Cover Unveiled for Cherie Priest's The Inexplicables

It has been no secret that I'm a fan of Cherie Priest's Clockwork Century series. She always manages the right mix of action and her own crazy version of history along with characters that enrapt me. The Inexplicables will be the 4th in the series that will bring us back to Seattle, which should mean some fan favorites will be making appearances . The cover above may not be final, but I sure hope it is as it is begging me to turn the page to see what the ginger on the cover is staring at. Although this would be the first to not show a female lead character on the cover or a big crazy device in the background. The art is by Cliff Nielsen instead of by Jon Foster who has done the rest of the series to date. Here is the official blurb:

Rector “Wreck ‘em” Sherman was orphaned as a toddler in the Blight of 1863, but that was years ago. Wreck has grown up, and on his eighteenth birthday, he’ll be cast out out of the orphanage.

And Wreck’s problems aren’t merely about finding a home. He’s been quietly breaking the cardinal rule of any good drug dealer and dipping into his own supply of the sap he sells. He’s also pretty sure he’s being haunted by the ghost of a kid he used to know—Zeke Wilkes, who almost certainly died six months ago. Zeke would have every reason to pester Wreck, since Wreck got him inside the walled city of Seattle in the first place, and that was probably what killed him.Maybe it’s only a guilty conscience, but Wreck can’t take it anymore, so he sneaks over the wall.

The walled-off wasteland of Seattle is every bit as bad as he’d heard, chock-full of the hungry undead and utterly choked by the poisonous, inescapable yellow gas. And then there's the monster. Rector's pretty certain that whatever attacked him was not at all human—and not a rotter, either. Arms far too long. Posture all strange. Eyes all wild and faintly glowing gold and known to the locals as simply "The Inexplicables."

In the process of tracking down these creatures, Rector comes across another incursion through the wall -- just as bizarre but entirely attributable to human greed. It seems some outsiders have decided there's gold to be found in the city and they're willing to do whatever it takes to get a piece of the pie unless Rector and his posse have anything to do with it.

The Inexplicables will be released November 13th. There is at least one more title planned in the series called Fiddlehead that will most likely be out late in 2013.

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NEWS | Boneshaker by Cherie Priest Optioned for Film

In the OMG news of the day it has been reported that Cherie Priest's breakout Steampunk hit Boneshaker has been optioned for file. Here is a announcement from Variety:

Cherie Priest's steampunk sci-fi novel "Boneshaker" is coming to the bigscreen with Cross Creek Pictures, Exclusive Media Group and Hammer Films onboard.
The companies said Wednesday that Hammer has acquired the rights to the novel. Project will be co-produced by Hammer and Cross Creek Pictures and co-financed by Exclusive and Cross Creek.

John Hilary Shepherd ("Nurse Jackie") is writing the screenplay. Hammer head of production Tobin Armbrust is overseeing.

Priest's novel is set in an alternate version of 1880s Seattle, where the city has been walled in and a toxic gas has turned many of its remaining residents into "Rotters," more commonly known as zombies. A young widow hunts for her teen son in the Seattle underworld while dealing with airship pirates, a criminal overlord and heavily armed refugees.

The novel, published in 2009 by Tor Books, is the first in a series set in the period, which has Priest has dubbed the Clockwork Century. Second novel "Dreadnought" was published in 2010, and the third, "Ganymede," was recently released.

Tor Books is releasing the fourth in the series, "Inexplicables," in 2012, and last week announced a deal with Priest for her to write a fifth. That book will be called "Fiddlehead."

"It's like Jules Verne meets 'Resident Evil,' and we're thrilled to have such a fun, commercial potential franchise in Boneshaker," said Cross Creek's Brian Oliver.

I've read all of the Clockwork Century books to date and they have a strong cinematic quality so cross your figures that Boneshaker goes from option to green-lighted quickly.

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Covers Unveiled for Ganymede by Cherie Priest & All Men of Genius by Lev AC Rosen

Cherie Priest next Clockwork Century novel Ganymede finally has a cover. And it looks to be by Jon Foster who has done all the other books in the series so far. Strong heroines are still in effect. I'm going to guess the large device in the background in the sub-like Ganymede mentioned in the blurb.

The air pirate Andan Cly is going straight. Well, straighter. Although he’s happy to run alcohol and guns wherever the money’s good, he’s not sure the world needs more sap, or its increasingly ugly side effects. But reforming is easier said than done: the captain’s first legal gig will be paid for by sap money, because the Seattle Underground is in dire need of supplies.

New Orleans is not Cly’s first pick for a shopping run. He loved the Big Easy once, back when he likewise loved a beautiful mixed-race prostitute named Josephine Early, but that was a decade ago. He’s still on Jo’s mind, he learns when she sends him a telegram about a peculiar piloting job. It’s a chance to complete two lucrative jobs at once. 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.

Now the only question is whether Cly and his crew will end up in the history books, or at the bottom of the ocean.

The end of September is always a big time of year for Steampunk titles and Tor is releasing Lev AC Rosen's debut All Men of Genius the same day as Priest's latest.  All the gears to make it scream Steampunk, but I'm getting a big Kage Baker/Company vibe. This makes a bit of sense since it has a large historical bent based on its influences.

A steampunk retelling of Twelfth Night and The Importance of Being Earnest from an exciting young talent.

Inspired by two of the most beloved works by literary masters, All Men of Genius takes place in an alternate Steampunk Victorian London, where science makes the impossible possible.

Violet Adams wants to attend Illyria College, a widely renowned school for the most brilliant up-and-coming scientific minds, founded by the late Duke Illyria, the greatest scientist of the Victorian Age. The school is run by his son, Ernest, who has held to his father’s policy that the small, exclusive college remain male-only. Violet sees her opportunity when her father departs for America. She disguises herself as her twin brother, Ashton, and gains entry.

But keeping the secret of her sex won’t be easy, not with her friend Jack’s constant habit of pulling pranks, and especially not when the duke’s young ward, Cecily, starts to develop feelings for Violet’s alter ego, “Ashton.” Not to mention blackmail, mysterious killer automata, and the way Violet’s pulse quickens whenever the young duke, Ernest (who has a secret past of his own), speaks to her. She soon realizes that it’s not just keeping her secret until the end of the year faire she has to worry about: it’s surviving that long.

