REVIEW: FIDDLEHEAD

Cover art by Angelo Rinaldi

FIDDLEHEAD

A CLOCKWORK CENTURY NOVEL/

CLOCKWORK CENTURY BOOK 5

BY

CHERIE PRIEST

ISBN: 978-1-447-22558-4
Pages: 366
Publisher: Tor UK
Published: 21 November 2013

On the cover:
(From the publisher's website.)

Ex-spy ‘Belle Boyd’ is retired – more or less. Retired from spying on the Confederacy anyway. Her short-lived marriage to a Union navy boy cast suspicion on those Southern loyalties, so her mid-forties found her unemployed, widowed and disgraced. Until her life-changing job offer from the staunchly Union Pinkerton Detective Agency.

When she’s required to assist Abraham Lincoln himself, she has to put any old loyalties firmly aside – for a man she spied against twenty years ago. Lincoln’s friend Gideon Bardsley, colleague and ex-slave, is targeted for assassination after the young inventor made a breakthrough. Fiddlehead, Bardsley’s calculating engine, has proved the world is facing an extraordinary threat. Meaning it's not the time for civil war.

Now Bardsley and Fiddlehead are in great danger as forces conspire to keep this potentially unifying secret, the war moving and the money flowing. With spies from both camps gunning for her, can even the notorious Belle Boyd hold the war-hawks at bay?

   With this book we're coming to the end of The Clockwork Century series. In some small ways that changes how I look at the book. I've loved this series from the first book (links to reviews), and I want it to end well. I was never really worried that it wouldn't though, Priest has written a great series, that I hold as a must-read among recent Alternate History works.

    Like the other books in this series this is not a direct sequel to those that have preceded it. It does however follow quite nicely on from Clementine, and there is  plenty of little tidbits that point back to previous volumes. None of them are really essential reading, and Priest is good at giving the new reader an idea of what has gone before.  But there's no doubt that it will give you a richer reading experience if you are familiar with at least some of what happened previously.

   Returning from Clementine is the heroine, Belle Boyd, who is given some more depth here than in her previous outing. She is a great character, and a really good spy/action heroine. Boyd would have been adequate as a sole main character, but she's not alone here. There are other main characters that we get to follow, Abraham Lincoln is one of them.
   Lincoln being a main character is a sign that we are getting a more political story this time. We are at the high reaches of government, and that means that the stakes are higher than they have been before in the series. Things that have been building up are now coming to a head.

   This starts out intriguingly, with a sort of recap, or at least a good reminder of what has come before. From there it builds slowly, at times you want to drag the story forwards. Don't get me wrong, it never gets boring, and neither does it feel like you are reading filler material.It's just a story that has a deliberately slow pace. One that actually fits very well with what is going on. It can be a bit frustrating at times though, you really want things to happen now, you're at the edge of your seat waiting for things to happen, but this really drives you to read on. And when things start happening your patience, or what little is left of it, is rewarded with an excellent series of events.

   Some of the slow burn of the plot continues throughout, but there is a lot of action interspersed with the other developments and there are events that create a lot of suspense. A lot of the suspense is created by the reader not knowing how this is going to end. Although you assume the good guys will win, it is never clear what the cost will have been when this story ends. And it is never clear who will be making it to the end of the book either, no-one is really essential here and the body count has the potential to be really high.

   Although I am not a big fan of open-ended series I feel this book is a bit hampered by it's "end of an era" feel, but that was pretty inevitable seeing as this is the end of the series. It's not even really a problem with the book itself, it's a problem with the reader - in this case me. I had a sort of separation anxiety before I started reading this book, I even put off starting it for quite a while. In hindsight I need not have done that, and in some ways it made finishing it more of a melancholy experience than it had to be. But now that I am at the end of it, I can say that I am very satisfied with the stories that Priest has shared with me as a reader. This is an excellent Steampunk series with a strong Alternate History component.

   This is an excellent book, and I am confident it will satisfy those that have taken a liking to Priest's Clockwork Century series. It is well written, with a very well developed, but slow-burning, storyline. There's plenty of action here, and political intrigue on the top level. Somewhat of a political thriller with a good dose of action.
   It will work as a standalone, but it is definitely a book that works best as the end of an era in the alternate history of the United States. Both Steampunk and Alternate History fans should do themselves a favour and check out this series. For Priest's fans this is of course a must, but I assume most of them have already finished this one.

REVIEWS: A Clockwork Century reviews.

