Ganymede

The Clockwork Century #3

by Cherie Priest

The air pirate Andan Cly is going straight. Well, straighter. Although he’s happy to run alcohol guns wherever the money’s good, he doesn’t think the world needs more sap, or its increasingly ugly side-effects. But becoming legit is easier said than done, and Cly’s first legal gig—a supply run for the Seattle Underground—will be paid for by sap money.

New Orleans is not Cly’s first pick for a shopping run. He loved the Big Easy once, back when he also loved a beautiful mixed-race prostitute named Josephine Early—but that was a decade ago, and he hasn’t looked back since. Jo’s still thinking about him, though, or so he learns when he gets a telegram about a peculiar piloting job. It’s a chance to complete two lucrative jobs at once, one he can’t refuse. He sends his old paramour a note and heads for New Orleans, with no idea of what he’s in for—or what she wants him to fly.

But he won’t be flying. Not exactly. Hidden at the bottom of Lake Pontchartrain lurks an astonishing war machine, an immense submersible called the Ganymede. This prototype could end the war, if only anyone had the faintest idea of how to operate it…. If only they could sneak it past the Southern forces at the mouth of the Mississippi River… If only it hadn’t killed most of the men who’d ever set foot inside it.

But it’s those “if onlys” that will decide whether Cly and his crew will end up in the history books, or at the bottom of the ocean.

Genres: Steampunk, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction, Alternate History, Zombies, Historical Fiction

346 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Cherie Priest is the author of about thirty books and novellas, most recently the modern gothics It Was Her House First, The Drowning House, and Cinderwich. She's also the author of the Booking Agents mysteries, horror projects The Toll and The Family Plot – and the hit YA graphic novel mash-ups I Am Princess X and its follow up, The Agony House. But she is perhaps best known for the steampunk pulp adventures of the Clockwork Century, beginning with Boneshaker. She has been nominated for the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award, and the Locus award – which she won with Boneshaker.

Cherie has also written a number of urban fantasy titles, and composed pieces (large and small) for George R. R. Martin’s shared world universe, the Wild Cards. Her short stories and nonfiction articles have appeared in such fine publications as Weird Tales, Publishers Weekly, and numerous anthologies – and her books have been translated into nine languages in eleven countries.

Although she was born in Florida on the day Jimmy Hoffa disappeared, for the last twenty years Cherie has largely divided her time between Chattanooga, TN, and Seattle, WA – where she presently lives with her husband and a menagerie of exceedingly photogenic pets.

Reviews

[Jammies · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is no way for me to do a sensible, scholarly review of this book or any of the books in the Clockwork Century series. All I can say is that I loved this, and that Ms. Priest had me before Marie Laveau but I squealed in delight when she appeared. I'm thrilled with the gentle, low-key touch of romance as well as the breathless action, and just delighted to pieces with the whole book.

[T.M. White · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ganymede is the fourth addition to the Clockwork Century universe, coming after Boneshaker, Clementine, and Dreadnought (in that order)**–-all of which are centered around a steampunk alternate history in which the American Civil War has carried on for nearly decades longer than in real life. The story follows two main characters: former lovers Andan Cly, the air pirate fans got to meet first in Boneshaker, and Josephine Early, a biracial prostitute and Union spy who is new to the series.

I'd do a rundown of what it's about, but that's what that summary way up at the top of the page is for!

What I Liked

Airship pirates, New Orleanian prostitutes, Texas Rangers, a submarine, spies, a Voodoo queen, zombis… Ganymede has got them all. For those who have been following the series all along, we get the treat of seeing some past characters make appearances, though I won’t say who (besides Andan, of course). As for new characters, a particularly interesting one for me–-perhaps because of her mystery–-was the Voodoo practitioner Marie Laveau, who was based on the real-life figure. I really wanted to learn more about her, though. It’s a shame we didn’t get to see more of her in action.

Another thing I liked was the attention to detail that Priest showed when it came to the settings. You really get the sense that she knows these places: Seattle, New Orleans, the swamps. Maybe at times we got just a little too much description–-how many scents can the human nose really pick up on all at once?–-but I did appreciate it nonetheless. Also, Priest gives us a lot of great details about how the submarine works, how the crew worked to navigate it, etc. I found that interesting.

Lastly, I liked some of romance at the beginning; I thought it was cute.

What I Wasn’t So Keen On

The history between Andan and Josephine held the potential for a lot of tension and conflict. With them being former lovers, I’d expected a few sparks to fly–and they do, but I wonder if it was enough. There were a few power struggles here and there, but…I guess I was expecting more. (Though, maybe that's actually a good thing. *shrugs*)

There was also a certain reveal that popped up with one of the characters, which I was a little confuddled on. It seems recently there’s been a huge surge with authors wanting to include more characters who are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered in their stories. I’ve got nothing against this, but when it is done I feel like it needs to be well-integrated. If it’s sprung on you at the last minute then is never mentioned again, then why use it in the first place? Mere shock factor doesn’t cut it for me. If it’s supposed to shock, then shouldn't it also continue to add more tension throughout the rest of the story (at least until it's resolved)?