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The Steampunk Kerfuffle and Going Beyond the Zeppelins

Any rising genre ends up getting attacked after it gets to a certain level of popularity/notoriety. Remember all the debate about Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy, and Vampires? Wait that is all still going on. But now it is Steampunk's turn apparently again. I've been feeling the tide coming against Steampunk recently and it was finally set to a fever pitch a couple weeks back by Charles Stross.

Stross set everything off with:

I am becoming annoyed by the current glut of Steampunk that is being foisted on the SF-reading public via the likes of Tor.com and io9.....

Which made me go why pray tell? What has Steampunk ever done to you? He goes on:

Contemplating the numerous errors of the zombies'n'zeppelins fad in SF makes me twitch, for reasons that parallel China Mieville's denunciation of The Lord of the Rings (except that I have the attention span of a weasel on crack and am besides too lazy to anatomize the errors of a generation at length in such an essay: personally, I blame the internet). The romanticization of totalitarianism is nothing new (and if you don't recognize the totalitarian urge embedded in the steampunk nostalgia trip, I should like to remind you that "king" is a synonym for "hereditary dictator" and direct you to the merciless skewing Michael Moorcock delivered to imperial hagiography in his Oswald Bastable books). Nevertheless, an affection for the ancient regime is an unconsidered aspect of the background of most steampunk fiction: much like the interstellar autocracies so common in space opera (and again, let me cite Michael Moorcock on Starship Stormtroopers). The Science! in steampunk (which purports to be science fiction, of a kind ... doesn't it?) is questionable at best (Cherie Priest, I'm looking at your gas-induced zombies) and frequently flimsier than even the worst junk that space opera borrows from the props department, because, as it happens, the taproots of steampunk lie prior to the vast expansion in the scientific enterprise that has come to dominate our era. But that's just about forgivable, inasmuch as much modern SF doesn't even like to pretend that sometimes a spaceship is just a spaceship, and not a metaphor. That leaves the aesthetic ... which I can't find anything intrinsically wrong with, as long as steampunk is nothing more than what happens when goths discover brown. Viewed as a fashion trend for corsets and top hats, steampunk is no more harmful than a fad for Che Guevara tee shirts, or burkas, or swastikas; just another fashion trend riffing thoughtlessly off stuff that went away for a reason (at least in the developed world).

So he goes on to lambaste Cherie because her science isn't right in regards to zombies. What kind of nonsensical comment is that? Maybe Stross should think about writing The Science of Zombies so all the writers out there can get it "right" according to him. Because writers need guidelines to work with if they're going to please Stross. That's what most authors want isn't it? To be told how their stories should have been?

Priest fired back:

OMG YOU GUYS it has come to my attention that SOMEONE on the internet is saying that my fictional 19th century zombies are NOT SCIENTIFICALLY SOUND. Naturally, I am crushed. To think, IF ONLY I’d consulted with a zombologist or two before sitting down to write, I could’ve avoided ALL THIS EMBARRASSMENT.

If you’ve been heretofore unaware of my EGREGIOUS CRIMES against reason and scientific probability, but you too would like to criticize my technique when it comes to MAKING SHIT UP about the pretend undead … then boy, have I got a proposal for YOU!

I think she let it off a little lightly, but many others have taken up the cause to take on Stross. Scott Westerfeld came to the defense of Steampunk:

Yes, the current emblematic book of steampunk is totally Dickensian, but no one pays attention to that because it’s got zombies and airships, and therefore must be a madcap lark. Because this whole conversation has been about flap copy, not actual texts.

By the way, I think I’m the first person in this whole internet kerfuffle to quote text from AN ACTUAL STEAMPUNK BOOK. And thus I win.

.....

Not to go flat out into Sturgeon’s Law mode here, but space opera is a subgenre of which an astonishing percentage is crap, both aesthetically and politically, and which gluts the bookshelves far more than steampunk. But no one will be declaring how much they hate it, because it’s been around long enough that old people aren’t bothered by it.

And yes, this is about YOU being OLD, steampunk-haters. (In spirit, not in years.)

THIS is why I don’t write for adults. Their heads are all full of genre cooties and “Taj Mahal? Nah, don’t like tombs.” Whereas a kid will come home from the library with a mystery, an sf novel, an autobiography, and three books about sharks. That’s how kids read, and when something’s cool and fun and awesome (or weird and gnarly and thought-provoking), they don’t worry about how many times it’s been mentioned on io9, or whether it’s that-genre-Fortnight on Tor.com.

Catherine Valente than entered the fray as a Steampunk detractor saying:

Steampunk is starting to look a lot like the endless dragons and maidens covers of old extruded product fantasy. Sameness is never exciting, and steampunk

......

When I look at steampunk books and how they're marketed to us, all I see is surface. Look! The megasitesthings that either sparkle or blow up strung together on the hope that some kind of magic will happen and a zeitgeist will be capitalized upon.

Others have gone to bring up very good and pertinent points even if they aren't necessarily falling head over heels for the genre such as:

The most interesting thing to me about steampunk (though I’m not really an enthusiast, more of a vaguely interested observer) is that it isn’t a literary movement at all. It’s very much a mixed media movement with a huge emphasis on artwork, craftsmanship and costuming. That’s where the greater passions of steampunk seem to lie, with the literary aspect desperately trying to catch up. There’s a flashmob sensibility to it, rather than a single line of influence. Many people in the comments of Catherynne’s post preferred to define steampunk as an aesthetic, rather than a literary movement or sub-genre.

So it seems more people are upset by the dress-up factor of Steampunk than anything else. But Cosplay has been going on for decades. In fact it had its origin in modern culture with Sci-Fi. Star Trek conventions anyone?

Valente than came back with a good piece on what she actually likes about Steampunk:

I like how steampunk is a deconstructive genre, or at least has the potential to be so. I see this lately in costuming, where the insides of the bustles and corsets can be worn on the outside, (hell, corsets themselves were never meant to be worn on the outside), the workings of the clothes made explicit. That's one of the things I like best in books of any type, and I'll be interested to see how it trickles down--or up--into literary steampunk, showing the workings of the novel, the culture, the history, the insides on the outside. I love postmodernism, and sometimes it looks an awful lot like pre-modernism.