LINKS: Cherie Priest  Pan Macmillan (Tor UK)  Tor UK Blog

REVIEW: CLEMENTINE

Cover by Jon Foster

CLEMENTINE

A NOVEL OF THE CLOCKWORK CENTURY

BY

CHERIE PRIEST

ISBN: 978-1-59606-308-2

Pages: 201

Publisher: Subterranean Press

First published: 30 July 2010

This edition: 15 December 2011

On the cover:

(From the publisher's website.)

Maria Isabella Boyd’s success as a Confederate spy has made her too famous for further espionage work, and now her employment options are slim. Exiled, widowed, and on the brink of poverty…she reluctantly goes to work for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency in Chicago.

Adding insult to injury, her first big assignment is commissioned by the Union Army. In short, a federally sponsored transport dirigible is being violently pursued across the Rockies and Uncle Sam isn’t pleased. The Clementine is carrying a top secret load of military essentials—essentials which must be delivered to Louisville, Kentucky, without delay.

Intelligence suggests that the unrelenting pursuer is a runaway slave who’s been wanted by authorities on both sides of the Mason-Dixon for fifteen years. In that time, Captain Croggon Beauregard Hainey has felonied his way back and forth across the continent, leaving a trail of broken banks, stolen war machines, and illegally distributed weaponry from sea to shining sea.

And now it’s Maria’s job to go get him.

He’s dangerous quarry and she’s a dangerous woman, but when forces conspire against them both, they take a chance and form an alliance. She joins his crew, and he uses her connections. She follows his orders. He takes her advice.

And somebody, somewhere, is going to rue the day he crossed either one of them.

   It's not exactly a secret that I like the A Clockwork Century novels (, see the link to my reviews below,) so I was really excited to finally get my hands on this one. Of course there's a certain danger that you set yourself up for disappointment when you let anticipation build up for any form of art and/or entertainment. Not that I was really worried, Priest has definitely been good to me in that regard previously, and she doesn't disappoint this time either.

   We're at a new location for this series, actually several new locations; Chicago, Kansas City, and Louisville among them. This is very much centered around dirigibles, including the Clementine of the book's title. This makes for a structure that gives is very good for the kind of action adventure structured story we are getting here.
   As before the alternate history aspect is very solid here. It's clear that this is a world that is real enough that we'll do fine without a set location, or a permanent set of characters. And this time Priest has abandoned a story element that has united the other books in this series. There's still a connection to the other novels through some characters. But Priest's world is perfectly capable of supporting independent stories, and I wouldn't mind seeing this alternate Earth explored further in the future.

   The characters here are two very different people (, as stated in the cover copy above). Priest takes their differences and uses it to a great advantages when she showcases their different positions in a world where the US Civil War is still fought. They have some of the same personality traits, but that just highlights how much they come from totally different settings in life even more. Although I must stress that they are certainly much more than just mirror images. They just happen to both be the type of character that can drive this type of action-oriented narrative.
   Having two such individuals in such a short story shouldn't at first glance work, but Priest has made it seem like a completely natural way to tell a story. They do not crowd eachother out, but give us different threads of the same story, and we get a much richer tale because of it.

   The story is really a good one too, although it must be said that it has a bit of a prologue feel to it. Although to be perfectly honest that could just be me wanting to read a six to eight hundred story following where this one ends.
   Writing in such a limited space has left us with a story that is really pared down, there is nothing here that is unnecessary. In that regard this feels like a two hundred page short story. The story itself is not cut down though, it's a full action packed adventure with airship-pirates, spies, and secret weapons. It does in fact have much of the same pacing as an Action Thriller. It's a fast flowing story with action and suspense, but it is still filled with enough details to give us a nice glimpse of the wider world.

   All in all this was a very enjoyable book with more depth to it than I had expected. It's Steampunk with more than a bit of the depth many have said is lacking from the genre. It's also Steampunk that is geared towards the Alternate History end of that genre, it's totally lacking in the Victoriana we so often see. 
   But first and foremost this is a great story with plenty of action. I think it will appeal to anyone who has found Action Thrillers appealing, for those that like Alternate History or Steampunk this is a must. And it is a great "starter book" for those that are curious about the Alternate History end of Steampunk.
   For me this just cements Priest as one of the great writers of modern day Steampunk, and as a SFF author it is worth paying attention to.

REVIEWS: A Clockwork Century reviews.

LINKS: Cherie Priest  Subterranean Press

COVER REVEAL ROUND-UP (X)

   First off this time is another cover for a Strange Chemistry book, it's an imprint that lives up to the Angry Robot Books tradition of having very good and interesting covers. This one is by Steven Mayer-Rossow, and the book will be out 1 October. It's absolutely a nice cover that goes very well with the cover copy. I like it, especially the fox symbol at the top.

