sign in sign up
<<
Home , Boneshaker (novel), Cherie Priest, Hugo Award, Hugo Gernsback, Science fiction magazine, The Goodbye Family

LESSON 5: by

On the forum, I gave you the following assignment:

Read the first 5 pages of Boneshaker by Cherie Priest. List the elements you find. Then list the ESSENTIAL Steampunk genre elements, and then the Character descriptions, then setting Your chart will look something like this:

STEAMPUNK ...... ESSENTIAL ...... CHARACTER ...... SETTING ELEMENTS ...... ELEMENTS...... ELEMENTS...... ELEMENTS overcoat black overcoat 11 crooked stairs 11 crooked stairs and so on you can find Boneshaker here at Amazon

The table part didn’t come out very well so here’s a better version. I added the word “ALL” to the column labels because I wanted you to understand that in those columns I’m not looking for any specific elements other than those labeled. For instance, under “CHARACTER ELEMENTS (ALL)” give all the character elements you find, not just elements pertaining to the Steampunk genre.

STEAMPUNK ESSENTIAL CHARACTER SETTING ELEMENTS (ALL) STEAMPUNK ELEMENTS ELEMENTS (ALL) ELEMENTS (ALL)

Black overcoat Black overcoat

11 crooked stairs 11 crooked stairs

Goth, Gadgets & Grunge: Steampunk Stories with Style!© By Pat Hauldren LESSON 5: Boneshaker by Cherie Priest / 2

If you’ll notice on the link I provided for Boneshaker at Amazon.com, it’s listed as “ (Sci Fi Essential Books) “ and baby, that’s where *I* want to be! 

I couldn’t find a specific definition for exactly what that term meant at Amazon.com, but just from the term itself, you can tell it’s the list of books that, while aren’t classics yet, are becoming so for various reasons.

This list of books includes Hunters of by Brian Herbert and Keven J. Anderson, Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer, Ragamuffin by Tobias S. Buckell, The Last Green Tree by Jim Grimsley, The Works of H. Beam Piper by H. Beam Piper, Warbreaker by Brandson Sanderson, and many more.

Books like this aren’t on the 100 Best List, but they might become so over time. This list of “best” made a certain impact on their genre/subgenre and Boneshaker by Cherie Priest is no exception. What’s the big deal about Boneshaker?

Boneshaker is one of the most celebrated of the past few years and especially because it’s such a great written in the Steampunk subgenre. In fact, it’s got its own movie deal.

“Hammer Films is making a movie of Cherie Priest's steampunk novel Boneshaker, with Cross Creek Pictures and Exclusive Media Group producing. The screenplay is being written by John Hilary Shepherd (Nurse Jackie). Like the book, the movie will take place an alternate 1880s Seattle, which has become a walled city overrun with "rotters," or .” ~ says io9

The novel, published in 2009 by , is the first in a series set in the period, which Priest has dubbed the “Clockwork Century.” Her second novel Dreadnought was published in 2010, and the third, Ganymede, in 2011, and Clementine in 2011 Her fourth, Fiddlehead, was released in 2013.

According to Amazon, the book description reads:

“ In the early days of the Civil War, rumors of in the frozen Klondike brought hordes of newcomers to the . Anxious to compete, Russian prospectors commissioned inventor Leviticus Blue to create a great machine that could mine through Alaska’s ice. Thus was Dr. Blue’s Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine born.

But on its first test run the Boneshaker went terribly awry, destroying several blocks of downtown Seattle and unearthing a subterranean vein of blight gas that turned anyone who breathed it into the living dead.

Now it is sixteen years later, and a wall has been built to enclose the devastated and toxic city. Just beyond it lives Blue’s widow, Briar Wilkes. Life is hard with a ruined reputation and a teenaged boy to support, but she and Ezekiel are managing. Until Ezekiel undertakes a secret crusade to rewrite history.

His will take him under the wall and into a city teeming with ravenous undead, air pirates, criminal overlords, and heavily armed refugees. And only Briar can bring him out alive.” LESSON 5: Boneshaker by Cherie Priest / 3

Now that is interesting, at least to me, and so I did buy the book The Hugo Awards are a set of and it wasn’t a disappointment. awards given annually for the best science fiction or In this class, I’m not asking you to read the whole book. We are works and achievements of the taking snippets of different books over different times and in previous year. The awards are different sub/sub/subgenres and looking at the essential genre named after , elements, the characters, the setting, the story, and the writing the founder of the pioneering along with writing style and comparing these to their success (or science fiction lack thereof). . Organized and overseen by the World Science What makes Boneshaker such a popular book? Fiction Society, the awards are “Ultimately, Steampunk is a chance to treat history as a given each year at the annual World Science Fiction playground. It's really a lot of fun. I tell people that really the only Convention as the central focus rule to it is that if you're not having fun, you're doing it wrong." of the event. ~ Wikipedia.org says Cherie Priest, an author of Steampunk novels who went to school in Chattanooga, moved to Seattle, and recently returned to St. Elmo.