So what does this all add up to? It all comes down to if you don't like it have you actually read it? Because it doesn't seem like most of the haters have actually read much of what is going on in Steampunk. Sure some is fluff, but there are a lot of amazing stories going on. And aren't fiction books for entertainment? For the detractors out there go out and read more in the genre to see what it is you "think" isn't good. I did the same a few years ago with Urban Fantasy and now I'm a big fan. Sure there is crap out there, but there is in every genre.  I'm not in them for a history lesson and while that can be a nice bonus with some books it is not something I'm after as a fan and reader. If you actually want to find out what Steampunk is about than read Shweta Narayan's short clockwork bird stories, Felix Gilman's The Half-Made World, or Steampunk Reloaded edited by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer just to get a taste of what is out there beyond the zeppelins.


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REVIEW | Dreadnought by Cherie Priest (Tor)

Mercy Lynch is a hard working nurse working at a hospital in Virginia for wounded soldiers. Virginia is part of the Confederate States of America still opposing the North with a Civil War that has stretched on for nearly two decades. The start definitely gives you an appreciation for all the hard work people went through trying to save the lives of the wounded. Mercy soon learns that her husband who fought for the North just died in a Confederate POW camp. Not long after she receives a letter from her father--long thought dead--to visit him in Seattle where he is on death's doorstep. She heads out alone leaving behind all she knows.

And so ensures a memorable journey that shows off the weapons of war created in this steampunked alternative past. Dreadnought shows much of the America that Priest envisioned with Boneshaker. We travel from Virgina across North America to Washington Territory by foot and river boat to airship and train. Much of the time in the South is cut short so only some glimpses of places are had, but the story does show how fractured the country still is because of the war.

Even amid all the world-building and scenery of Dreadnought, Priest proves she still excels with creating believable characters you want to root for with her powerful, independent, and strong willed women always being the stand outs. Priest is creating quite a cadre of strong-willed women willing to do almost anything to accomplish their goal. Mercy is perhaps her masterpiece to date as she faces down all perils and takes aback men merely with the look from her steely eyes and nursing abilities. Also, always remember every good Southern girl knows how to shoot a gun.

Mercy often runs into a certain Texan Ranger named Horatio Korman. His entrances gives light to the happenings of the still independent Texas. Korman is everything a seasoned Ranger should be. Straight, strong, and wily and I immediately took a strong liking for him. The mad scientist was a bit of a disappointment. He just never seemed to be effectual or very dangerous. It could be he was outdone by the war machines and a surprise later in the story though.

Dreadnought is the literary equivalent of what Will Smith's Wild Wild West could have been only with better characters and more believable action. The center piece of the story is the titular train the Dreadnought, which Mercy can't seem to get away from no matter how far she travels. This train is a character unto itself. You can feel the train fighting back during the battles more so than some of the soldiers it transports. This behemoth of a train feasts upon amour and is equipped more heavily than today's Tanks. You haven't read anything like Priest's train battles.

Dreadnought is one wild time. My advice: sit back and enjoy the ride while it lasts. Dreadnought is a shouldn't miss read whether you are a fan of Steampunk or not.  I give Dreadnought 8.5 out of 10 hats. There are some very satisfying moments in the end, which help to give closure to fans of Boneshaker that would be worth the read alone. There were also a lot of expected moments at the end, which ended up giving you a knowing smile on your face despite seeing them coming. The tension while not as prevalent as in Boneshaker still delivers thrills and entertainment you won't want to stop. I look forward to all the future stories in The Clockwork Century that Priest gives us. It would be a travesty if we didn't get to see the Texas Ranger Horatio Korman in another story someday. We have at least two more novels set in this world to look forward to including next years Ganymede and Inexplicable in 2012.

Lastly, I wanted a quick word on the cover. The top version is the final used on the print edition, but I prefer the version below used on the review copy I got from BEA, which shows the train and Mercy looking quite determined. Jon Foster did both pieces quite well, but the below is much more appropriate to the story and character focused work.

Snagged from Irene Gallo

UPDATE: I asked Priest on twitter if we'd get more of Korman to which she replied: He's in the one I'm writing now, actually :)

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Cover Unveiled for Cherie Priest's Dreadnought

The cover for Dreadnought is done by Jon Foster who did the Boneshaker art as well as the recent final version for Clementine. Great angle and positioning. How can I not love a gun-wielding heroine facing down a giant robot? I can't. Not one whit. Dreadnought will be released this October from Tor with at least two more volumes in the series to look forward to.

Mercy Lynch is elbows deep in bloody laundry at the Robertson Hospital in Richmond, Virginia, when Clara Barton comes bearing bad news. In her hand she holds a terrible document called the Atwater List, and on this list is the name of a union soldier who’s been missing for months.

And just like that, the young nurse is no longer a nervous newlywed, waiting for news of her absent husband. Now she is a widow, and the bad news doesn’t stop there. A second message—a telegram from the west coast—declares that her father is badly injured, possibly dying, and that he wishes to see her.

So Mercy sets out west, through war-torn border states on a trek to reach the Mississippi River. On the other side, she’ll catch a train over the Rockies and—if the telegram can be believed—she’ll be greeted in Tacoma, Washington, by a law officer who will take her up to Seattle to see her father.

Of course, it’s not that easy. Getting to the Mississippi is trial enough, and once Mercy reaches St. Louis, the only Tacoma-bound train is pulled by a terrifying engine known as the Dreadnought. Heavily armed and thickly armored from cow-catcher to hitch, the Dreadnought is more commonly deployed in the eastern war frontier, running supplies and artillery reinforcements along the Mason-Dixon to refresh Union forces.

Now, the magnificent war machine seems to towing deceased soldiers back to their homes in the west, for burial. But out past the river, on the plains, and up in the mountains, things are rarely precisely what they look like on the surface; and the Dreadnought’s mission is no exception.