   This one is actually already out, at least in e-book. The print edition will follow in late August. It's from Night Shade Books. All I need to say is that this is a brilliant cover for a Horror anthology, and that it's by Allen Williams.

   This is the Tor UK cover for this book. I've done the US one previously. This one has art by Angelo Rinaldi, and will be released 21 November. And according to the author, this is a better likeness of the main character than the US cover. It's also in line with the previous UK covers. I really like it, a great cover. And that sort of pains me, because I have the US edition of the first four books and I can't really justify using what little money I have to get four new UK editions of the previous books. (And seeing as I am a completist I'd have to do that if I got this one...)

   Del Rey cover for the UK edition of Hines's sequel to Libriomancer. It's by Larry Rostant, who seems to always be able to make great covers. I think it's a very good cover, and it actually makes me want to get the first book before this is released 7 November.


I'll end this post with three Mammoth Book of... anthologies from Robinson (,meaning this is UK editions of the anthologies. US names may differ). (Sadly I don't have any artist information on these.)

   This long running series gets a very traditional cover. I'm not sure I like the double-vision effect, it's a bit confusing. If it hadn't been for the text and the woman in the foreground I'd have thought it was an error. It will be out 19 September.

   Another long running series, and another rather traditional cover. I like this cover, it looks very suitable for a Horror anthology and I would certainly take a second look at it if I saw it in a bookstore. This one will be out 17 October.

   This one looks really interesting. More because of the title than the art perhaps, but it really is eyecatching. We'll have to wait until 21 November for this.


   As always you are more than welcome to put any thoughts you have on the covers, and even the books inside them, in the comment field below.

COVER REVEAL ROUND-UP (VII)

   It's been a long time since I did one of these posts so these aren't necessarily newly revealed, but they are covers I want to spread around. And I could easily have done at least twenty more, so there is some selection process going on here...but anyway...let's just get on with the book cover porn.

   This one was actually published on Monday (25 March), by Anachron Press. The cover art is by Sarah Ann Langton. I think it's a good cover that suits the title very well. It certainly made me curious. -And let's face it, who doesn't like a skull.

   From Atom we have the cover to the Second book in the Finishing School series by Gail Carriger, with a release date of 5 November. I reviewed the first book yesterday, and I think this cover suits the series very well. It also fits in nicely with the first book's cover.

   The Hodder (UK) cover for King's follow up to The Shining, coming 24 September. It's a new Stephen King novel, so they could basically have put anything they wanted to on it, but I think this one is very good. (I like cats.)

 

   These are the covers to the first two books from Angry Robot's Crime imprint Exhibit A, they'll be out 2 May. I really like them both, especially the one for Penance. And I'm also looking forward to reading these, I read too little Crime these days.

   From PS publishing, this cover is by Pedro Marques, the book is at the printer right now and should be out shortly. It's got a "Comic Book feel" to it (, and reminds me of The Preacher). I don't know anything about the book, but this cover makes me want to find out more about it.

   From Tor UK we have the cover to the first book in a new series that will be out 10 October. I like it a lot (, which may have a bit to do with my interest in heraldry), it evokes an imperial feel -and I want to see where Newton has gone with that.

   The cover for the fifth book in the Clockwork Century, coming from Tor in November. I really like this series, and I love this cover. Really can't wait to see what this one's all about.

   Cover by Martin Bland for the sequel to vN, it should be out 25 June  It's in the same style as the cover to the first book, and it's a great one. Really liked the first book, and has been looking forward to more from Ashby, this cover makes me want to read the book now!

   From Strange Chemistry and ARGH!, Oxford comes this cover, the book is out 7 May. I love Astronomy photos, so  this cover is a big hit with me.

   This cover, by Sarah J. Coleman,  is for the sequel to The Assassin's Curse. The book will be out 4 June from Strange Chemistry. Same style as the first book, and since I have read that I think it's a style that fits very well with the story. And I for one look forward to reading about the creature depicted.

   Cover by Michael Karcz for Orbit, release date 3 September. I'm pretty much a fan of landscapes on SFF books. But I'm not sure this really is an SFF book since it says "A Novel of the Ice Age" and I have no further info on it. It doesn't really matter though, the book will find it's way into my home and a part of  the reason for that is because of the cover.

   Out from Little Brown 22 October. I really like this cover. Again it's landscape, and the red at the bottom of it seems to suggest this will be a Horror novel. Based on the cover alone I would be getting this. And since I have read the cover copy, I will definitely be getting it.

  Lastly for this time, there's the cover to the follow up to The Long Earth, coming from Doubleday 20 June. I felt the first book had a lot of potential it didn't quite live up to, but judging by this cover I think this one is going to be really good.

