Book Report: Boneshaker

Our second Virtual Speculative Fiction Book Club selection was much better than the first. Our second club meeting was also an improvement, since Kathy and Brian were visiting Portland that weekend and we discussed zombies and airships while enjoying coffee downtown. It wasn't quite Seattle, but close enough.

Though we all enjoyed Boneshaker, we did remark on the lack of any significant character development. It's a fun ride, but definitely a plot-driven story. I felt at times like I was in a video game, which is not always a bad thing: I wanted to explore the world and spend more time with the characters, especially the colorful supporting cast. (And then I went and played Bioshock for a while. Punchline!)

Alternate histories can be tricky, but though this book diverges from fact, it succeeds because it diverges in the direction of desirable fantasy. People love airships and zombies and crazy electro-mechanical gadgets that were ahead of their time in the 19th century. It wasn't so, but you want it to have been so. Seattle wasn't yet a big city in the 1800s, but it is now; having some well-known landmarks pop up earlier in the timeline doesn't really tax readers' imaginations.

The sequel, Dreadnought--which we picked up at Cherie's author event in Portland last week--deals with a different part of the same world, but despite being set in the thick of the Civil War, also looks like it'll be fun. And, as Cherie said of steampunk in general: "If you're not having fun, you're doing it wrong."

Buy the book: Powell's, Amazon

Up next for VSFBC: China Miéville's Kraken. Ping me if you'd like to join our discussion on November 18th!

Book Report: The Yiddish Policemen's Union

This book was not to my taste.

Don't get me wrong: I respect Chabon's skill, but his particular style is not for me. Often, instead of drawing me into the narrative, I found the long descriptive passages pushing me away. I know others find them lyrical and mesmerizing, but I'm generally not a fan of prose for the sake of prose. Get out of the way and just let me enjoy the story, okay?

In this case, the actual story was fairly mediocre; one of the dangers of writing a pastiche is that you either remain too faithful to the genre, or spin it too far into either homage or satire. I feel like there was a lot of subtext here which might have been more significant to someone who'd been raised in Jewish culture, and who understood more about the rifts between different sects and knew the history of the various beliefs.

I also didn't completely buy the big revelation at the end, though the other members of our book club (DeeAnn, Kathy, and Brian) convinced me of its plausibility. I can believe in a lone gunman; conspiracies are a little harder for me to swallow, and the author just didn't sell it enough for me. Again, I think other people might have appreciated it more than I did.

Anyway, that was our first "virtual sci-fi book club" selection (we meet using Skype). I'm hoping our next one, Cherie Priest's Boneshaker, will be more fun.

Buy the book: Powell's, Amazon (affiliate links)