I won’t spoil who’s who and what, but I will say the reveal of character which occurred in this light didn’t hold any real significance for me. I wasn’t shocked (that seemed to be the intent) so much as left scratching my head, wondering why it mattered in the scope of the larger story. (And if it shouldn't matter, then why make such a big deal about it?)

The Verdict

For Cherie Priest, steampunk is all about having fun, and I believe she delivers plenty of this with Ganymede. It may not be my favorite story in the Clockwork Century series, but I did enjoy reading it. I liked spending time with the characters and thought they were all full of personality and pluck. Sometimes, though, I wish she would take things a little further–-like with Marie Laveau–-but in some cases it could be she’s just saving some action for future novels. In any case, I think I’ll stick around for the next to find out how it all ends. ;)

**For newcomers to the Clockwork Century: I wouldn't say you'd have to read the other books in this series first to get a hold on what’s going on, but as with any series you’d have a fuller reading experience if you did. If there’s one book I would recommend reading before Ganymede, though, it would be Boneshaker--just because it gives you a clear picture of where all of the events in the following books are stemming from. Besides the war, there’s one other major event that’s affecting the overarching plot.

It all started in Seattle…

[Dawn Vanniman · Rating 3 out of 5]

The gist of the story is that there's a submarine that the confederate supporters need to get out of New Orleans - this is an alternate universe story. Josephine, owner of a bordello, recruits an old flame to pilot it out. There's Texans, Voodoo Queens, Zombies and Pirates.

With all that going on, why did I get so bored? It wasn't the writing, Ms. Priest is descriptive and her writing flows easily. It was mostly the characters.

I couldn't bring myself to care about Josephine. I wanted to, she's a strong single woman running a bordello in New Orleans, dealing with all the mean Texans and helping the Confederates - what's not to like? But Josephine just came across as a cold fish. If Josephine and her old flame, Andan Cly, had such a big love affair, why isn't there more tension between them? I mean, we actually hear more about their relationship through Cly's thoughts than through Josephine.

There's also very little conflict between the characters - the mainly African-American rebels didn't bat an eye when Josephine brought a mainly White group into their hideout. Seriously? Then, when one character turns out to be transsexual, it is presented in a awkward way and then just put aside as if to say 'Oh. I see. Well, carry on.' I was confused as to why the character had to be outed at all. I mean, did GANYMEDE need some LGBT-ness? What was up with that? It made no sense to the story.

The Voodoo Queen seemed as if she were simply a delivery tool. There was no way to get from A to B, so she was tucked in to be a bridge.

Overall, the storyline was good, the writing is fabulous, but the characters left much to be desired.

[Jennie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think Cherie Priest has some great ideas but needs a little help with execution.

I like the speculative aspect (20 years into the Civil War, Texas is still its own republic, Seattle is a blighted waste). I like the way she writes action scenes: her zombie battles are fun and when her characters are actually in the middle of a fight, it's exciting.

The biggest flaw I find in Priest's writing is her tendency to over-explain everything. There's a lot of telling about what happened instead of showing, there's a lot of setting up just how spunky and independent her female characters are, and god I GET it: Andan Cly is tall! A smart reader doesn't have to be reminded of how tall he is every frickin' time he has to duck his head or someone has to crane to look up at him. The first 12 references to his height were plenty, I assure you.

Her pacing, something I've semi-complained about since Clementine, still needs a little work. It often feels like she runs out of things for her characters to do so she just ends the story at whatever point that she got bored. This particular story is set in New Orleans, which has a growing zombie problem, and the focus was on the submarine, of all things! How can we be in New Orleans with zombies, and barely get any zombies?

Priest also likes to throw in random details without any followup (as in a "shocking" revelation about one character at a point in the book where it doesn't matter at all and is actually just stupid and distracting).

Still, it looks like things might start to get interesting and the rotters/zombies might come back to the forefront like they were in Boneshaker, I hope...?

[Cherie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The stories keep getting better and better.

[JG (Introverted Reader) · Rating 4 out of 5]

In an alternate United States, Josephine Early is an upscale New Orleans madam who's working with the local resistance against the Confederacy and the Texians occupying her city. Her brother and his partners have found a contraption out at the bottom of Lake Pontchartrain that they think can turn the tide of the Civil War. The Union is interested, but after a decade of fighting, they just aren't willing to throw money at extracting it from the water. Josephine cables an old love interest, Andan Cly, to ask if he'd be willing to pilot the Ganymede from the lake to the gulf.