   As usual I welcome any comments you may have. Is there any covers that really caught your eye?

REVIEW: THE INEXPLICABLES

Cover art by Cliff Nielsen

Cover design by Jamie Stafford-Hill

THE INEXPLICABLES

A CLOCKWORK CENTURY NOVEL/

CLOCKWORK CENTURY BOOK 4

BY

CHERIE PRIEST

ISBN: 978-0-7653-2947-9

Pages: 366

Publisher: Tor

Published: 13 November 2012

On the cover:

Rector "wreck'em" Sherman was one of many kids orphaned by the Blight of 1863, but one of very few who made it to his eighteenth birthday. As a reward, he's being cast out of the orphanage he grew up in. But Wreck's problems don't stop there. He's been braking the cardinal rule of any good drug dealer and dipping into his own sap supply. He also thinks he's being haunted by the ghost of a kid he used to know - Zeke Wilkes, who died six months ago, after Wreck helped him get into the walled city of Seattle.

   Maybe the haunting is only guilty conscience, but Wreck can't take it anymore, so he sneaks over the wall. Once there, he finds that Zeke isn't as dead as he thought...but the wasteland of Seattle is as bad as he'd heard: chock-full of hungry undead and smothered by the poisonous, inescapable yellow gas. And then there are the newcomers: not at all human, but not rotters, either. Arms too long, eyes all wild, murderously violent, and known to the locals simply as "The Inexplicables".

   Seattle's de facto leader, Yaozu, gives Rector his first real job: track down these creatures before they do any more harm. In the process, Rector finds another set of dangerous intruders, lured there by greed. Something valuable lurks within the city wall, and the newcomers will kill to take it...which means that Rector needs to find out where his loyalties lie. Fast.

   In this volume of her A Clockwork Century series, Priest takes us back to Seattle, the setting of the first book in the series, Boneshaker. It's a welcome return, both to the setting, and to the characters from the first book. As an added bonus for those who enjoy this series, there's also mention of the events of  Dreadnought and Ganymede. And we get to see how Dreadnought's main character Mercy Lynch has settled into the walled city of Seattle.
   There's always the danger when an author revisits previous settings through new POV eyes that they tell too much of the setting for those that are familiar with it, and too little for those that are jumping in to a series. Priest manages to follow the narrow path of satisfying readers both old and new here. For me as a return reader, I didn't feel bogged down with information I already knew, but welcomed the reminders of what has gone before. And I can't say I can see a problem for a new reader to the series in following what is going on if they start with this book.

   The story itself can be divided into three parts, Rector's journey, the mysterious creature, and the human intruders. But this is much more than three stories that are loosely connected, the three parts both feed off each other and add to each other, and creates a larger whole than the sum of the parts it consists of.
   That the three strands of the story are quite different in nature, will mean that not everyone will have the same reaction to each one. For me the journey of Rector stood a little bit above the others, but I still very much enjoyed the other two story strands, and without them Rector's journey would have been much less than it ended up as.

   As with the previous volumes, Priest is very adept at creating a tense atmosphere. The location, the walled city of Seattle, is described in such a way that it feels claustrophobic at times. Priest is very good at conveying the feeling that anything can happen, and it never feels like you have figured out exactly were you will be led by the novel. Even though I personally figured one element out very quickly, I was never sure I was right about it before much later, and it didn't hamper my enjoyment of the story.

   There is some action in the novel, but this isn't Steampunk-Action as much as it is Steampunk-Alternate History. -I must add, Steampunk-Alternate History with some very good worldbuilding.
   Being a fan of Alternate History, I have enjoyed that element in the A Clockwork Century a lot, and this element doesn't disappoint here either. With each volume in the series Priest manages to subtly add to her alternate worlds texture, making it a little bit more solid, or real if you want, at the end of the novel than it was before you started it.

   All in all I found this very much to my liking. It's an excellent follow-up to what has gone before, and as I mentioned above, it is possible to read it without having read any of the previous A Clockwork Century books.
   Priest continues to be one of the great authors in the Steampunk subgenre of SFF. And as well as being a must for fans of Steampunk, this book deserves to be read by anyone who is a fan of well written SFF.

Reviews: Boneshaker  Dreadnought  Ganymede

Links: Cherie Priest  Tor/Forge  Tor/Forge Blog

COVER REVEAL ROUND-UP (V)

  It's been a while since I did one of these posts. Anyway, here are some of the covers that have caught my eye recently.

   First up, the cover to The Mammoth Book of Ghost Stories by Women. I think this is a great cover, it captures the mood of a good ghost story perfectly, and it makes me want to get hold of the book.
   This anthology is edited by Marie O'Regan and is out from Constable & Robinson on 18 October. It contains 20 stories, and there are some great names among the authors.