Boneshaker was nominated in 2010 for the for Best Novel and won the 2010 for Best Science Fiction Novel.

Boneshaker has several things going for it. (Remember, this part is a lot opinion based on what I’ve read and researched.) Winners of the Locus  Steampunk Award for Best  Zombies (rotters) SF Novel, awarded by  the Locus magazine.  American Civil War The Locus Awards are  Gold Rush/Klondikes presented to winners  Wild West of Locus Magazine's annual  Dystopic lifestyle (of Leviticus Blue’s family after the readers' poll, which was Boneshaker destroyed their town) established in the early '70s  Blue-collar workers (esp. the wife, Briar) specifically to provide recommendations and  Strong Female Character (Briar works full time and raises a suggestions to Hugo Awards st  son alone, how 21 century is that? ) voters. Over the decades the  Indian Princess Locus Awards have often drawn more voters than the I’m sure that’s not ALL the stuff it has going for it, but those are the Hugos and Nebulas genre/subgenre items I could recount (with the help of Wikipedia ). combined. In recent years Locus Awards are presented So, it’s Steampunk, which attracts a much wider audience than mere at an annual banquet, and Science Fiction or straight Fantasy or the label of Alternate History. It’s unlike any other award, all those things rolled together, dusted with rotters and dystopia and explicitly honor publishers of Indians and the gold rush and a strong female character and some winning works with damned good writing and voila! We have a New York Times certificates. ~ locusmag.com Bestseller!

On Boneshaker writing What did you think of Priest’s writing style and writing in general? Did you enjoy reading it? Did you find the writing well done or a chore to read? LESSON 5: Boneshaker by Cherie Priest / 4

How much about the story can you tell just from page one? LESSON 5: Boneshaker by Cherie Priest / 5

Character/Setting: She’s wearing a “dull black overcoat” so she’s not your usual or typical image of a female, no matter what you think typical is.

Character/Relationship: She has someone who gets into trouble, Zeke, which at this point is probably her son (we don’t know that yet.)

Character/Relationship: She was really worried (about her son, Zeke) until the guy said “I was hoping we could talk about your father” then “Her shoulders lost their stiff, defensive right angles…” See her physical change?

Character/Relationship: She’s been hurt by men. “I swear to God, all the men in my life…” and “My father was a tyrant, and everyone he loved was afraid of him.”

Setting: She lives in a shanty town, “eleven crooked stairs to her home.” And “narrow porch” are our clues.

So we can tell quite a lot just from her page one, yeah? This is called “front loading” – the amount of story material the author can put on page one, page 2, and so on without info dumping, telling, or boring the poor reader to . 

How much can we tell about your story from YOUR page one? Discussion

1. Share your first page (approx. 13 lines) with us and tell us how much stuff you’ve front loaded into your story. Along with the first page text, you can share your details in a chart like the one we did above. a. If you don’t have anything written, use my rough draft of a (next page) and pretend it’s your first five pages (though you would write this MUCH better than I! ) 2. Share your chart that we filled out at the beginning of the lesson on Cherie Priest’s Boneshaker’s first five pages. (If you need me to supply the first five pages I can do that.)

LESSON 5: Boneshaker by Cherie Priest / 6

Rough draft of an unnamed and unfinished short story:

“I dare say. You’re indefinably crazy, you know that, right?” Horace cinched my belt, a little too tightly I thought, perhaps purposely, but how would he know? He couldn’t feel like flesh and blood. With the width of my forefinger able to separate the aforementioned belt from my waist, I patted my belly, still flat and hard after all these years, then slid on a pair of long-armed leather gloves. I loved their softness, pliant yet strong, webbed with a special material to prevent pointed objects from piercing through to my skin. My leather coat, gathered at the waist yet full to my calves, consisted of the same impervious material. All benefits of my last real outing, so very many years ago. “Madame.” I blinked. I had apparently drifted away, to a time long past. I nodded. Horace was right, as his tone intimidated. Here and now was what was important, and the . Although there was less future than past for me, yet for my daughter and her children, there was yet hope. I blinked again, this time to dry the moisture rimming my eyes. “Where is my umbrella?” I glanced around, taking stock of my weapons—various knives, a roll of hemp rope, matches, a loaded walking stick, hairpins which were, of course, in my hair, several brooch-like pins places about my clothing, a Deadalous pistol, ammo attached to my belt, a blaster rifle, and my cell phone, the one thing that had no use in this universe, yet the one thing I couldn’t live without. “It is in the shop, Madame, and won’t be ready until later this week.” Horace whirred and buzzed as he rolled around the floor, taking stock of what came next. Satisfied, he spit out a puff of white steam from what I assumed was his head, or what served as his head, the dull-metal attachment on a tin can body that could rotate 180 degrees and see behind him with multiple sensors. In that regard, I envied my little metal valet. Horace handed me each knife, two disguised as other objects--one a can opener and the other a whistle, which had been of considerably more use in the past than the knife it hid--one to slide into the side of each boot, one straight knife that slid into my belt, and the last, a very long knife that slid into a harness strapped across my back. I called this long knife a sword, but somehow, that term never took on here in Selezon. I dubbed this big knife Graywand, for it was as gray and dull-looking as its name, yet it sliced and diced as good as any commercial knife and because the metal was imbued with a touch of magic, my blood and something else. But what else, I can only guess, as it surprises me every time I use it, and thank what gods there might be, I’ve only had to use it twice. Of all the knives, I liked this one the best, reminding me of my own world, of my world’s history, and now, part of my own history. And my immediate future, I hoped. I patted down my accouterments, double-checking their positioning. Satisfied, I nodded. “Did you pack your energy packets?” Horace’s sensors, little glowing eyes on extended stalks, eyed me up and down as if he could see through clothing. Thank goodness, he couldn’t, because I had also packed a few electronic items that could disable a mechanoid like Horace from afar. “Yes.” I rummaged around in the satchel sitting on the table. Energy bars, condensed water, toiletries, several small torches, a blanket, and even some packets of powdered chocolate filled the bag that I then hoisted over my shoulder. I pulled my braid from under the strap. Having something, anything, weighting down my hair was intolerable and oh how my hair had grown. I smiled, something Horace did not understand at all. Perhaps if I outfitted him with a wig… “Yes, yes.” I replied as Horace had continued listing items I’d already checked, ever the one for detail. In my world, he’d be on medication for obsessive compulsiveness. “Fine.” Horace sniffed, which was the action of intake of air through the same little tube he expelled the puff of smoke earlier. It sounded more like a wheeze than a sniff, but one learns these little personal traits over the years. “All is well, Horace. Your duty to detail is acknowledged. Your future employment is sealed and ready for you at the Office.” Knowing he had further use put me back into Horace’s good graces, apparently, for he extended his right appendage. “Goodbye, Madame. May the Gods be with you.” LESSON 5: Boneshaker by Cherie Priest / 7

I nodded. Goodbye indeed. “If all goes well, I will not see you again. If all goes unwell, I will not see you again either. Regardless, I know you will see to my affairs.” I shook Horace’s extended phalanges. What few affairs I had. A modest apartment in the more broken part of the city. Literally broken with crumbled brownstone-like residences that people tried to maintain in spite of the inability and lack of resources to repair them. Valets were about the height of mechanical genius remaining after the last war. Vehicles were maintained for the elite and I certainly was not of the upper class nor did I want to be, for being noticed and being different would only hasten my demise. “Indeed,” said Horace. “It is my fervent wish you find the remote control and return to your world and your family.” The remote control was just that, a hand-held device that opened a portal to different universes. Whether they were parallel or just different, I had no idea. I wasn’t a physicist, just an old woman who doted on her grandchildren and a woman with too much curiosity for her own good, originally finding the remote device on an excursion with the kids in West . I should never have explored that cave, not even a cave, an opening in the rock just big enough for me to slide into. A ragged crevasse that looked bigger on the inside, and so it was. “Thank you, Horace.” I ran my hand across my hair, smoothing down any straggling strands, then gripped my walking stick and exited the apartment, a two-room shanty that had been my home for ten years now. I had waited until dusk, when my dark clothing wouldn’t attract attention, to begin my trek out of the city. The soft leather boots snuggled my feet, feet that tended to swell now that I had cross the mid- century mark, in boots that I hadn’t worn in a decade. But the leather, though well-worn, was as comforting as my gloves, and the soles were repaired of the finest leather and embedded metal slivers, some of which could be deadly weapons in themselves. Broken sidewalks led to broken fences guarding forgotten fields now choked with weeds, scurry trees sprouting brambles, and some tree regrowth. A conservative nature-lover I wasn’t, yet I was happy to see new growth somewhere, even if it was not to best effect for the local inhabitants who had lost most who knew how to farm and the others, lost their interest and their hope. Clipped to my jacket was a sensor to warn of radiation. The city was clear, which is why people still gathered there, dealing only with dust clouds and pollution as at the center of Selezon, one lone factory had been rebuilt, its product I knew not, but it chugged and wheezed and spewed gas into the atmosphere as if it breathed. I moved away from the city and it’s smog, stopping now and then to look, listen, for followers, indigents or vagabonds who’d attack a lone person just for fun. Nothing so far, so I moved on, across the untended fields and into the desert as night came full on and the stars brightened with unfamiliar constellations.

Have fun!

Alley