I hate when I forget about a series I like and then I've completely lost the thread of the story by the time I remember it. That happened to me here. It did take me a while to remember enough of what was going on to make sense of everything but I really enjoy these steampunk novels. Weird technology, zombies, underground cities, alternate history, and feisty females--what's not to love?

I really did enjoy Edoardo Ballerini's narration a lot, even though he's one of those male narrators who reads female dialog with a high, breathless voice. I don't know if there's a better way to do it but that always irritates me because the women sound like airheads.

I plan to continue the series without quite so much of a break this time. I'm curious to see how all these disparate storylines resolve.

[Jennifer Wheeler · Rating 4 out of 5]

My head hurts too badly to think of something to write. But I like this series, and really like all the characters too.

[Jason Pettus · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)

Regular readers will of course already be familiar with Cherie Priest's remarkable steampunk series known as "The Clockwork Century;" back in 2009 I reviewed the first volume Boneshaker (best described as Victorian zombies meet Doom-style videogame in the bowels of subterranean Seattle), while last year I took on Dreadnought, in which we follow a souped-up locomotive as it winds its way across the Great Plains, deals with a now two-decade-long Civil War, and confronts giant iron military robots. And now we have the third novel in the series, Ganymede, which has yet another impossibly engaging hook to hold together its rambling plot: it's the story of this alt-history's very first submarine, built and lost by the Confederates, rediscovered by a black female brothel owner in New Orleans who secretly works for the Union, salvaged and piloted by a burly zeppelin owner whose usual job is shipping smuggled goods, and with the whole situation complicated by the Texas Republican Army, defiant pirate guerrillas, and shadowy Chinese entrepreneurs.

And indeed, as you can see, there's a good reason that a growing number of people are starting to call this perhaps the greatest steampunk series in the history of the genre*; and that's because with each volume, Priest squeezes in several novels' worth of flabbergasting ideas, making each story expansive as hell while still keeping a tight control over the three-act structure. (And please realize, by the way, that it's not just these three novels that make up this series, but also a handful of standalone stories and novellas, plus a comprehensive website.) One of my favorite genre novelists working today, and a fangirl who walks the walk just as well as her readers (her cosplay convention outfits are almost as famous as the books themselves), Ganymede comes with a strong recommendation, and is the exact kind of title for those who only read one steampunk book a year.

Out of 10: 9.0, or 10 for steampunk fans

*Well, okay, it's hard to beat the steampunk novel that started them all, William Gibson and Bruce Sterling's The Difference Engine; but still.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not my favorite in the series - that would be the first or third - but not the weakest either. I love the world that Cherie Priest is creating, and the way she is building it slowly, weaving in new characters and new locations while reminding us what the others are up to. Not really a spoiler, but just in case someone complains...just wanted to say that this book lacked a bit of the tension of the others, since I was fairly certain everyone I cared about was going to survive. Most of the tension that remained was me waiting for the zombies to return, but their appearance at the end was not the stuff of nightmares. I know, I'm weird. I hate zombie fiction but I also wanted them to be scarier as long as they were there. They were plenty scary at the waterfront at the beginning of the book.

[audrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was such a good idea for a book, and the world-building continues to give and give and give. I loved seeing the characters from the first two books continue to make their way through an alternate-history US timeline, even if this time there were fewer gadgets and a bit less steam.

Which brings me to the plot.

It felt like the plot came in lukewarm. To wit, it was like, "Even though it's dangerous, they must do The Thing! But will they be able to do it???"

And then they just... did it. So... yes?

Also, what was Ranger Korman actually doing in this book besides being puzzled at everything?

I still really like this world, but the first three installments were so much better that this was something of a leaky dirigible for me: consistently losing altitude at a gentle pace.

[Karin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Graphic Audio version
ISBN 978 164 881 4082

Such an amazingly smooth and clever way to include characters from previous books!
Love the dramatized versions that truly build an image/movie in my head.
Far away from the ordinary everyday these books get your imagination going even when not listening. And THAT is a sign if ever of a good book

[Lauren Stoolfire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ganymede (Clockwork Century #3) by Cherie Priest is a solid steampunk adventure. It's a little too slow but I still enjoy her style of alternate history. I get a kick out of the real people that appear and the real history behind the story. It's a must to check out the author's note at the end.

[Tomislav · Rating 3 out of 5]

Zombies are a problem. Well, of course, they’re a problem for the living characters in any story that has them. But they’re also a problem for the science fiction genre. As an object of horror, they’re pretty broad stroke – they won’t die; they won’t stop; they won’t talk; they just want to eat you. But they make no sense, scientific or even common. Even when a writer like Cherie Priest gives them a pseudo-scientific sounding justification, it still defies plausibility. Hers are addicts, who have died from overdosing on sap, a concentrated form of volcanic gas unearthed from underground Seattle by a Victorian tunneling machine. Volcanic gas (from under Seattle?) just doesn’t do that. So, it still really isn’t science fiction, even though some of the trappings are present.