   These two are the Tor UK covers for Cherie Priest's Clockwork Century novels (, Boneshaker will keep its US cover).
   They are quite different than the US covers, they are much more focused on the characters. And they actually fit better in with the Boneshaker covers than the US ones do. Whether you prefer the US or the UK covers, is a matter of personal taste. I like both versions.
   -You can find my reviews of Clockwork Century novels by here: Boneshaker, Dreadnought, Ganymede.

   This is the UK Orbit cover for David Brin's Existence. I like this cover, it's intriguing, and it makes me want to read the book to find out what is behind the image.
   Orbit are also revamping the covers to some of Brin's other books and you can look at them here.

   Another UK Orbit cover, this one for Act Three Jon Courtney Grimwood's Assassini series. It's a very nice cover, designed by Emma Graves. I like covers of this type in most cases, and I really like this one. In fact the only thing I don't like about it, is it reminds me that I haven't read any of the books, and from what I've heard I really should have.

   And again, this is a UK Orbit cover. This one for the latest Terry Brooks Shannara book. It's unashamedly  a traditional Fantasy cover, but it being a Brooks book that fits very well. I think it's a good cover, and I really like the dragon skull. You can take a look at how artist Stephen Youll made the cover here.

   Do any of these covers excite you, or put you off reading the books? Tell me in the comments.

REVIEW: GANYMEDE

Cover art: Jon Foster

GANYMEDE

A CLOCKWORK CENTURY NOVEL/

CLOCKWORK CENTURY BOOK THREE

BY

CHERIE PRIEST

ISBN: 978-0-7653-2946-2

Pages: 346

Publisher: Tor

Published: 27 September 2011

On the cover:

The air pirate Andan Cly is going straight. Well, straighter. Although he’s happy to run alcohol guns wherever the money’s good, he doesn’t think the world needs more sap, or its increasingly ugly side effects. But going straight is easier said than done, and Cly’s first legal gig—a supply run for the Seattle Underground—will be paid for by sap money.

   New Orleans is not Cly’s first pick for a shopping run. He loved the Big Easy once, back when he also loved a beautiful mixed-race prostitute named Josephine Early—but that was a decade ago, and he hasn’t looked back since. He's still on Jo's mind, though, or so he learns when he gets a telegram about a peculiar piloting job. It’s a chance to complete two lucrative jobs at once, one he can’t refuse. He sends his old paramour a note and heads for New Orleans, with no idea of what he’s in for—or what she wants him to fly.

   But he won’t be flying. Not exactly. Hidden at the bottom of Lake Pontchartrain lurks an astonishing war machine, an immense submersible called the Ganymede. This prototype could end the war, if only anyone had the faintest idea of how to operate it…. If only they could sneak it past the Southern forces at the mouth of the Mississippi River… If only it hadn’t killed most of the men who’d ever set foot inside it. 

   But it’s those “if onlys” that will decide whether Cly and his crew will end up in the history books, or at the bottom of the ocean.

   Like the second Clockwork Century book, Dreadnought, this also gives us a new location for the story. But this time we are much more tied to Boneshaker, the first book, through the re-appearing characters.

   There's two main characters this time, Adnan Cly who we met in Boneshaker and Josephine Early, who is new to the series. Early is a fascinating woman, and her "boarding house" in New Orleans provides a great setting to show off a side of society we rarely see detailed in SFF. 

   The supporting cast are also interesting in their own right, there's not a feeling of them being there just to "fill in the scenery" of the story. That some of them are returning from the previous books is also welcome, and it gives the novel a great connection to the Clockwork Century series as a whole.

   New Orleans is a great setting for the story, and it also provides some very interesting insights into what is changed from our history in Priest's books.

   What has happened to New Orleans in this timeline's history is central to the story of this novel. And I found the revelations of the greater events that have shaped the New Orleans we see very interesting. The Alternate History of The Clockwork Century continues to be added to, and I think the historical backdrop shows off the strength of Priest's worldbuilding skill.

   The novel is by no means confined to the Alternate History genre, there is much more going on here that comes from other SFF subgenres, but I must say that I enjoy immensely seeing Priest give us greater and greater understanding of the larger world as the series progresses.

   The story this time has a great deal of suspense to it, as well as some nice action scenes. The New Orleans and surrounds setting gives a nice backdrop to a story that while completely in line with The Clockwork Century as a whole, has a very distinct feel to it. Josephine Early works as a great centre for the events depicted and her personal story adds depth to the novel.

   Events move at a pretty fast pace, but never at the expense of substance. There are some great references to our history here that I think will be nice "Easter eggs" for those who are interested in history.