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MISHMASH | New cover to Cherie Priest's Clementine and more Clockwork Century books to come

Subterranean Press announced about a month back they were changing the cover to Clementine the steampunk novella from Cherie Priest. They felt the original wasn't quite right and went for something more in line with what Tor has done for the Clockwork Century series using the same artist from Boneshaker and Dreadnought Jon Foster. This is definitely an improvement and jives much better with the contents, which are a bit down a dirtier than the original art reflected.

Two other big notes.  Sub Press will be doing a trade paper release of Clementine next year for those not wont to shell out for the hardcover and most importantly Cherie announced they'll be at least two more Clockwork Century novels coming from Tor with Ganymede in 2011 and Inexplicable in 2012. Bring on the steam!  The first could portend a steampowered visit to space. More details as I find them.

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VIDEO | Steampunk Panel from School LJ at BEA 2010 w/ Cherie Priest, Scott Westerfeld & Cory Doctorow

This is a rather interesting video from this years Book Expo as part of the School Library Journal portion of the show. The panel is different than the one I mentioned in my BEA rundown, which was on the show floor.This particular event was with Cory Doctorow, Scott Westerfeld, and Cherie Priest was meant more for a Librarian audience with a focus on YA Steampunk.



As soon as the Steampunk panel from the show floor is online I'll let you know.  That was a good one as well from what little I caught with Catherynne Valente and Cherie having very differing views on Steampunk out of England.

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REVIEW | Clementine by Cherie Priest (Subterranean Press)

Cherie Priest's second long-form entry Clementine in The Clockwork Century world follows a side story from the Hugo nominated Boneshaker, which just happens to be one of my favorite reads from last year. Having read Boneshaker isn't necessary to enjoy Clementine, but it does add to some of the references made.

The story flips between two perspectives which are both uniquely idiosyncratic and well developed in their own right.   The stars are airship captain and escaped slave Croggon Hainey and former confederate spy and patriot Maria "Belle" Boyd. Both are something of a living legend or menace in this world depending on what side of the fence your are viewing from. Neither take crap from anyone.

Croggin is chasing after his airship the Free Crow, which was nefariously stolen from him in Seattle. Belle is sent to ensure the Free Crow reaches its destination without Croggin's interference. Belle is actually based on a true person of the same name who acted as a spy for the Confederate army. Priest builds on her history to create a very determined and dangerous character very much true to life. Clementine's greatest strength is the dialog of the main characters. Each has their own style that colors the characters perfectly.

Clementine is a much more subtle story than Boneshaker, but it is no less enthralling as every chapter moves at a brisk pace. Airship fights, spies, thieves, and giant guns all make Clementine a seriously steam-powered wild ride through the sky, which showcases a larger part of Priest's Clockwork Century fractured North America. The war of the North versus the South is still on going in the late 19th century filled with steam-powered weaponry and mad scientist trying to turn the tide of the war one way or the other.

I did feel Cherie had to rein herself in with the book to keep it to novella length as she clearly loves this world and its inhabitants. Hopefully, she'll treat us to more with Belle and Croggin. Belle definitely has an adventure left for here. I kept expecting more of a intimate relationship to develop between Croggin and Belle, but things do seem to have been left open somewhat in that regard. The story arc does complete itself rather well with a fitting culmination and a few surprises along the way. We also learn being a Mad Scientist doesn't necessarily mean they are a bad scientist.

(detail from Clementine art unused by Myke Amend)

Priest is gives us glimpses of a world that is wide and wild in a story that hardly touches the ground. Clementine shows off the southern flair that Cherie has become famous for, but will please even hardened Steampunk fans with her ingenuity at keeping everything fresh and yet historically stylized. I give Clementine 8 out of 10 hats. Cherie still has a lot more in store for us in The Clockwork Century including at least two more shorts and the next full length novel Dreadnought, which Tor will be releasing this September. She is definitely earning the moniker as the Queen of Steampunk, but she may have to duel it out with Gail Carriger in some sort of no holds-barred battle royale.


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New Procurements

Luck has been with me the past couple weeks as I've received or found a lot of books from my wishlist.

Infernal Devices by K.W. Jeter - I've been looking for a copy of Infernal Devices for quite some time, but I finally tracked a used copy down of one of the original Steampunk stories written by the man who coined the term.

The Mount by Carol Emshwiller - I kept hearing about this really crazy book in which aliens have taken over earth and after a century of occupation now use humans as transportation much like we use horses. My friend Comicaze somehow bought two copies without realizing it and gifted the extra copy to me.  I read Emshwiller's The Secret City a couple years ago and found it to be quite a twisted take on crash landed aliens.

Clementine by Cherie Priest - This long novella is in Priest's Clockwork Century world and will be released by Sub Press in May. It picks up a subplot from Boneshaker with some of the same characters and I'm dying to dig-in, but since it is a few months away from release I'll hold off for now.

Horns by Joe Hill - Here is one I've mentioned a couple times. I was lucky enough to win one of the galley's Publisher's Weekly had up for grabs of this highly anticipated February release.  The ARC was actually done with a cool metallic finish so maybe my earlier thoughts on the cover are a bit unfounded. Sometimes the final in-person cover can look leaps and bounds better than online.

Warriors edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois - Featuring a new Dunk and Egg story is pushing this to the top of my to-read pile, but first I'll be re-reading the two prior installments stories in the series since I need to reacquaint myself with the characters. But even without that story it still longs to be an incredibly strong collection, which releases in March.

The Bookman by Lavie Tidhar - Not pictured as it just came today. This is from BookDepository.com as part of a large order that will be coming in over the next few months of some books I just had to have mostly comprised of books with no US publication date in sight.


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LOOKING FORWARD | Urban Fantasy, Sci-Fi, & Steampunk to Watch for in 2010

Culling this list was quite difficult compared to the anthology edition and the Fantasy list. For the purposes of this list I've put any Zombie related titles under Urban Fantasy. Be forewarned spoilers do exist in these descriptions if it is a long running series. Everything is listed in publication order by category.