Ganymede is the third (depends how you count, but let’s call it #3) novel in Priest’s steampunk Clockwork Century series. It stands alone well, but characters from her prior Boneshaker and Dreadnought novels live in the background of the story. It is an alternate history, where not only have zombies been unleashed wherever sap is smuggled, but the US Civil War is still running after 20 years. The Republic of Texas militarily occupies New Orleans, with the grudging acceptance of the Confederacy just to keep it out of the hands of the Union. As owner and operator of a women’s boarding house, that is actually a brothel, Josephine provides a legitimate front for her underground/pirate brother out in Barataria. An advanced Confederate war machine has fallen into their hands, and needs to be delivered to a Union warship off the Gulf Coast. Unable to find a capable pilot for the Ganymede, built by Horace Lawson Hunley before he died, Josephine turns to her ex. Andan Cly is an airship pilot currently living in Seattle, who would love to retire from his air-pirate lifestyle. Since I live in South Carolina, the name “Hunley” was enough of a spoiler for me to know a lot about the Ganymede, but I think Priest intended to reveal that one step at a time. By turning off my baloney-detectors, I found it a captivating setting, and engaged in the tense plot.

The ending is clumsy. After delivering the Ganymede, the characters just sort of resume their lives, not particularly changed by events. And there is an abrupt LGBTQ reveal in the middle of the action, that never amounts to anything. So, an entertaining story, but not much more than that. I’m not sure if I have the desire now to read any further into the series from this point.

[Vicente L Ruiz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful new book in The Clockwork Century series.

To me, there's something odd with the way Priest writes: I find myself waiting for things to start happening, you know, really start happening, when all of a sudden I'm 100+ pages into the book and, looking back, lots of things have already happened -but of course! That's how smoothly the action flows in Ganymede as well.

Nevertheless, if nothing else I'm a sucker for good world-building. And all along the book, sometimes quite obviously and sometimes behind the scenes, there's a whole lot of it going on. And I just love it. Mind me, over here in Spain we're not so well-versed about the American Civil War (and its time), so every new installment of the series sees me web-checking which of the facts presented are real, which ones are invented, and which ones are (so cleverly) manipulated. It's great to see how everything falls into place, how every little piece of the Clockwork Century US map falls in place to slowly reveal the big picture.

Obviously, all of it while following the adventures of the characters in the book. It's also a curious fact how every book focuses on a different set of characters, but keeping the coherence of the whole series. It leaves you yearning to learn more of those caracters you loved from previous books, while at the same time allowing new readers to pick up any book. Very clever.

In short, this is a great work. Priest is one of the two main reasons (the second one being her removed at birth "sister" Gail Carriger) why I am very much in a steampunk mode as of late. Where Carriger provides witty, funny and British steampunk, Priest offers grimy, dirty, American steampunk. And I love both.

All that, and I haven't even mentioned I hate anything with zombies on it. That's a measure of Priest's mastery, because her rotters are not (so far) an overwhelming presence, but a problem waiting to be addressed. But not for long.

I'm anxiously waiting for the next book, Inexplicables. I hope it is at least half as good as Ganymede is.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

The third book in the fantastic Clockwork Century series does not disappoint. There are so many things to love about it. We get to see more of minor characters from the earlier books, in particular airship Captain Andan Cly. I love the way the overall story of the series (the part with zombies) happens mostly in the background of the books, as a B story to whatever is most important in the major character's life. I wish we saw more of Texas Ranger Korman, but I have hope for the future. (Argh, this review is rambling, but I'm on opiates here...) The most important thing is that I LOVE the main character, Josephine Early. A free woman of color in a New Orleans under the Confederacy and occupied by the Republic of Texas. A madam of a brothel and a spy for the Union. Not much interested in romance, past or present. Fiercely protective of her brother, her ladies, and her plans to demolish the Confederacy. In short, Miss Early ROCKS. Oh, and also the book is about a confederate submarine that has been captured by bayou rebel Union sympathizers. And there are zombies. And Marie Laveau.

Honestly, this may be my favorite book of the series. Boneshaker is great, but I didn't connect to the characters as much as I do here. I loved Dreadnaught, but I wanted to go deeper into the characters instead of focusing so much on the action. For whatever reason, I didn't feel at all unsatisfied by this book. In fact, it's made me anxious to reread the previous ones, so I'll probably be doing that soon.

And now my husband can stop pestering me to read faster so he can have it. And if I had the money, I'd be buying copies of the whole series for everyone in my airship, but alas, I'll have to resort to badgering them into buying their own.

