Dreadnought by Cherie Priest,
Clockwork Century #2
Nurse Mercy Lynch is recently widowed, but the
war has further unpleasant surprises in store. While working in a Confederate
hospital, she receives word that her estranged father is dying and wants to see
her. But reaching the far side of the country will be a harrowing adventure
through war-torn border states.
When her dirigible is shot out of the sky,
Mercy is forced to join the mighty Union-operated steam engine known as the
Dreadnought. But the journey turns deadly when they are beset by bandits, then
attacked by Rebel soldiers. The train is moving away from the battle from so
Mercy can’t imagine why the military has them in its sights. Unless the train’s
mysterious cargo is responsible?
Mercy just wants to see her father before he
dies. But she’ll have to survive Union intrigue and Confederate opposition to
make it off the dreadnought alive.
I recently read the first
book in the Clockwork Century and was very impressed with the scope of the series
and how amazingly a rich world Cherie Priest managed to create. Dreadnought is
the second book in the Clockwork Century series that is was released late last year
by Tor.
I always read the synopsis on
the back of the book but looking closely and re-reading it again I couldn’t
quite see a link between Boneshaker and this second book in the series,
Dreadnought. And even when you start reading this book, I couldn’t see a link
between Mercy Lynch and the first book at all. You are introduced to a
completely different location than that of the first book. Boneshaker took
place in Seattle. Mercy works as a nurse in the Confederate hospital in
Richmond, Virginia. Which is when you look at the map of America is quite at
the opposite end.
In Boneshaker, Cherie Priest
managed to create a very rich storyline focusing just around the town of
Seattle and the events that happened in the past and how Ezekiel and Briar
navigated them in the present. In Dreadnought she kind of steers away from the
small side and lets the main protagonist Mercy travel several miles (kindly
understated) to a completely different side. What Cherie Priest wanted to
achieve by allowing the travelling of Mercy is I think two things, and which
she manages to put down in full detail. Firstly showing that she wanted to
involve much more of the alternate world instead of lying the focus solely on
Seattle. She does this not by just letting Mercy travel from point A to B setting
in a train, just staring as the tracks fly by, no, she engages you as the
reader truly into the story by putting Mercy in a set of different perils of
her own. In Boneshaker you already glimpsed a bit of the American Civil War and
in Dreadnought this topic is more deeply addressed. Putting down the story in
this way really paid off, showing on one hand a more engaging world by
involving much more of the world itself and greatly showing Mercy’s character
as she has many adventures of her own during her long trek. And secondly
showing that an important element released by the Boneshaker machine is no
longer being contained in Seattle alone, addressing in this instance a more
nationwide problem that is arising.
You can make up from the
parts above that Mercy is the main character of Dreadnought, and what I have
learned from Boneshaker is that Cherie Priest knows how to write about engaging
and interesting characters. So once again your are in for a treat as you see
Mercy’s character being thrown into the deep, from which she only emerges that
much stronger. The gist of her motivation might have been lacking just a bit
from the beginning as she set out to depart on her journey, but as she ventures
from airship and finally onto the infamous Dreadnought, she has to tell her
story many, many times and I think by this there is a switch in her
personality. Slowly she comes to terms with herself, Mercy lost her husband
only a couple of months into their marriage. Now she has nothing left to loose
and if she can see her father just this one last time, it can at least give her
closure. The final sentence of the book really won me over. Throwing her in
such a perspective really made her a strong female protagonist. Which is
bolstered even more by her role as a nurse as she wants to save each and every
one, be it a Confederate soldier or a Union soldier. She can be innocent, funny
and even quite rude at times, all I think that was needed to make her leap of
the pages.
As for the plot of the story,
it revolves more around the travel that is undertaken by Mercy and all the
adventures that come to pass by it. However with the introduction of Mercy into
the Clockwork Century I reckon it isn’t the last we have seen from her. The
essence of Dreadnought is, I think to show what else is possible within this
alternate version of the America. But also showing some hints here and there
that things might be starting to get out of control. In Boneshaker we were
introduced with the element of the ravenous undead, the zombies, which were
brought on by the gas that came free and also by a drug known as Sap. Cherie
Priest introduces several events in the book that highlight possible
consequences of the usage of this drug and how other people plan to use this on
a completely different level. It great to see that it wasn’t only contained and
that there are much bigger consequences possible. I hope to see this explored
much more in detail in the books that follow.
In short. Dreadnought is a
great read which further engages the reader into the rich Clockwork Century
world. Instead of lying the focus on Seattle with Ezekiel and Briar alone, Cherie Priest introduced
another strong protagonist to the series, Mercy Lynch and uses here to give a
finely detailed and visual tour of different parts of the United States.
Broaching more on the subject of the on going Civil War and still taking into
account the zombies! This series is definitely A+ material.