Urban Fantasy is definitely top-loaded for the first few months of 2010 with many major releases for long-established series with a new Dresden Files and Nightside. We've got some big guns with Mieville checking in with Kraken, which is a standalone. Amelia Beamer's debut The Loving Dead sounds like a great twist on zombies. One theme I noticed was very few Sci-Fi books piqued my interest that weren't from either small houses such a Powell's Silversands and Jason Stoddard's Winning Mars or those that only have a UK publication scheduled as with Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky. In the Steampunk area we've got Lavie Tidhar's debut novel The Bookman, which is also the start of a trilogy. George Mann is treating us to two helpings of his Steampunk world with Ghosts of Manhattan and The Osiris Ritual while we should see the next two volumes of Gail Carriger's series this year as well. All in all this should be a jam-packed year and this only comprises releases up to September for the most part.

URBAN FANTASY

The Good, the Bad, and the Uncanny (Nightside 10) by Simon R. Green
Release Date: January 5 |  Publisher: Ace

Things were going so well for P.I. John Taylor, that it was only a matter of time before everything hit the fan. Walker, the powerful, ever-present, never to-be-trusted agent who runs the Nightside on behalf of The Authorities, is dying. And he wants John to be his successor-a job that comes with more baggage, and more enemies, than anyone can possibly imagine.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Heartland (Codex of Souls 2) by Mark Teppo

Release Date: January  | Publisher: Night Shade Books

Seek the Light! Embrace the Heartland! Markham returns to Paris where he lost his love - and nearly his life! The ancient order of manipulative magicians that once cast him out is now in turmoil... a turmoil made all the greater by the swaths of destruction that Markham tried to avert in the Pacific Northwest. Teamed with an unlikely partner, Markham seeks to overturn the corrupt remains of an order no longer able to police its own practitioners. Yet, he can't escape the feeling that he's still just a pawn in a larger game. The second novel of the Codex of Souls further explores the strange occult world first introduced in Lightbreaker. Mark Teppo's vision of a magical underworld is a non-stop adventure that continues to bring new light to the occult origins of our history.

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Where Angels Fear to Tread (Remy Chandler 3) by Thomas E.Sniegoski
Release Date: March 2  |  Publisher: Roc

Six year-old Zoe York has been taken and her mother has come to Remy for help. She shows him crude, childlike drawings that she claims are Zoe's visions of the future, everything leading up to her abduction, and some beyond. Like the picture of a man with wings who would come and save her-a man who is an angel.

Zoe's preternatural gifts have made her a target for those who wish to exploit her power to their own destructive ends. The search will take Remy to dark places he would rather avoid. But to save an innocent, Remy will ally himself with a variety of lesser evils-and his soul may pay the price...

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Changes (Dresden Files 12) by Jim Butcher
Release Date: April 6  |  Publisher: Roc

Long ago, Susan Rodriguez was Harry Dresden's lover-until she was attacked by his enemies, leaving her torn between her own humanity and the bloodlust of the vampiric Red Court. Susan then disappeared to South America, where she could fight both her savage gift and those who cursed her with it.

Now Arianna Ortega, Duchess of the Red Court, has discovered a secret Susan has long kept, and she plans to use it-against Harry. To prevail this time, he may have no choice but to embrace the raging fury of his own untapped dark power. Because Harry's not fighting to save the world...

He's fighting to save his child.

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Kraken by China Mieville
Release Date: June 29 |  Publisher: Del Rey

Kraken is a standalone with a very Lovecraftian twist. Deep in the research wing of the Natural History Museum is a prize specimen, something that comes along much less often than once in a lifetime: a perfect, and perfectly preserved, giant squid. But what does it mean when the creature suddenly and impossibly disappears?

For curator Billy Harrow it's the start of a headlong pitch into a London of warring cults, surreal magic, apostates and assassins. It might just be that the creature he's been preserving is more than a biological rarity: there are those who are sure it's a god.

A god that someone is hoping will end the world.

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The House of Discarded Dreams by Ekaterina Sedia

Release date: July 2010  |  Publisher: Prime Books

Sedia is always mixing things up from book to book and this description is no different.

Vimbai moves into a dilapidated house in the dunes, trying to escape her embarrassing immigrant mother, and discovers that one of her new roommates has a pocket universe instead of hair, there is a psychic energy baby living in the telephone wires, and her dead Zimbabwean grandmother is now doing dishes in the kitchen. When the house gets lost at sea and creatures of African urban legends all but take it over, Vimbai has to turn to horseshoe crabs in the ocean, to ask for their help in getting home to New Jersey.

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Discord's Apple by Carrie Vaughn - Series Debut
Release Date: July  |  Publisher Tor

When Evie Walker goes home to spend time with her dying father, she discovers that his creaky old house in Hope’s Fort, Colorado, is not the only legacy she stands to inherit. Hidden behind the old basement door is a secret and magical storeroom, a place where wondrous treasures from myth and legend are kept safe until they are needed again.

The magic of the storeroom prevents access to any who are not intended to use the items. But just because it has never been done does not mean it cannot be done. And there are certainly those who will give anything to find a way in. Evie must guard the storeroom against ancient and malicious forces, protecting the past and the future even as the present unravels around them. Old heroes and notorious villains alike will rise to fight on her side or to undermine her most desperate gambits. At stake is the fate of the world, and the prevention of nothing less than the apocalypse.

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The Loving Dead by Amelia Beamer - Debut
Release Date: July 15  |  Publisher: Night Shade Books

Girls! Zombies! Zeppelins!

Locus Editor Beamer's debut has been pitched as if Shaun of the Dead and Garden State had a love child living in San Francisco, you'd have this sexy novel, set at the outbreak of a zombie plague.

Kate and Michael are roommates living in the Oakland hills, working at the same Trader Joes supermarket. A night of drunken revelry changes their lives forever, but not in the way that anyone would expect. A slow-spreading plague of zombie-ism breaks out at their house party, spreading amongst their circle of friends, and simultaneously through the Bay Area. This zombie plague - an STD of sorts - is spread through sex and kissing, turning its victims into mindless, horny, voracious killers. Thrust into extremes by this slow- motion tragedy, Kate and Michael are forced to confront the choices they've made in their lives, and their fears of commitment, while trying to stay alive and reunite in the one place in the Bay Area that's likely to be safe and secure from the zombie hoards: Alcatraz.