[Alex Wells · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, full disclosure: I won a copy of this book through Goodreads. And I was very excited, first, because I've been waiting forever to get my paws on this fourth book in Cherie Priest's Clockwork Century series, and second, because I hardly ever win anything.
I'm a big fan of Priest's American steampunk, which is less about corsets and manners, and more about riveting adventure and female heroines who defy the conventions of the Victorian age. I really liked Boneshaker, but I was just crazy about Dreadnought, which featured a steampunked train, a tough civil war nurse, and a supporting cast of train-riders who made the book impossible to put down. In Ganymede, Priest introduces a new heroine, while bringing back of a few characters from the earlier books in a way that seamlessly involves their stories. I found the pace of this book slightly slower and more thoughtful than her previous ones, although there is no lack of action in the opening pages. Ganymede is also set mostly in New Orleans, and she spends time developing the setting of this sultry turn-of-the-century city. I felt like my interest really picked up when she finally shows us what Ganymede is and the white-knuckle ride begins. She is adept at describing the various devices and machines that make up the heart of her stories, and I felt I was inside with the rest of the characters. This book can easily stand alone, but to get the most out of it, you might want to pick up one or all of her three others in the series.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 Stars

I would have given this book a lesser rating if it wasn't so fun to read. Cherie Priest has created a wonderfully fun and imaginative alt history USA and done it in an awesome steampunk fashion. This was my least favorite of the four novels so far and to me it had the smallest scope. It was even smaller than Clementine which is a Novella.

This book works on the foundation that the first three books have built. Without the wonderful world building in them, this one would not have worked. Overall, it is a lesser book than both Boneshaker and Dreadnought, but it is still a fun fast read. This book lacks any depth and contains no real twists or surprises. It does play a little with the rotters(zombies), and they are discussed in detail by our main characters. Like all Priest novels our main hero is a strong woman that I both liked and rooted for.

There really was not enough in this book. Too litte action, too small a story line, too little zombies, and not enough dirigibles to make this a great read. I highly recommend The Clockwork Century series to those that enjoy steampunk or alt history American stories. Cherie Priest is one of my favorite authors and is worth checking out.

[Vickey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cherie Priest has good ideas but struggles to string them together. This book about a reforming air pirate and a madam secreting an experimental sub out of New Orleans is poorly edited so I'd give it a miss. She makes a stylistic choice for a lot of things to happen "offscreen" which I don't get. Words are free. It's not as if she needs to spend her special effects budget wisely. Example: when the crew members are getting to know each other and working out the unlabelled controls of the dangerous sub, we watch the scene from the viewpoint of someone super bored, sitting on the shore, for hours, watching the occasional ripple of water across the surface of the lake. WHY? This was just a tedious drag.

[Melissa McShane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wish I was connecting with this series better. I like the setting a lot, and the alternate history is very well thought out. But even though the characters are well-rounded, I have trouble caring about them, and I feel like I should. It's like I enjoy the concept of these characters--brothel madam, her former lover-slash-air pilot, the Texas Ranger who showed up in the previous book...actually, I think I like him a lot. In general, this seems like a mismatch with the reader rather than a criticism of the book. Four stars for the setting and craft, three for not liking the characters, and I'm rounding up because I admire what Priest is doing here.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is really two stories and I found the one about Josephine to be far more interesting. Most likely because she was a more compelling character. While it was nice touching place with people in Seattle, the story only really flowed when Josephine was on stage. She is an interesting character, and Priest does a good job of capturing conflicting loyalties. What makes Josephine cool is that she is a lady who can shot though her skirts.

[Janet Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

If only all steampunk was this good!! While not as strong as the first 2 books in this series, Ganymede expands the world begun in Boneshaker and Dreadnought. The alternative US is still caught up in a Civil War, and the free blacks of Louisiana are determined to undermine both the Confederacy and the Republic of Texas by delivering a functional submarine to a Union ship anchored in the Gulf of Mexico. It's a wonderful adventure, well read by Edoardo Ballerini.

[Angela]

17 November 2015: $5.99 on Kindle

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

What is certain is this: On the afternoon of January 2, 1863, something appalling burst out from the basement and tore a trail of havoc from the house on Denny Hill to the central business district, and then back home again.

Few witnesses agree, and fewer still were granted a glimpse of the Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine. Its course took it under the earth and down the hills, gouging up the land beneath the luxurious homes of wealthy mariners and shipping magnates, under the muddy flats where sat the sprawling sawmill, and down along the corridors, cellars, and storage rooms of general stores, ladies’ notions shops, apothecaries, and yes… the banks


***


Seattle novelist Cherie Priest’s Clockwork Century novels are unique amongst genre fiction. While she relies on familiar and currently overworked sci-fi and fantasy tapestries of steampunk and zombies to provide the context for her alternative universe approach to the American Civil War, she does so with restraint, never letting the presence of such tropes overwhelm the narrative of each title or the overarching story.

