GIVEAWAY! Cherie Priest’s “Clockwork Century” Series (Tor)

So, it’s been a while since I had a giveaway on CR. Thankfully, the lovely people who handle Cherie Priest’s UK publicity have offered one complete set of the author’s Clockwork Century series (below) to be won by one lucky reader of this here humble blog.

All you have to do is email me at…

civilian.reader[at]blogspot.co.uk

… to be in with a chance to get your hands on this complete set. This is UK-only, unfortunately, but fear not international readers – I have a few more giveaways coming up over the next couple of weeks that are open to all.

I’ll leave this open for one week (March 19th 2013), and the winner will be notified via email and also in the comment thread.

Upcoming: “Fiddlehead” by Cherie Priest (Tor)

I have been slowly catching up with Cherie Priest’s popular Clockwork Century novels. I must admit I haven’t been as swept away as some readers, but they are starting to grow on me. Tor recently announced the fifth full-length novel in the series (there was also the novella, Clementine): Fiddlehead. The novel will be published in November 2013. Here’s the synopsis:

Ex-spy ‘Belle Boyd’ is retired – more or less. Retired from spying on the Confederacy anyway. Her short-lived marriage to a Union navy boy cast suspicion on those Southern loyalties, so her mid-forties found her unemployed, widowed and disgraced. Until her life-changing job offer from the staunchly Union Pinkerton Detective Agency.

When she’s required to assist Abraham Lincoln himself, she has to put any old loyalties firmly aside – for a man she spied against twenty years ago.Lincoln’s friend Gideon Bardsley, colleague and ex-slave, is targeted for assassination after the young inventor made a breakthrough. Fiddlehead, Bardsley’s calculating engine, has proved an extraordinary threat threatens the civilized world. Meaning now is not the time for conflict.

Now Bardsley and Fiddlehead are in great danger as forces conspire to keep this secret, the war moving and the money flowing. With spies from both camps gunning for her, can even the notorious Belle Boyd hold the war-hawks at bay?

I really must make an effort to catch up with this series. I’ve read and reviewed Boneshaker and the aforementioned Clementine, and will be sure to read the rest of the series soon: Dreadnought, Ganymede, The Inexplicables.

“Clementine” by Cherie Priest (Tor/Subterranean)

A Steampunk Novella, Clockwork Century #2

Maria Isabella Boyd’s success as a Confederate spy has made her too famous for further espionage work, and now her employment options are slim. Exiled, widowed, and on the brink of poverty…she reluctantly goes to work for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency in Chicago.

Adding insult to injury, her first big assignment is commissioned by the Union Army. In short, a federally sponsored transport dirigible is being violently pursued across the Rockies and Uncle Sam isn’t pleased. The Clementine is carrying a top secret load of military essentials — essentials which must be delivered to Louisville, Kentucky, without delay.

Intelligence suggests that the unrelenting pursuer is a runaway slave who’s been wanted by authorities on both sides of the Mason-Dixon for fifteen years. In that time, Captain Croggon Beauregard Hainey has felonied his way back and forth across the continent, leaving a trail of broken banks, stolen war machines, and illegally distributed weaponry from sea to shining sea.

And now it’s Maria’s job to go get him.

He’s dangerous quarry and she’s a dangerous woman, but when forces conspire against them both, they take a chance and form an alliance. She joins his crew, and he uses her connections. She follows his orders. He takes her advice.

And somebody, somewhere, is going to rue the day he crossed either one of them.

This is the second installment in Priest’s highly popular Clockwork Century steampunk series. Originally a limited edition novella published by Subterranean Press, Clementine has since been made available as an eBook first in the US and now in the UK. I have to admit that I while I enjoyed much of Boneshaker, the first in the series, I was never wholly won over by it. I nevertheless decided to give the rest of the series a try – especially since Tor UK picked up the rights to publish it in Blighty. Clementine does a good job of expanding Priest’s version of a steampunk Civil War-era United States. While still flawed, it is nevertheless an enjoyable book, one that kindled my interest in reading the rest of the series.

Recent Acquisitions (November/December)

A pre-Christmas selection of books that I’ve received or purchased over the last few weeks. A very nice selection, all told – only one book probably won’t be reviewed, and that’s because it’s the fifth book in a series I’ve never read. [See below – I’m offering it to a US/Canadian in return for a guest review.]

Cherie Priest Finally Coming to Blighty…?

After being distracted by Cherie Priest’s latest Twitter video of her new puppy (who is very cute), I noticed this photo had also been posted by the author:

These are cover flats for the UK editions of two of Priest’s Clockwork Century novels – in this case, books three and four. First off, I think that cover for Ganymede is really good, but the Inexplicables cover is a narrower zoom on the US artwork, which I saw at BEA2012, and much prefer:

I had mixed feelings about Boneshaker, but I fully intend to catch up with the series at some point (I bought Dreadnought and Ganymede while I was in the US, but ran out of time before I could read them – Alyssa is kindly storing them for me until I return). The premise for each novel is great, and I think Priest has done a good job with the world-building. Perhaps the second, third, and fourth books in the series will live up to my expectations. I really hope they will, so expect reviews of them in the near future.

Cherie Priest’s Clockwork Century series will be released in the UK through Tor. The series will be released on a monthly schedule, according to Amazon UK’s listings: Boneshaker (November 2012), Dreadnought (December 2012), Ganymede (January 2013), Inexplicables (February 2013).

“Boneshaker” by Cherie Priest (Tor)

Introducing the Clockwork Century

At the start of the Civil War, a Russian mining company commissions a great machine to pave the way from Seattle to Alaska and speed up the gold rush that is beating a path to the frozen north. Inventor Leviticus Blue creates the machine, but on its first test run it malfunctions, decimating Seattle’s banking district and uncovering a vein of Blight Gas that turns everyone who breathes it into the living dead.

Sixteen years later Briar, Blue’s widow, lives in the poor neighbourhood outside the wall that’s been built around the uninhabitable city. Life is tough with a ruined reputation, but she and her teenage son Ezekiel are surviving until Zeke impetuously decides that he must reclaim his father s name from the clutches of history.

Boneshaker is a novel I had been dancing around for quite some time. I’d heard and read plenty of praise aimed at the novel – not to mention seen the glowing blurbs from Scott Westerfeld, Warren Ellis, and Mike Mignola printed on the cover. While in Los Angeles, I read the first handful of chapters when in a bookstore’s cafe. What I read intrigued me, so I bought a copy of the book. My thoughts are mixed, which makes it a tough review to write. The novel has obvious strengths, but it also has some weaknesses.

My New York Bookshelf (as of Oct.25th)

Things have been a bit quiet here at Civilian Reader, so I thought I’d write a quick post about some of the reviews readers can expect to see over the coming month or so. [This is by no means a definitive or exhaustive list, as things can always change and you can’t see the books I have on my Kindle – which is perched there on the top left.]

So, starting from the left and working across the photo, read on for some thoughts on these novels and non-fiction titles.