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Pariah by Bob Fingerman
Release Date: August 3 | Publisher: Tor

A frightening, darkly comedic look at people surviving a zombie onslaught, from award-winning comics sensation and novelist Bob Fingerman.

The world is in chaos. A zombie plague has devoured every nation on the planet. New York City is no exception. Imagine eight million zombies. Shoulder to shoulder. Walking the streets, looking for their next meal. The residents of one apartment building have bonded to keep themselves safe from the onslaught, but their inevitable demise lurks right outside their window, a constant reminder of the doom that awaits them. Forced to remain in the safety of the building, the tenants find themselves at each others’ throats. When they spy a lone teenage girl who walks among the hordes, unattacked by the undead, their world opens up.

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Black Swan Rising by Lee Carroll - Series Debut
Release Date: August  |  Publisher: Tor

When New York City jewelry designer Garet James stumbles into a strange antiques shop in her  neighborhood, her life is turned upside down. John Dee, the enigmatic shopkeeper, asks her to open a vintage silver box for a generous sum of money. Oddly, the symbol of a swan on the box exactly matches the ring given to Garet by her deceased mother. Garet can’t believe this eerie coincidence until she opens the box and otherworldly things start happening.…The precious silver box is stolen from Garet’s home. When she investigates, Garet learns that she has been pulled into a prophecy that is hundreds of years old. Opening the box has unleashed an evil force onto the streets of Manhattan. Gradually, Garet pieces together her true identity—one that her deceased mother desperately tried to protect her from. Generations of women in Garet’s family, including her beloved mother, suffered and died at the hands of this prevailing evil. Does Garet possess the power to reclaim the box and defeat this devastating force?

On her journey, she will meet fey folk who walk unnoticed among humans and a sexy vampire who also happens to be a hedge fund manager that she can’t stop thinking about. Can Garet trust anyone to guide her? The fairies reveal a desire to overpower mere humans, and the seductive vampire has the power to steal the life from her body. Using her newfound powers and sharp wit, Garet will muster everything she’s got to shut down the evil taking over her friends, family, New York City, and the world.

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STEAMPUNK

The Bookman by Lavie Tidhar - Debut / Series Debut
Release Date: January UK/June US|  Publishers: Angry Robot

Tidhar has been making a name for himself in short form for many years now and with his first novel being the start of a steampunk series it is a must.  With his first novel length work being a Steampunk book I just have to try it.  A masked terrorist has brought London to its knees - there are bombs inside books, and nobody knows which ones. On the day of the launch of the first expedition to Mars, by giant cannon, he outdoes himself with an audacious attack. For young poet Orphan, trapped in the screaming audience, it seems his destiny is entwined with that of the shadowy terrorist, but how? Like a steam-powered take on V for Vendetta, rich with satire and slashed through with automatons, giant lizards, pirates, airships and wild adventure, The Bookman is the first of a series.

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Changeless (The Parasol Protectorate 2) by Gail Carriger
Release Date: March 30  | Publisher: Orbit

Soulless was one of the most fun I've had all year.  So Changeless will be a must for me to check out.  Plus I think this will have less of the romance angle that was a bit strong for me in the first book.

Alexia Tarabotti, now Lady Maccon, awakens in the wee hours of the mid-afternoon to find her husband, who should be decently asleep like any normal werewolf, yelling at the top of his lungs. Then he disappears - leaving her to deal with a regiment of supernatural soldiers encamped on her doorstep, a plethora of exorcised ghosts, and an angry Queen Victoria.

But Alexia is armed with her trusty parasol, the latest fashions, and an arsenal of biting civility. Even when her investigations take her into the backwaters of ugly waistcoats, Scotland, she is prepared: upending werewolf pack dynamics as only A soulless can.

She might even find time to track down her wayward husband, if she feels like it.

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The Gaslight Dogs by Karin Lowachee
Release Date:  March 30  |  Publisher: Orbit

A steampunkish tale with a Inuit protagonist is what caught me here.  At the edge of the known world, an ancient nomadic tribe faces a new enemy-an Empire fueled by technology and war.

A young spiritwalker of the Aniw and a captain in the Ciracusan army find themselves unexpectedly thrown together. The Aniw girl, taken prisoner from her people, must teach the reluctant soldier a forbidden talent - one that may turn the tide of the war and will surely forever brand him an outcast.

From the rippling curtains of light in an Arctic sky, to the gaslit cobbled streets of the city, war is coming to the frozen north. Two people have a choice that will decide the fates of nations - and may cast them into a darkness that threatens to bring destruction to both their peoples.

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Pinion by Jay Lake
Release Date: March 30 | Publisher: Tor

The final book in Lake's clockpunk series following the events of Mainspring and Escapement.

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Ghosts of Manhattan by George Mann
Release Date: April 27 | Publisher: Pyr

Ghosts of Manhattan is a spin off of sorts to Mann's Newbury & Hobbes series only placed in the US and pushed forward in time, which should make for a very interesting setting. Lou Anders has also mention it should harken to something close to The Shadow.

1926. New York. The Roaring Twenties. Jazz. Flappers. Prohibition. Coal-powered cars. A cold war with a British Empire that still covers half of the globe. Yet things have developed differently to established history. America is in the midst of a cold war with a British Empire that has only just buried Queen Victoria, her life artificially preserved to the age of 107. Coal-powered cars roar along roads thick with pedestrians, biplanes take off from standing with primitive rocket boosters, and monsters lurk behind closed doors and around every corner. This is a time in need of heroes. It is a time for The Ghost. A series of targeted murders are occurring all over the city, the victims found with ancient Roman coins placed on their eyelids after death. The trail appears to lead to a group of Italian American gangsters and their boss, who the mobsters have dubbed "The Roman." However, as The Ghost soon discovers, there is more to The Roman than at first appears, and more bizarre happenings that he soon links to the man, including moss-golems posing as mobsters and a plot to bring an ancient pagan god into the physical world in a cavern beneath the city. As The Ghost draws nearer to The Roman and the center of his dangerous web, he must battle with foes both physical and supernatural and call on help from the most unexpected of quarters if he is to stop The Roman and halt the imminent destruction of the city.