The story of the first book in this series focuses on Briar Wilkes, her son Zeke, and a trek into the walled city of Seattle, where a mysterious gas called the Blight—released during the Boneshaker’s underground rampage—is turning humans into the walking dead, to ascertain the innocence or guilt of Zeke’s father in the incident that doomed the city. Boneshaker is a detailed primer for Priest’s world, introducing a wide breadth of characters—merchants, bionic tavern owners, Chinamen, sky pirates, and a mad scientist—that will flesh out the narrative of each book that follows in the series.

Like most first entries in a world-building series, Boneshaker spends a fair amount of time setting the stage for not just the incursion into a quarantined and dangerous version of Seattle, where the living dead—rotters—swarm the underground like a fast-moving plague, but for Priest’s vision of an America still in flux—still at war with itself, and grappling with the technological advantages and disadvantages that have changed the face of this version of America. However, the narrative moves along at a very fast pace, never getting bogged down in the details of the world outside of Seattle’s walls, nor forgetting the importance of character in building such a world.

Briar Wilkes, protagonist of the book, is a perfect example of the strength of character that runs through the entire series. Briar is a woman publicly scorned on the other side of the wall, by those who were forced to abandon Seattle when the Boneshaker released the Blight gas, but she refuses to lay down and let others trample her or condemn her for her former husband Leviticus Blue’s criminal and socially damaging actions. As Briar tracks her son Zeke through the dead city within the walls, meeting such interesting characters as the sky pirate Andan Cly and below-surface dwelling badass Jeremiah Swakhammer, she reveals a strength that is altogether uncommon with once-upon-a-time socialites during the American Civil War.


***


Mercy said, “An engine? Like a train engine? I don’t understand.”

The blond lowered his scope and said, “The rail lines around here, the run crisscross, all over each other, every which-a-direction. We commandeered the switches and posted up our lads to keep the Yanks’ cracker line squeezed off shut. But then they brought—”

The private interrupted him. “The Dreadnought. That’s what they call it.”

“My CO said he thought the damn thing was back east, over in D.C., watching over the capital after our rally there last month. But no! Those bastards brought that unholy engine all the way out here, and it mowed us right down. They took back their line in under and hour, and now they’re pushing us back. They’re pushing us back good,” he emphasized, and drew the lenses back up to his face. “Veer us left, Mickey,” he said to the driver. “I don’t like the look of the smoke kicking up to the east.”


***


Using an extended narrative approach, Priest shifts away from the walled city of Seattle and its unfortunate occupants and moves across the country, to Richmond, Virginia and a war hospital. Mercy Lynch, nurse and daughter of Jeremiah Swakhammer, learns of two tragedies at once: the death of her husband in the war, and the potentially life-threatening injuries suffered by her father at the end of Boneshaker. Deciding, in the wake of her husband’s death, that her future is uncertain, she embarks on the cross-country trek to reunite with the father that abandoned her sixteen years prior, and to potentially forge a bond with the only family she has left.

The journey takes Mercy through air and across the land via the rails. It’s not long before she finds herself passenger on the Dreadnought—a union war engine with a nefarious reputation. Throughout the journey, much of which takes place on the Dreadnought, she meets and interacts with civilians, military men, Mexican investigators, and a Texas Ranger with whom she discovers an unexpected kinship.

Besides the obvious character links between the two books, Dreadnought expands on the world introduced in Boneskaker through a greater discussion of the war and a frank investment in characters on both sides of the battle as they are brought together, transported across the country on a machine representative of the dangers of the era when tied to the hubris of warmongers. The narrative also expands upon the concept of the rotters, as introduced in Boneskaker. Sap, a powerful hallucinogen derived from the Blight gas released in Seattle, is being experimented with as a potential weapon for the union. The disease of the walking dead begins to spread into parts beyond the Pacific Northwest, and the growth and expansion of that threat begins to reveal itself as the X-factor that may come to resolve the war, one way or another.

Mercy continues Priest’s development of incredibly strong female leads in an era that did not pay women the same respect as men. Mercy Lynch is an intelligent, resolute character who straddles the line between the two halves of the war—observant and understanding of the reasons behind the contrasting views of the country, though not condoning of their machinations.


***


“How did Texas know about it?”

Hazel nodded approvingly, as if this was a good question. “It had been made with Texian technology, and Texian machinists, so they knew it was out there somewhere. They didn’t find it, though.”

“And your people did?”

Both of the women smiled, identically and in perfect time with each other. Hazel continues. “It took three weeks of looking, but the ship was found and lifted by a group of guerrillas in the bayou… the free men of color who fight Texas and the Confederacy as best they can from the shadows. They hauled it to a different shore and hid it there, where it remains now—waiting for the right man or men to take it all the way to the ocean, where it was always meant to go. And that, Captain Cly, is the story of the Ganymede.”