   The way the story manages to mix the suspense, action, and worldbuilding makes for an excellent read. This novel really cements Priest's place at the forefront of the current Alternate History/Steampunk wave. She writes an excellent mix of Alternate History, Steampunk, and adventure novel that deserves to be widely read. If you are not familiar with this series, I urge you to pick it up the next time you shop for books.

Reviews: Boneshaker  Dreadnought

Links: Cherie Priest  Tor/Forge  Tor/Forge Blog

COVER REVEAL ROUND-UP

   I like seeing cover reveals, it's always interesting to get an early look at a coming book. Sometimes I want to blog about them, but I don't want to fill my blog with posts about new covers, so I thought I'd start doing a round-up of cover reveals on a semi-regular basis. These are some of the covers I have noticed lately, with a brief comment of what I think of them.

WARDS OF FAERIE BY TERRY BROOKS

   This is the cover for the first volume in the The Dark Legacy of Shannara trilogy, published by Del Rey.

   I'm really not sure what to think of it. It's pretty minimalistic for a Fantasy cover, and I have no idea from the cover what the novel is about. I assume the covers for the nest two books will be in a similar style, and I think it may look better when seen together with those. But I also think it will to some degree stand out in the Fantasy section as it is. 

THE FORGE OF DARKNESS BY STEVEN ERIKSON

   The first book in a new trilogy form Steven Erikson, and Tor Books, set in the world of The Malazan Book of the Fallen.

   This is pretty much a generic Fantasy cover, and I am a bit disappointed by it. It does look good, but I feel that this is very much a cover that could have grazed any Fantasy book ever published. My first thought was that it was a cover for a new edition of The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks. I am of course excited by a new Malazan book by Erikson, but I wish the cover was more special.

THE DIRTY STREETS OF HEAVEN BY TAD WILLIAMS

   Another first book of a new trilogy from an established Fantasy author (, looks like the trend this year.) This from Tad Williams and published by Daw Books (US) and Hodder & Stoughton (UK).

   I actually liked this cover. It's not very original, but it seems to be a very good representation of what the book is about from what I have read. This is a book I am very excited about, Williams is a great author.

INEXPLICABLES BY CHERIE PRIEST

Cover art: Cliff Nielsen

   The cover for a new installment in Cherie Priest's The Clockwork Century series. Published by Tor Books.

   I love this series, and I have really liked the covers for the previous books. This cover fits in nicely with the earlier ones, and I think it looks great. I can't wait to find out what the character on the cover is staring at.

BLOOD AND FEATHERS BY LOU MORGAN

 

Cover art: Simon Parr

   This is the cover for the debut novel coming from author Lou Morgan, to be published by Solaris Books.

   This is an excellent cover, it really comes out at you. The red figure on the black background is a nice contrast. Even though I know Lou online and have been excited to read her book since I first heard about it, this cover managed to get me even more excited. I'm looking forward to getting my hands on this one.

BLACKWOOD BY GWENDA BOND

Cover art: Steven Wood

   This is not only the cover for the first novel by Gwenda Bond, it is also the first cover we've seen from new publishing imprint Strange Chemistry.

   This is not a final cover, and there will obviously be some text added to this before it is in the shops. It really is a lovely cover, and I was already looking forward to the book, this has made me want it more. The colours, the woman, and that snake...it's really brilliant, I want it as a poster.  And I can't wait to see what covers Strange Chemistry comes up with after this one.

   I hoped you liked my first cover reveal post. I will be keeping an eye on the internet for more cover reveals in the future, and there will be more of these posts on the blog from time to time.

   What did you think of these covers? The comments are open.

REVIEW: DREADNOUGHT

Cover art: Jon Foster

Cover design: Jamie Stafford-Hill

DREADNOUGHT

A CLOCKWORK CENTURY NOVEL/

CLOCKWORK CENTURY BOOK 2

BY

CHERIE PRIEST

ISBN: 978-0-7653-2578-5

Pages: 400

Publisher: Tor

Published: 28 September 2010

On the cover:

Mercy Lynch is working at a war hospital in Richmond, Virginia, when she learns that her husband has died in a POW camp and her estranged father is gravely injured and wishes to see her. With no good reason to stay in Virginia, Mercy sets out to see her father in Seattle.

   But crossing the country is no small task; it's a harrowing adventure through war-torn border states by dirigible, rail, and the Mississippi River. And once Mercy arrives in St. Louis, the only Tacoma-bound train is pulled by a terrifying Union-operated steam engine called the Dreadnought. Lacking options and running out of money, Mercy buys a ticket and climbs aboard.