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The Osiris Ritual (Newbury & Hobbes 2) by George Mann
Release Date: August 3  |  Publisher: Tor

Sir Maurice Newbury, Gentleman Investigator for the Crown, imagines life can be a little quieter from now on after his dual success in solving The Affinity Bridge affair. But he hasn't banked on his villainous predecessor, Knox, hell bent on achieving immortality, not to mention a secret agent who isn't quite as he seems...So continues an adventure quite unlike any other, a thrilling steampunk mystery and the second in the series of "Newbury & Hobbes" investigations.

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Dreadnought by Cherie Priest

Release Date: September(est)  |  Publisher: Tor

Follow-up to the wondrous Boneshaker, Cherie has thus far described the alterna-world Civil War era Steampunk adventure Dreadnought as more gruesome than the first.  The Clockwork Century books are meant to be standalone so it wouldn't be inappropriate to read them out of order.

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Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld
Release Date: October | Publisher: Simon Pulse

Follow-up to Leviathan.

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SCIENCE FICTION

Absorption by John Meaney - Series Debut
Release Date: February | Publisher: Gollancz

The universe is dark. And it is alive.

People across the universe are glimpsing shards of darkness moving at the edge of their vision; hearing echoes of a dark, disturbing musical chord; and dreaming of becoming crystal, and joining the Ragnarok Council. Absorption is the first of a new space opera trilogy packed with space warfare and mindblowing rationale for Norse mythology. This is SF to rival Peter F. Hamilton.

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Winning Mars by Jason Stoddard - Debut
Release Date: March 1 | Publisher: Prime Books

Jere Gutierrez is bucking the trend at the dying art of "linear" entertainment - what we know today as TV shows. His combination of astounding stories, captured in the moment, are captivating millions. Of course, every one of his stories are fabricated and engineered and orchestrated, even though they're sold as "real." Unfortunately for Jere, his backers have begun to see through his tricks. Desperate for another story, one large enough to capture the attention of the world, he teams up with a retired TV executive to create an ad-supported mission to Mars, complete with corporate sponsors and extreme sports events. What Jere doesn't know is just how captivating his Winning Mars will be.

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Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky
Release Date: February | Gollancz

No announced US publication as of yet, but the interesting description and setting has piqued my interest greatly.  Also a video game is planned based around the book which is slated to be released on Xbox and for the PC in 2010.

The year is 2033. The world has been reduced to rubble. Humanity is nearly extinct. The half-destroyed cities have become uninhabitable through radiation. Beyond their boundaries, they say, lie endless burned-out deserts and the remains of splintered forests. Survivors still remember the past greatness of humankind. But the last remains of civilisation have already become a distant memory, the stuff of myth and legend. More than 20 years have passed since the last plane took off from the earth. Rusted railways lead into emptiness. The ether is void and the airwaves echo to a soulless howling where previously the frequencies were full of news from Tokyo, New York, Buenos Aires. Man has handed over stewardship of the earth to new life-forms. Mutated by radiation, they are better adapted to the new world. Man's time is over. A few score thousand survivors live on, not knowing whether they are the only ones left on earth. They live in the Moscow Metro - the biggest air-raid shelter ever built. It is humanity's last refuge. Stations have become mini-statelets, their people uniting around ideas, religions, water-filters - or the simple need to repulse an enemy incursion. It is a world without a tomorrow, with no room for dreams, plans, hopes. Feelings have given way to instinct - the most important of which is survival. Survival at any price. VDNKh is the northernmost inhabited station on its line. It was one of the Metro's best stations and still remains secure. But now a new and terrible threat has appeared. Artyom, a young man living in VDNKh, is given the task of penetrating to the heart of the Metro, to the legendary Polis, to alert everyone to the awful danger and to get help. He holds the future of his native station in his hands, the whole Metro - and maybe the whole of humanity.

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Gardens of the Sun by Paul McAuley
Release Date: March 23  |  Publisher: Pyr

The Quiet War is over. The city states of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn have fallen to the Three Powers Alliance of Greater Brazil, the European Union and the Pacific Community. A century of enlightenment, rational utopianism and exploration of new ways of being human has fallen dark. Outers are herded into prison camps and forced to collaborate in the systematic plundering of their great archives of scientific and technical knowledge, while Earth's forces loot their cities, settlements and ships, and plan a final solution to the 'Outer problem'. But Earth's victory is fragile, and riven by vicious internal politics. While seeking out and trying to anatomise the strange gardens abandoned in place by Avernus, the Outers' greatest genius, the gene wizard Sri Hong-Owen is embroiled in the plots and counterplots of the family that employs her. The diplomat Loc Ifrahim soon discovers that profiting from victory isn't as easy as he thought. And in Greater Brazil, the Outers' democratic traditions have infected a population eager to escape the tyranny of the great families who rule them. After a conflict fought to contain the expansionist, posthuman ambitions of the Outers, the future is as uncertain as ever. Only one thing is clear. No one can escape the consequences of war - especially the victors.

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Silversands by Gareth L Powell - Debut Novella
Release Date: April | Publisher: Pendragon Press

In an age where interstellar travel is dangerous and unpredictable, and no-one knows exactly where they’ll end up, Avril Bradley is a Communications officer onboard a ship sent to re-contact as many of these lost souls as possible.

But a mysterious explosion strands her in a world of political intrigue, espionage and subterfuge; a world of retired cops, digital ghosts and corporate assassins who fight for possession of computer data that had lain undisturbed for almost a century. . .

This is the debut novel from the critically-acclaimed author of the short story collection The Last Reef, Gareth L Powell, with stunning cover artwork by Vincent Chong.

