Reviewed by Gwenda Bond

When most of us think of steampunk what leaps into our minds is the image of an impossibly stylish Victorian-era hero sporting the niftiest clockwork, gearhead tech that never existed. And possibly wearing a gas mask. Author Cherie Priest recently published a steampunk manifesto of sorts on The Clockwork Century, her site setting forth the history of her own lovingly developed steampunk world, observing that: “If it isn’t lots of fun, you’re doing it wrong.” So trust Priest to subvert and exceed all the usual expectations by choosing to set her steampunk debut Boneshaker in an alternate 1880s Seattle where the Civil War still rages on the other side of the country.

As the novel opens, Briar Wilkes and her son Ezekiel live a grim existence in exile in the Outskirts of Seattle–the city proper having been the scene of a devastating calamity sixteen years past involving the inventor Leviticus Blue and his infamous machine, the Boneshaker, which opened a massive cache of Blight Gas that still turns civilians into zombies called rotters. Being Blue’s former wife, Wilkes has a target on her back from the association, despite her also being the daughter of a folk hero lawman, Maynard Wilkes. Briar has left the details of her past in its grave, not sharing the details with her son Zeke. Problem being that Zeke has just hit the age where he wants to go exploring his father’s past and redeem his legacy. The strong-willed teenager visits forbidden, walled-off Seattle by way of an underground tunnel, which is promptly destroyed before Briar can follow him. She instead hitches a ride on an airship called the Naamah Darling, and the novel settles into a pattern alternating between the two characters as the mother searches for her son.

Priest takes an already memorable setting, late nineteenth century Seattle, and tweaks history in large and small ways to make it even more enjoyable. Her changes allow some locations to exist earlier than they might have, and increases the population of the area by accelerating the Klondike gold rush, as explained in her author’s note. History buffs will find an extra layer to excavate as a result, and everyone else will just get introduced to a fresh brand of steampunk that leaves the Victorian era to its dust. Priest literally plumbs the depths, showing off an undercity inhabited by noble ragtag refugees, a contingent of Chinese workers left in the area, and the assorted villains who make up the crew of Dr. Minnericht, a mask-wearing genius who may or may not be the infamous, supposedly dead Blue. Through the twists and turns beneath the city, a riotous display of tech includes manufactured arms, guns disguised as canes, and airships liberated from the Civil War. Due to the blight, there are plenty of gasmasks, too.

But there are deeper layers to the story as a whole. The idea of destruction and rebirth–the transition of moving from one state to another–suffuses Boneshaker and Priest isn’t afraid to expose fault lines as large as the one cracked by her husband’s great machine. Briar wonders again and again if the city itself can ever be cleansed of Blight and salvaged. And, of course, Seattle has already been transformed from a city aboveground to a city largely below it. Briar believes her husband dead, but Dr. Minnericht reincarnates him. Her father Maynard freed prisoners to prevent their being killed by the Blight, and so a sheriff became a hero to criminals. But the novel’s real question is whether Briar Wilkes can be reborn, unashamed of her past associations.

It’s indisputable that steampunk is one of the current big-next-new-wow trends, with Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan also due out in October on the YA front, and plenty more books in line after these for both teens and adults–including several works from Priest set in the same world. And while, yes, Boneshaker is certainly a great deal of fun, it also proves that works set in the steampunk milieu don’t need to have clockwork hearts.