   What ought to be a quiet trip turns deadly when the train is beset by bushwackers, then vigorously attacked by a band of Rebel soldiers. The train is moving away from battle lines into the vast, unincorporated west, so Mercy can't imagine why it's meeting such resistance. Perhaps it has something to do with the mysterious cargo in the second and last train cars?

   Mercy is just a frustrated nurse who wants to see her father before he dies. But she'll have to survive both Union intrigue and Confederate opposition if she wants to make it of the Dreadnought alive.

   This novel is set shortly after the events in Boneshaker. It is not however set in Seattle, and the main character here, Mercy Lynch, was not in the first book. She is however related to the events of the first book in a way that will become clear to the reader pretty early on.
   It's not exactly common to move the location and change the characters in the middle of a series, and some people may be disappointed by not having another novel with the characters they grew to love in the last volume. I didn't find it a problem at all, instead I found it one of the strengths of the book.
   Last time around we had some references to other events in Priest's Alternate History, and this time we get to go closer to them and find out more about how the rest of the USA is affected by this alternative timeline. I am a fan of Alternate History and I must say that Priest has managed to expand on that part of the novel here, and she does it very well. Now that there is more information of the larger world of The Clockwork Century, it feels even more alive and realistic. This would actually work without the Steampunk and supernatural element. And because of that I think Alternative History fans would find this novel very interesting.

   The Steampunk elements of the novel really stand out. Especially one set of machines that we encounter early on are absolutely marvelously "mad professor" bonkers. And by bonkers I mean totally jawdroppingly cool. They are not alone, there are dirigibles, and the titular Dreadnought that is also a great invention fitting to an age of steam.
   What interested me is that there are mentions of machines being run on diesel here. It seems to be a very natural progression in the technology, something that strengthens the believability of the world in my eyes.

   Mercy Lynch is our "guide" through the world Priest has created, it is through her that we experience the events in Dreadnought. She is a great character to follow, and we quickly learn enough about her that we can see get a good understanding of who she is. As we follow her journey we get even more insights into her, she comes off as both interesting and a realistic product of the world she inhabits.
   There are several other characters in the supporting cast that we also get a more than a brief insight into. And Priest manages to make them all interesting, the whole ensemble is put together in such a way that they enhance the story. Priest is very good at making the characters feel like people who happen to be caught up in the events and they do not come off as being constructed to advance the story.

   The story takes us on a journey across the continent from west to east. It has a certain road trip feeling to it but at the same time we see developments of what seems to be an over arcing theme that connects the Clockwork Century novels.
   There is a lot of action in this story, it never gets boring. Of course there are quiet patches, but these are put into good use to make the plot come more alive. The central plot is Mercy's journey across America, a journey we know where is supposed to end. But there is also a hidden purpose to the train journey Mercy becomes a part of, one that becomes a mystery to be solved by her and by extension the reader.
   I really liked the atmosphere of the novel, the mystery and the physical journey combined to create a tension that drove me to read on. Although the mystery was not that hard to figure out, it did have a huge part in making the plot to work much better. The characters actions were made much more plausible by them being unaware of the greater purpose of the journey. And there were parts of what was going on that was unexpected to me and made the suspense greater.

   In total this was a great read, the parts came together seamlessly to make a whole that was both interesting and exciting. The action and suspense makes it a quick read, and the underlying framework of the world combined with well realised characters makes it a very interesting novel. It works well as a standalone novel, but having read Boneshaker will give it a few more layers that strengthens it.
   The Steampunk elements will appeal to the fans of that genre, and the Alternate History of the US Civil War will be satisfying to fans of that genre. And anyone who likes action and adventure set in the past should give this novel a try.

Review: Boneshaker

Links: Cherie Priest  Tor/Forge  Tor/Forge Blog

REVIEW: BONESHAKER

Cover art: Jon Foster

Cover design: Jamie Stafford-Hill

BONESHAKER
A CLOCKWORK CENTURY NOVEL/

CLOCKWORK CENTURY BOOK 1

BY

CHERIE PRIEST

ISBN: 978-0-7653-1841-1

Pages: 414

Publisher: Tor

Published: September 2009

On the cover:

   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 sixteen 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 teenage 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.

   Wow! Are you actually allowed to write Steampunk that isn't set in Victorian London? Kidding aside, it is actually refreshing to see some Steampunk that isn't set in London for a change. The location here is Seattle, Washington (State), USA. A city that Priest manages to make come alive very well in her novel.

