I know I said I'd read Escapement for last week, and I really did try! Honest! But I just couldn't wade through that monstrosity in a week. I know this because I read Dreadnought in about three days, interrupted by classes and other things, but I still haven't finished Escapement. So I'll give you Dreadnought instead.
I'll start by saying this: Cherie Priest knows what her audience wants. I mean, she really knows what they're after. A little intrigue, a lot of gore, a touch of foreshadowing for the intuitive reader, and finally the big-ticket topic of the past three or so years, (Good god, has it been that long since zombie-mania started? Has it been longer?) good ol' Z.
Our main character starts in Richmond Hospital, under the guidance of Captain Sally Tompkins (This is especially exciting for me. Sally Tompkins was my great-however-manys-grandmother. No lie!) on the day that she receives the news her husband--who has been fighting for the confederates--is dead. In Dreadnought, Clementine and Boneshaker, the Civil War is about twenty years old. Not too long after, she gets a telegraph that her father (who left her and her mother years ago to chase gold in the Yukon) is dying, and his final wish is to see her.
So begins Mercy's (as she is called) long journey from Virginia to Tacoma. She begins with an airship ride headed to Fort Chattanooga that crashes, leaving her in the middle of a battle between mechanical walkers (Damn, that author knows what we want!!) and as a nurse, temporarily recruited to save a dying officer. After probably saving the man's life, Mercy gets to Chattanooga and then a short train ride later, to Memphis, where another set of circumstances involving her conspicuous Red Cross bag and the recruitment coming from it, sets her on a Texian boat heading up the Mississippi. From Memphis to St. Louis (dropping hints all along the way) the ride lulls, before suddenly we find Mercy riding the terrible Union train Dreadnought, supposedly carrying bodies of the dead out to their homes in the West, which will taker her all the way to Tacoma. It is this journey which is the real and true meat of the story, in my opinion.
Mercy is the only person with medical training on board for several weeks as the train winds through the west, curiously not dropping off any bodies at all. Confederate soldiers attack the train several times, and we hear stories about cannibalistic Mexicans from a Texian ranger and two Mexican inspectors, both trying to find out the same thing. Somewhere around Topeka, Mercy discovers one of the reasons for the Dreadnought's westward push: the Union is trying to buy Chinese immigrants with land and gold. The first two cars of the Dreadnought are filled with deeds and bars of gold. It is not until some time later that Mercy (spurred by a fellow traveler) discovers the purpose behind the last car in the line; it is filled with bodies, but not men who died honorably on the field. It's filled with sap-victims.
In the world of Dreadnought, sap is a drug originating from Seattle, where the Boneshaker (from the previous book) unearthed the a noxious gas that kills then reanimates.
The Union intends to use sap as a weapon, when they can figure out how. It isn't until a harrowing race through the only railroad pass in the Rockies that the final car is cut from the Dreadnought's line-up. But it isn't until the Dreadnought and it's current nemesis, the Shenandoah, get though the tunnel that the 'mystery' of the cannibal Mexicans is solved: they swarm the trains, killing all but four of the Shenandoah's crew. The rest of the book passes as a closing action. Mercy gets to Tacoma, where she is greeted by our last heroine, Briar Wilkes. Mercy's father is Swakhammer, a prominent character in Boneshaker, thought dead or dying by its readers. And there we are left.
I have to say, especially when compared to Mainspring and Escapement, Cherie Priest is indeed the high priestess of steampunk. We have everything we want, in the order we wanted it, and how we wanted it written. Mercy's way isn't easy, and she's in real danger sometimes. But she keeps her wits together, which is exactly what we want in a hero or heroine. Mercy does everything she can, even if she knows there's not much of a point. She's not perfect, either, but nosy in the way that all lady detectives start out as.
This isn't to say that Dreadnought is perfect. Many steampunk books ignore the lack of women's rights in the Victorian age, and although sometimes it seems like Ms. Priest forgets when she's writing, she often has people asking if she's travelling alone, and where her husband is.
All in all, I continue to appreciate Cherie Priest and her contribution to the steampunk lit scene (if there can be said to be such a thing.). Five gears.
In other steampunk-y news, Tor.com has, it seems, just concluded a steampunk fortnight after the success of their steampunk month not so long ago. If you enjoy anything I read for here, even Mainspring or its sequels, Tor is the place to look for more steam lit.
Yours,
Murphy
(PS: If you enjoyed this book, Cherie Priest has written two others currently in print and has a third book in the 'Boneshaker world' in the works. The two in print are the wonderful and stunningly popular Boneshaker, set in Seattle and following Briar Wilkes's tale, and Clementine, which I have not read yet, but promises to be good as it involves espionage!)
