The Book Plank

The Inexplicables by Cherie Priest, Clockwork Century #4 Adventures await Rector ‘Wrek ‘em’ Sherman. About to turn eighteen, he’s facing ejection from the orphanage that passed for home. He should also choose a trade but work is scarce in steam-powered Seattle. And Rector has more unconventional plans. He’s started dealing in sap, a yellow narcotic produced by rebels and outlaws within the city’s toxic walled enclave. What’s worse, he’s been sampling his wares. Other problems include being haunted by an old friend with a grudge. The pressure builds until he sneaks behind the wall himself, seeking both (un)gainful employment and excitement. As rumoured, he finds a terrifying host of the hungry undead, and then there’s the monster. Rector’s certain that his attacker wasn’t human, or undead. But he’s going to need more proof than his own addled word to expose it. His new mission becomes a compulsion when others witness the creature’s destructiveness, and give its kinds a name: Th...

June marks the halfway point of the year, I just can’t believe that the first part of the year is already gone. Feels to soon and seems like I haven’t read nearly enough! Looking a bit back on June I must say that I was pleasantly surprised with several books that I had the chance to read they went above my expectations. So without further ado, here are my picks for June. 1.       Three by Jay Posey ( Angry Robots Books )   I have only recently finished this book, but man did it leave an impact. With the brief synopsis and the amazing cover art this book was really provoking me to read it. The world that Jay Posey creates within Three is awesome, it’s post apocalyptic, destroyed, high tech, dark and gritty. The characters that you are introduced to are quite the same, though Three, the main protagonist still remains obscure until the end it does seem that you learn about him and his past but still there are many questions left unanswered....

Ganymede by Cherie Priest, Clockwork Century #3 Josephine Early, New Orleans brothel owner and Union spy, has a mission. One that might just end the Civil War. She must deliver Ganymede, an astonishing prototype submarine, to the North. But the giant war machine is at the bottom of a lake, no one has successfully piloted it and she must sneak its huge bulk past enemy forces. Luckily, she knows the right man for the job. She hasn’t seen former lover and air-pirate Andan Cly for years, but has a sweet job to tempt him back. He agrees to help, but his primary mission is to retrieve supplies for blighted Seattle, where noxious gas has forced residents underground and undead rotters menace the city. Although legal, the Seattle run makes Cly uncomfortable. He no longer flies sap, disapproving of the drug’s ugly side-effects, and the job is funded with sap money. Josephine’s jaunt could be a great distraction. But will they end up in the history books, or at the bottom o...

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 ...