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Boneshaker

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Boneshaker

By: Cherie Priest
Narrated by: Wil Wheaton, Kate Reading
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About this listen

In the early days of the Civil War, rumors of gold in the frozen Klondike brought hordes of newcomers to the Pacific Northwest. Anxious to compete, Russian prospectors commissioned inventor Leviticus Blue to create a great machine that could mine through Alaska’s ice.

Thus was Dr. Blue’s Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine born. But on its first test run the Boneshaker went terribly awry, destroying several blocks of downtown Seattle and unearthing a subterranean vein of blight gas that turned anyone who breathed it into the living dead.

Now it is 16 years later, and a wall has been built to enclose the devastated and toxic city. Just beyond it lives Blue’s widow, Briar Wilkes. Life is hard with a ruined reputation and a teenaged boy to support, but she and Ezekiel are managing. Until Ezekiel undertakes a secret crusade to rewrite history. His quest will take him under the wall and into a city teeming with ravenous undead, air pirates, criminal overlords, and heavily armed refugees. And only Briar can bring him out alive.

©2009 Cherie Priest (P)2010 Macmillan Audio Science Fiction Steampunk

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Critic reviews

"Intelligent, exceptionally well written and showcasing a phenomenal strong female protagonist who embodies the complexities inherent in motherhood, this yarn is a must-read for the discerning steampunk fan." ( Publishers Weekly)
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The story and universe set up is great, I just found the main characters annoying. The whiney teenager was irritating, and I felt the story lost its way a little towards the end. I am optimistic about the sequels though, if they are not confined to the same city, and branch out into the often referenced civil war.

An interesting premise, annoying main characters

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the story had a good flow but failed to get my attention above that contented feeling. .I enjoyed listening but have nothing memerable to take away. ..ho-hum..

it was ok

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Well I really listened to it rather than read it. An exciting roller-coaster ride full of gunfights, dirigibles, infernal machines and zombies. But not only that, rounded characters you really care about. A perfect steampunk adventure.

Steampunk Adventure

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Boneshaker is Cherie Priests first foray into Steampunk.
This is a genre that I find particularly appealing but this was my first book of that genre. Based on this I will be revisiting a lot more.
It is good to know that the narration is by both a woman and a man, so that when the perspective is from one of the two main characters you get a different voice which actually works quite well.
Kate reading is a little robotic on occasion and therefore some of the exciting parts are read without much excitement in her voice, but this still doesnt take away from a solid performance by both readers.
The story paints a wonderful picture of the setting and world in which this takes place and you can almost imagine it around you.
The characters are varied and interesting and the plot moves quickly and draws you in. I found I looked forward to listening to it and enjoyed several of the supporting characters just as much as the leads.
It does have all the tropes I am lead to believe tend to appear in the sub genre, but it feels like it is done well in a way that works for the story rather than shoehorning them in just to be present.
In short I really enjoyed this listen and found it an exciting story as a whole.

Very Enjoyable Steampunk

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I really enjoyed the pace of this audiobook. The story built up, and I loved the jumping between characters and voice actors. The more you get I into the story, the more you feel like the characters in that I wanted to know what they wanted to know. Really good left me wanting more.

Deeper you go, the more you need to know.

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What made the experience of listening to Boneshaker the most enjoyable?

The narrators are brilliant. They bring this story alive

What did you like best about this story?

I love the steampunk clockwork theme with bonus background zombies! i'm looking forward to the movie.

What about Wil Wheaton and Kate Reading ’s performance did you like?

My favorite voice Wil Wheaton does is for the Princess, i get such a mental image of this warrior woman i just want to see what she'll do next. All the characters are well defined and as stated in the title i have and will continue to listen to this great book.

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Background Zombies!

Any additional comments?

I just love it=)

Listen again and again!

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This is great. The heroine, Briar, is a single mother in her 30s determinedly setting out to find her missing teenage son, Zeke, in a "rotter" zombie ravaged 19th century Seattle full of poisonous "blight" gas and under the sway of a sinister doctor who may or may not be someone she knows.

Zeke is trying to find out the truth about his father and Briar is pretty close mouthed about what she knows throughout. Refreshingly, there is no romantic storyline tacked on for Briar or Zeke just people who help them or who don't. Both main characters are believable in their motivations and reactions to events.

I like the sharing of narration between 2 readers for Briar's and Zeke's chapters and they both do a find job at it: Wil Wheaton capturing the slightly whiny adolescent tone of Zeke and Kate Reading, Briar's weary but determined voice.

Not your average steam punk heroine

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The world it creates seem a little poor. Earth with X. The entire premise of historical with a twist has never really appealed to me in such a small change. This while a good book and an interesting starter for a series seems a little less fantasy to me.

I'm not a fan of duel readers however. (unless its it more of a dramatized work) It felt nice to have the two points of view though.

Not what I expected.

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I enjoyed listening to this book but I thought the plot was a little daft and facets of the story were flawed, so that I found it difficult to believe and get involved in it.

For example, inside the walled-off city there are hundreds of typically slow, loping and utterly unscary undead. Some 'living' people chose to remain in the poisoned city when the wall was erected and now eek out a living and existence there. The main protagonists enter the city 16 years after the wall went up and are chased by the undead only to be saved by one of the (living) locals who has a mechanical 'clapper' device. This sonic weapon stuns and incapacitates great swathes of the marauding zombies for maybe five minutes. My point is, why hasn't anyone done the kind thing and despatched all the undead while they are lying prone and unable to defend themselves? This weapon introduces the possibility that the living could have cleared the whole city of the undead in maybe the first week (after its invention), but instead are themselves being picked off by the zombies, some of whom must be eligible for bus-passes by now.

Also, a toxic smog covers the whole city, but the wealthy seem to have crops and chickens for food, with no mention of how this trick is achieved - maybe mini gas-masks for the chickens?

It was points like these that frustrated me a little, since the society that has been carved out in the city has not been thought out properly by the author, and if she's not clear on how the city has evolved over the years, what hope is there for me?

If you can suspend, or preferably throttle your disbelief for a few hours, this was an entertaining listen, which I thought was well read by both narrators, who made a good effort of bringing Ms Priest's characters and story to undeath.

Entertaining but flawed

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first time listening to a steam punk type. enjoyed it but could have had more depth to the story. love will weaton and kate is excellent as always

enjoyed it

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