Boneshaker

Author: Cherie Priest

Zeke Wilkes is a son out looking to regain his name. his Pa went and lost it when the drilling machine he invented tore up half of Seattle, and released a gas that turned half the area's inhabitants into zombies. So Zeke goes hunting inside the walled off section of Seattle - fifteen years later - hunting for evidence that might prove his Pa wasn't the devil they all said he was. Things get complicated quickly - and Briar Wilkes, Zeke's mother, follows him to the walled city, trying to save the son who's trying to save a name, all the while harbouring secrets of her own... She's trying for an opus of the Steampunk sub-genre, and getting it right, too. The vision is sweeping, and the characters engaging. The addition of zombies gets her extra points too - Steampunk sits well on the undead. Alternate history - we got to the 1800's before getting side tracked - in this case by the American Civil War, which a dastardly England has prolonged (through interference) far beyond it's time, thus spawning a whole other technology with its feet ankle deep in 1861.

Books in The Clockwork Century Series (5)

Dreadnought

Ganymede

The Inexplicables

Fiddlehead

Jacaranda