***


The third in Priest’s Clockwork Century saga, Ganymede, shifts the action to New Orleans and Josephine Early—a mixed race prostitute who has established herself as a social force to be reckoned with. Josephine and her brother Deaderick are neck-deep in the recovery efforts for a machine they believe will change the course of the war for whichever side controls the beast—a submarine of tremendous firepower called the Ganymede. As many mariners have failed to pilot the Ganymede down the Mississippi and out of the reach of Southern forces, Josephine seeks another avenue and enlists the help of an old flame, the sky pirate and current lover of Briar Wilkes, Andan Cly.

Like Boneshaker and Dreadnought, Ganymede is structured loosely around a device of immeasurable destructive capacity. The devices themselves are the root of the steampunk trappings found in all of Priest’s novels—singular advancements that have altered the course of American technological history and created this alternate universe. The devices themselves, lovingly described and uncomfortably mysterious, do not detract from the strong characterization in each book, rather they serve as the linchpins around which several strong personalities revolve.

Josephine Early is an intriguing companion piece to Briar Wilkes and Mercy Lynch: another very strong individual with ambitions for survival that outweigh perceived social placement. Josephine is, at the outset, the most forthright of Priest’s protagonists. She understands the power of her sexuality and the position of influence it gives her in the community, and is unwilling to compromise any of that, regardless of the pressure put upon her by the Texas occupation of her home.

Also carrying over from previous titles, the rotters—called zombis here—have made their way to the south, continuing their spread across the continent. It feels as if Priest is setting up the Sap/Blight gas-infected to be the counterweight that will invariably push both sides together in the war. Time will tell…

Ganymede, like the other books in this series, is detailed and intricately plotted. Most pleasantly surprising is that the affectations and mannerisms of this variant steampunk Civil War-era America never feel forced or out of place. There’s enough to sell the manufactured time period while retaining a contemporary feel for the characters and their motivations.

What separates the three titles most is the differing strength of the overall story. While Boneshaker remains the most plot- and setting-driven of the three, Dreadnought is the most thought provoking, taking necessary time to investigate both sides of the war at the heart of this series, humanizing all in the process. Ganymede, on the other hand, feels lighter on plot than the other two, but more than makes up for it through Josephine Early, her brother, the girls at the boarding house she runs, and deeper insight into the history of Andan Cly, who is quickly becoming one of the more exciting characters in the Clockwork Century saga.

Cherie Priest’s Clockwork Century saga could be classified as steampunk-light—offering gothic, horror, sci-fi and fantasy themes without overpowering the characters or politics at the centre of everything. The result is something that feels fresh and more intriguing than the individual parts would lead one, upon first glance, to believe.

[MJ Codename: ♕Duchess♕ · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one pretty much went in one ear and out the other. No where near as entertaining as Boneshaker but not completely horrible, either. I don't know what it is about this world but it's terrible on audio. I have to get the next two books from the library since they were never recorded to audio (or else audible just isn't buying them). I'm hoping they're better on paper.

[Daelene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love steampunk

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

The fourth installment in Cherie Priest's Clockwork Century series, Ganymede is now finally getting into actual sequel territory. Like Clementine and Dreadnought, it's a standalone story--but this time, one of the spotlight characters in fact someone who previously showed up in Boneshaker, and we've got clear followup to the events in that book. So if you want to jump in on this series--and if you like steampunk, zombies, and/or the Civil War era, you should--this is not the place to start.

New Orleans madam Josephine Early is spearheading a secret Confederate attempt to hand over the submersible Ganymede to the Union, in a desperate attempt to turn the tide of the ongoing war. But no one's left alive who knows how to safely operate the machine, and so Josephine's forced to call for help to an old flame. She's fiercely hoping that the airship pilot Andan Cly will be able to use his skills to pilot a machine that goes underwater instead of through the air, and she's desperate enough that she isn't exactly ready to tell him that the machine's drowned all its previous crews.

And without a doubt, the relationship and backstory between Josephine and Andan is one of the high points of the book. I've found Priest to always be excellent at what romantic notes she introduces into a story, and this one's no exception; the prior state of this relationship is played off with the exact right understated note against the bigger picture of the current intrigues. Toss in some glimpses at New Orleans' zombie problem AND the issue of how the problem's spreading across the country, references back to characters in all three of the previous books, and a supporting cast of colorful characters (one of whom has a secret revealed that amusingly blows Andan's mind) and there's a whole lot to like here.

Bonus points as well for the amusing use of actual Civil War history. It was particularly amusing to me to see a news link going around about the restoration of the Hunley--the actual vehicle named for the man who's referenced in this novel as the creator of the Ganymede.

All in all, great fun. Five stars.

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know if it's fair or not to say that Priest's Clockwork Century series follows a formula (I have not read Clementine yet.), but if it is a formula, it's an awesome one. Serious pioneer mentality characters+ZOMG ZOMBIES!!ONE!1+Badass Steampunk contraption=Your money's worth and then some. While being a quicker, sparser story than Boneshaker or Dreadnought, this is not to say that the story was lacking in any way. Indeed, the story has zero percent body fat. Everything is there for a reason.

