steampunk

Boneshaker

Posted on June 25, 2013

This week on Novel Ideas, we discuss Boneshaker by Cherie Priest, a sci-fi steampunk alternate history zombie story about the importance of family. In this episode we discuss characterization, possible racism, the motives of villains, and what about this book could use editing. We also the discuss the possibility of Disney accidentally creating zombies, moms who are also sharpshooters, steampunk naming conventions, and all the ways this book is like Peter Pan. There’s also an announcement at the end about our exciting July project extravaganza (more or that in the next day or two here if you’re avoiding the episode for spoilers).

A quick note: During the episode we wonder what the publication date was for this book, it was in 2009 and nominated for a Hugo award in 2010.

The music bump this week is “The Wall” by Kansas, though I’m pretty sure their version of the wall was not a literal wall containing poison gas and zombies.

Boneshaker

Recommendations:

Ben: 5/10 Definitely not bad, but not memorable

Gabs: 4/10 Not my bag

This entry was posted in Episodes and tagged Boneshaker, Cherie Priest, Disney, feminism, gas masks, how do you define resourceful, just like Peter Pan, lack of characterization, moms who can shoot, needs editing, questionable ending, racism, reader recommendation, sharecropping, special project, Starbucks, steampunk, steampunk naming conventions, strong women, technicians get no love, teenagers acting like teenagers, villainous motives, why fear the Chinese, zombies.