous, and inspiringly original.

This is my first time reading a 'Steampunk" novel and I guess that just means alternate history, late 1800s SF. I have read quite a bit of "Cyberpunk" and a little "Splatterpunk" and I guess that people just like labels. Especially ones with the word 'punk' in them.

Based on the appearance of Steampunk fans at the San Diego, Comic Con, wood and brass gadgetry are an important visual piece of the puzzle of Steampunk, and Priest gets all that stuff into the book, but (for example) her goggles are so absolutely vital to the setting that I couldn't imagine the characters not wearing them.

Oh, yeah, and the airships. They're here too, and I love them, and again, they work beautifully.

The story is about a mother and son and the tragic events that lead to them being outcasts in an alternate history zombified Seattle near the turn of the century (from 19th to 20th.) Seattle, it seems, underwent a horrible tragedy that released a continuous font of toxic gas called The Blight upon the land. The Blight caused the zombies. They are a relentless horde that swarms and eats humans. Because the gas is still emanating from the ground a 200 foot tall wall was built around the city, and the city was left for dead.

The mother, Briar Wilkes, knows far more about the Blight than she has told her son. The boy, Zeke, was born just after the gas was released and has never know his father - the man everyone holds responsible for unleashing the Blight gas.

Events take a turn that finds Zeke trapped in the walled city and Briar is off to the rescue. But in a world of zombies and air pirates and people living underground beneath a city of slavering zombies, who will rescue her?

I really like the setting and the characters and the way Cherie Priest works the emotional story of both Briar and her son and everyone else they meet. Hopefully I will learn from this book and make sure that I create a satisfying emotional arc to parallel the story in my own fiction.

I give Boneshaker a 9 out of 10. The evocative Tor paperback cover is by Jon Foster.

I snatched Jon Foster's preliminary sketches from the BSC site.