Mon 25 Jan 2010
By Cherie Priest
Good Lord if this actually happens we are all screwed.
Five things I liked about this book:
- Steam-punkocity
- It is set in Seattle
- The characters have awesome names (Leviticus? Who names ANYONE Leviticus anymore?)
- Dirigibles
- Zombies
Now, as we all know, Steam-punk zombies can be quite frightening in an oily-gears and menacing-hydraulics type of way. But these were not Steam-punk zombies they had no gears or extra metal implants at all. No, these zombies were frightening because they were super fast.
In case you aren’t aware of it, I’ll tell you straight up: I am not down with super-fast zombies.
Not because I think they go against all horror movie convention, zombies are meant to be slow and stupid yadda yadda yadda…
No.
I am not down with super fast zombies because the scare the bejesus out of me.
Don’t believe me? Read this or this.
But that’s okay because Ms Priest seems to understand the terror and dread that the super-fast zombie (SFZ) wields and uses the SFZ threat sparingly. Thank Gods for that.
As for the rest of the story I have to say, I am impressed. The ending, while not a complete surprise, was very satisfying. Her use of language is hypnotic and engaging. Her characters are interesting people that you want to know more about. The story she weaves is plausible, in a super-fast zombie/steam-punk/post-apocalyptic/Industrial Revolutionary type way. And more importantly, everything fits. All the characters, all the things they do, everything they say – it makes sense.
It was hard to put this book down.
Go buy this book.
