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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
Bizarre and improbable plot. Strange characters. Giant machines. Zombies. What's not to like?
3-1/2 stars. I didn't like it as much as Boneshaker, but it was still a great read, and i can't wait to read the entire series.
This series is getting better. Part of it could be that Priest doesn't make this a sequel to Boneshaker so much as it's another story set in the same world. The main character is the daughter to one of the secondary characters in the first book, but otherwise this is a story about her, and about war, and about her journey across a divided country.
The other reason the series is getting better is because Priest took the time to develop her main characters this time around. In Boneshaker, Briar and Zeke were important, but so crudely drawn that they came across as caricatures that characters. With Mercy Lynch, Priest created a more realized character, someone you could relate to much more easily than those in Boneshaker. Given that Clementine also showed an improvement in character development, I wasn't surprised (though it does raise the bar for the next four books in the series).
Priest's other talent is in telling a good, rip-roaring tale. Lots of stuff happens in this novel, from start to finish, and the pacing was just right. Nothing was resolved too quickly or too easily, but neither did it take too long for those scenes. For the Sad Puppies who bemoan the lack of adventure tales in science fiction, they would serve themselves well to read this series.
My one complaint was that there was a disconnect between Mercy's narrative and her dialogue. She's portrayed as being uneducated, but smart, and in the narrative (nearly all of which is told from her point of view), it's clear that she's very intelligent. Most of her dialogue portrays that, as well, but there are times when she starts talking like a country bumpkin, which was a bit jarring. Her voice didn't fit her in those moments, and whenever I would stumble across them (which I'm guessing was to further portray her as a Southerner), I would think that someone else was talking.
It's possible to read this book without having read Boneshaker and still get all you need to know about the story and the world in which it exists, but I wouldn't recommend it. Boneshaker still reads quickly, and sets the stage well for this one. I'm eager to see what the next book in the series will bring.
The other reason the series is getting better is because Priest took the time to develop her main characters this time around. In Boneshaker, Briar and Zeke were important, but so crudely drawn that they came across as caricatures that characters. With Mercy Lynch, Priest created a more realized character, someone you could relate to much more easily than those in Boneshaker. Given that Clementine also showed an improvement in character development, I wasn't surprised (though it does raise the bar for the next four books in the series).
Priest's other talent is in telling a good, rip-roaring tale. Lots of stuff happens in this novel, from start to finish, and the pacing was just right. Nothing was resolved too quickly or too easily, but neither did it take too long for those scenes. For the Sad Puppies who bemoan the lack of adventure tales in science fiction, they would serve themselves well to read this series.
My one complaint was that there was a disconnect between Mercy's narrative and her dialogue. She's portrayed as being uneducated, but smart, and in the narrative (nearly all of which is told from her point of view), it's clear that she's very intelligent. Most of her dialogue portrays that, as well, but there are times when she starts talking like a country bumpkin, which was a bit jarring. Her voice didn't fit her in those moments, and whenever I would stumble across them (which I'm guessing was to further portray her as a Southerner), I would think that someone else was talking.
It's possible to read this book without having read Boneshaker and still get all you need to know about the story and the world in which it exists, but I wouldn't recommend it. Boneshaker still reads quickly, and sets the stage well for this one. I'm eager to see what the next book in the series will bring.
An alternate history of the Confederacy without any explanation as to why this time 'round isn't steeped in racism is hella uncomfortable. I might come back to this later, but for now I'm not interested in slogging through a boring intro when the backdrop is in such poor taste.
I enjoyed Dreadnought much more than the previous two books in the Clockwork Century series. This books seems to have better flow, plot, and character development. The book has a steampunk gun-slinging/western feel to it. I enjoy Priest's alternate history, which stretches the American Civil war to over 20 years and includes steampunk war trains and machinery. At times the book felt more grounded in a description of a never ending journey than in real instances of plot.
I enjoyed the prior volume in the series (Boneshaker), which this only fully connects with at the very end, but found it a bit rough around the edges. I'm afraid that Dreadnought doesn't show the improvement I had hoped for. I still liked it and gave it 3 stars, but it's a lukewarm 3 stars. The world is fantastic. The gadgetry and action scenes are pretty great. The basic plot outlines and characters are there. But the actual execution of the plotting is problematic. It takes too long to get up to speed. So much of it is an and-then-this-happened. The characters seem at times to act in ways that don't really seem to fit with their prior characterization. And sometimes Priest pushes the social more anachronism thing a bit too far. Just a bit, but enough that along with the other issues, it bugged me a bit.
Trains, gunfights, and zombies. What more could you ask for? How about mad scientists and a main character you can actually root for? This book is all kinds of fun.
Trains, zombies, alternate Civil War history, and a BA heroine, oh my!
The Civil War has been going on for something like 30 years, and nurse Mercy Lynch needs to make it from Virginia to Seattle -- via dirigible, boat, and train -- to see her estranged father who is dying. Great women characters and a fast-paced plot. Bonus: at the end, we meet up with a handful of the characters from Boneshaker, of whom Mercy's father, Jeremiah, is one.