   I really like the way the book opens with an "excerpt from a history book" prologue. It means there isn't the need for so much infodumping at the beginning of the book, and it also helps place the story in its historical context.
   The story itself opens relatively slow, but gives us a great introduction to Briar Wilkes and her son Zeke. Both of them are interesting characters in their own right, and Priest early on makes it clear what kind of relationship they have, something that serves to make both of them both more sympathetic and relatable.

   Priest is good at building up to the action with a look at the world in which the story is set. When things "really" start to happen, you are already well aware of the local environment. And there is enough information to get a good idea of what the status is within the larger world of this Alternate History world.

   There's quite a bit of action in this book. Priest writes very good action scenes, and she doesn't let the action overpower the storyline. They come more as an added bonus to what is already a suspenseful story.
   Much of the suspense in the novel comes from the setting and the atmosphere it provides. There is a constant sense of the characters being isolated, moth literally and figuratively. And this works very well, you understand the sense of dread that the characters feel and Priest's prose draws you into it.

   Along with writing a suspense-, and action-filled novel, Priest has also managed to find room for a couple of rather big mysteries. And she manages to delay the revelations of them for a long time without it becoming annoying , and when she eventually gives us the answers they are worth the wait.

   What made me most happy about finishing this book is knowing that there are more novels in this series that I can move on to, and I really look forward to doing that.
   This is a very good novel, it works great both for Steampunk and Alternate History fans, and I don't think Survival Horror fans will go away disappointed if they try it out either.
   A book I don't hesitate to recommend to anyone that likes a good adventure set in a vivid and realistic world. And a great introduction to Steampunk for those that haven't tried that  out yet.

Links: Cherie Priest  Tor/Forge  Tor/Forge Blog

READING HIGHLIGHTS OF 2011 AND PLANS FOR 2012

   This is a bit late. I was planning to post this on New Years Eve, but my internet has not been cooperating (again).
   The list below is not a list of "best books published in 2011", it's a list of what I feel are the highlights of what I have been reading in 2011, so some of the books were published some years back. Anyway, here we go:

READING HIGHLIGHTS OF 2011

GJENFERD by Jo Nesbø

This is the latest of Nesbø's Harry Hole books, it was published in Norwegian on 9 June 2011. The English (UK) edition is out 15 March 2012 and is called Phantom (, see here for more info on UK edition).

I love Nesbø's books and this was no exception. If you're reading his books in English you have a treat coming.

GARDENS OF THE MOON and DEADHOUSE GATES by Steven Erikson

After reading these two books, I can't help but wonder why it took me so long to get started on this series. I plan to read the rest of the books this year.

Review

VEGAS KNIGHTS by Matt Forbeck

This was fun and action filled, and I found it to be great entertainment. 

Forbeck was a new author for me, and I look forward to reading more of his books.

Review

EMBEDDED by Dan Abnett

This is actually the first Military Science Fiction novel I have read, and if this is representative for that genre I'll certainly read more of it.

Abnett was also a new author for me, and I'm eying several of his books for later reading.

Review

DISSOLUTION by C. J. Sansom

Historical (Medieval) Crime. I love history, and especially the Medieval period, so this book was perfect for me. I'm going to read more of Sansom's books in the future.
I would never have known this book existed if Amanda Rutter hadn't sent it to me as part of her World Book Night sharing. And I owe her a big thank you for that.

Thank you very much, Amanda!

THE ADAMANTINE PALACE, THE KING OF THE CRAGS AND
THE ORDER OF THE SCALES by Stephen Deas

These books are great Fantasy books. Anyone who doesn't hate dragons should read them. I'm eagerly awaiting the next installment.
Deas is another new author for me, and I will definitely seek out his other books.

BONESHAKER by Cherie Priest

This book falls into the Steampunk category. Unlike most Steampunk, it is set in the US or to be more specific, Seattle.
I thought this was great and look forward to reading the follow-up books.
This is becoming quite the trend in this post, but this is a new author to me, one I will be following.

HARBOR by John Ajvide Lindqvist

Swedish set psychological horror. A great book.
Blah, blah, new author etc...

Review






   Other authors who might as well be on this list (, but didn't make it because I felt it was long enough already); Sam Sykes, Mark Charan Newton, Gail Carriger, M. D. Lachlan, Blake Charlton, Robin Hobb/Megan Lindholm, K. W. Jeter, Stephen King and K. J. Parker.

   You may notice that I haven't reviewed all of these books. The reason is my internet has been really crappy in 2011, but most of the books mentioned will get reviewed as soon as I can get to it.

PLANS FOR 2012

   I plan on getting an internet connection that works when I want to use it and not when it feels like it, so I can get back to blogging more regularly.

   As for reading, my goal is to read at least 100 books this year, and I plan to review all of them

   I hope 2012 turns out to be a great year for all of you :-)