The story revolves around Josephine, the madam of a turn of the century brothel (bow chikka bow bow) in Texas-occupied New Orleans. She has a prototype submarine that the Federal goverment is interested in as a possible weapon in a very protracted Civil War. The problem is getting it out from under the noses of the occupying Texian forces. The problem is further exacerbated by the fact that Ganymede has pretty much drowned everyone who ever set foot in it. Josephine sends a telegraph to Adain Cly, Pacific Northwestern air pirate extraordinaire, requesting his aid in piloting Ganymede out of New Orleans into the hands of the Feds. It all gets fun after that.

Priest doesn't rely on her zombies much in this story directly. The ramifications of the zombies being there in the first place actually plays a stronger role plot-wise than anything else. The zombie plague and the Sap that creates them is slowly taking a more prominent seat in the ongoing Clockwork Century universe, and I'm personally fascinated to see how this particular subplot fleshes itself out.

Did I mention hardcore YARRRR!!!!-type pirates and Marie Laveau? Yeah, you want to read this. Five out of five cracked-out monkeys.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was another book that I "stumbled over" when looking for something else. There is nothing at all wrong with the book but it is one of those times where I may be undervaluing it because I have not read the prior entries in this series. On occasion I'll stop and wait to get the first novel if I think the premise is interesting, but I grabbed this one just because I wanted something to read.

The author has done a nice job of imagining this parallel past. The technology bits are both firmly rooted in real technology and real historic developments with just enough speculation (and flair) to make things more interesting. Likewise her use of the political/nationalistic forces of the time and their "modifications" are good.

I guess where I felt the book could have been stronger was in the plot and the details of the side plots. There is no one specific thing that was wrong, but I think the book could have been improved with both greater overall length and greater depth (no pun intended) in several key areas. The characters come off as being far too reasonable and willing to compromise on key issues - some of which they have been struggling with supposedly for months with potential and actual fatal consequences. So, more "drama" and heightened tension may be what I thought was needed to make this into a superb book instead of merely "okay".

If you, unlike myself, have read any of the previous books then perhaps everything I wrote above will come off as horse-pucky. If and when I have a chance to read any more of this series I might agree with you. In any event, this is a good, well-written book that deserves to be read. Let me know what you think.

[Beth Cato · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Clockwork Century books are among my favorite steampunk series. This book was very slow to get going for me, and it took a long time for the two main characters to come together. The book did irk me with the annoying 19th century cliche of "the harlot with a heart of gold"; too many books in that time period either use women as a doting mother or as a prostitute. Mind you, Priest is an excellent writer, and Josephine's character slowly grew on me. I really liked the male viewpoint, Cly, with his gruff way of looking at the world and his sweet regard for Briar back in Seattle.

The first and most famous book of this series, Boneshaker, darkly portrayed the city of Seattle as a wall-up city filled with noxious gas and killer zombies. As the series has gone on, it's explored the repercussions this had had across America--namely, that the zombie-causing gas can be filtered to a very potent drug, and that drug also turns people into zombies. It creates an interesting ripple effect and I'm curious about where Priest will take that development.

The most compelling element of Ganymede is the titular submarine. This is a subject of particular interest to me. I've been a Civil War buff since I was a kid, and I happened to be living in South Carolina in 2000 when the Hunley rose from the ocean and made its belated return to shore. In the world of the Clockwork Century, the Civil War has dragged on for twenty years, and Ganymede is part of Hunley's lineage. Priest did her research--and certainly twiddled with history--but Ganymede has a sense of realism to it.

In all, a good addition to the series, though the second book (Dreadnought) remains my favorite.

[Larou]

This is the most recent instalment in Cherie Priest’s Clockwork Century sequence, and like the prevoius ones it has a one-word title that refers to a big piece of advanced machinery – this time round it is a submarine, which has to be smuggled through the Confederate lines and handed over to the Union to give them an edge in the Civil War and hopefully end it (the American Civil War has been going on for decades in Priest’s alternative history universe). The Ganymede does not appear quite as central to the plot as the devices in earlier volumes, and I generally had the impression that this novel was meandering noticeably. Possibly connected to that might be that it is also less self-contained – there is a lot of buildup towards the bigger picture (sap and the rotters, the ongoing war) but not much resolved at all. It is not that Ganymede is dragging, it is just as rollicking a romp as the previous novels, it just seems to be somewhat lacking in purpose and for that I’m inclined to think it the weakest of the lot yet. Still – I do not know of anyone who captures the giddy, exuberant spirit of a rousing yarn, the heart-pounding excitement of adventurous derring-do quite the way Cherie Priest does, and for that Ganymede (as indeed all of her Clockwork Century series) is strongly recommended, not just for steampunk aficionados. Plus, it has a middle-aged woman of colour as its heroine – you don’t see that much in genre fiction, and more’s the pity.