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Terminal World by Alastair Reynolds
Release Date: June 1 | Publisher: Ace
Spearpoint, the last human city, is an atmosphere-piercing spire of vast size. Clinging to its skin are the zones, a series of semi-autonomous city-states, each of which enjoys a different - and rigidly enforced - level of technology. Horsetown is pre-industrial; in Neon Heights they have television and electric trains ...Following an infiltration mission that went tragically wrong, Quillon has been living incognito, working as a pathologist in the district morgue. But when a near-dead angel drops onto his dissecting table, Quillon's world is wrenched apart one more time, for the angel is a winged posthuman from Spearpoint's Celestial Levels - and with the dying body comes bad news. If Quillon is to save his life, he must leave his home and journey into the cold and hostile lands beyond Spearpoint's base, starting an exile that will take him further than he could ever imagine. But there is far more at stake than just Quillon's own survival, for the limiting technologies of the zones are determined not by governments or police, but by the very nature of reality - and reality itself is showing worrying signs of instability.

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ODD ONES

Sleepless by Charlie Huston
Release Date: January 12 | Publisher Ballantiine

A gripping and imaginative work of speculative fiction about an epidemic of sleeplessness from the bestselling author who Stephen King calls "one of the most remarkable prose stylists to emerge from the noir tradition in this century," for fans of William Gibson and Chuck Palahniuk.

The world is in the grip of an epidemic of sleeplessness. In L.A., a cop named Parker Haas is working undercover to stop black market trade of a drug called Dreamer, the only thing that helps the sleepless. But his interest in the drug is more than professional. His wife is sleepless, and they don't know yet if their infant daughter is also sick. Then Park discovers that the black market he's trying to stop is the creation of the very company that makes the drug. But how can a lowly cop go after the son of one of the world's richest and most powerful men?

Trapped by these things--a dying wife, an infant daughter, a truth that could unravel his career--Park risks all for one chance to do his part in repairing a broken world.

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The House of Tomorrow by Peter Bognanni
Release Date: March 4 | Publisher: Putnam

Sebastian Prendergast lives in a geodesic dome with his eccentric grandmother, who homeschooled him in the teachings of futurist philosopher R. Buckminster Fuller. But when his grandmother has a stroke, Sebastian is forced to leave the dome and make his own way in town.

Jared Whitcomb is a chain-smoking sixteen-year-old heart-transplant recipient who befriends Sebastian, and begins to teach him about all the things he has been missing, including grape soda, girls, and Sid Vicious. They form a punk band called The Rash, and it's clear that the upcoming Methodist Church talent show has never seen the likes of them. Wholly original, The House of Tomorrow is the story of a young man's self-discovery, a dying woman's last wish, and a band of misfits trying desperately to be heard.


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AUTHOR INTERVIEW | Cherie Priest author of Boneshaker

Boneshaker blew me away so much I had to learn a bit more about the author Cherie Priest. Priest is the author of many books including the much lauded Eden Moore series of Southern Gothic stories starting with Four and Twenty Blackbirds in addition to many other works. You can check out my review of Boneshaker here and be sure to visit The Clockwork Century site, which gives you plenty of more info about the world Cherie has concoted with it wonderful alternative history of a Steampunk America.

MH: Hello Cherie, welcome to Mad Hatter’s Bookshelf. Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to answer my questions. Firstly, can you tell us a little about yourself?

CHERIE: I’m a bespectacled spec-fic quasi-goth with a passion for cheap red wine and steampunk, and a morbid fear of sloths. I was born in Florida but moved around a lot, sort of settled in Tennessee, and ended up in Seattle because, well, these things happen.

MH: For those who haven’t read BONESHAKER, what would you say to prospective readers to whet their appetite? And what can readers expect out of The Clockwork Century world?

CHERIE: Imagine Seattle in 1880. Imagine it surrounded by a wall, and filled with a poisonous gas that turns people into zombies. Now imagine a fifteen-year-old kid with a bone to pick and something to prove … sneaking underneath the wall. And NOW imagine exactly how righteously pissed his mother is when she finds out what he’s done.
Basically, this is a story about a woman with nothing left to lose, and a city full of zombies, pirates, mad scientists, and career criminals to fight her way through in order to save her son.

MH: Will all the books focus on the same characters or will it be more of a mosaic series where smaller characters come to the fore?

CHERIE: My next projects from Tor and Subterranean will be set in the same universe, called The Clockwork Century. Though the stories are related—sometimes by sharing characters, sometimes with more distant connections—they’re not precisely sequels to one another, and I’m setting them up so they can be read in any order, more or less.
For example, the book coming from Subterranean next year (CLEMENTINE) is about a man who appears only as a secondary player in BONESHAKER. And DREADNOUGHT (coming from Tor next fall or winter) follows the daughter of one of BONESHAKER’s main players—but her adventures take place back east, beginning in Virginia.

MH: When did you first learn about Steampunk? What does Steampunk mean to you?

CHERIE: I’ve been generally aware of steampunk for quite awhile, primarily because I’ve spent years hanging around the periphery of the goth scene—and there’s a lot of overlap between the two. I love Victoriana and retro-futurism, and one thing sort of flowed into the other.

But a couple of years ago I became really intrigued by steampunk; I was starting to see it all over the place, all of a sudden, and it struck me as something absolutely LOADED with potential. Coming from a bleak, industrial-cusp 19th century zeitgeist, there’s so much to play with from a world-building standpoint—and also oodles of social commentary to be mined.

I’ve been known to joke that the core tenets of steampunk are reduce, reuse, and recycle. But I’m only half joking. If there’s a “core” to steampunk philosophy and style, it comes from a spirit of customization and repurposing, rejection of mass culture and disposable commodities, and a demand for accessible technology that can be repaired rather than replaced.

MH: Where do you see the world of Steampunk going? Will it only become bigger or will it remain a smaller sub-culture such as Goth?

CHERIE: It’s hard to say. I think much will depend on the next couple of years; “steampunk” has become such a buzzword in publishing and video games, as well as in TV and movies … so there’s a lot in the works right now that won’t hit the streets for another ten or twelve months.
The quality of the forthcoming projects and pop culture’s reception of these projects will—at the very least—determine whether or not steampunk stays more or less a “subgenre,” or whether it’ll claw its way to a higher tier of visibility.

MH: Not much has been mentioned about CLEMENTINE, which as far as I can tell will be a novella with Subterranean Press. I can guess that it will focus on one of the airships we see in BONESHAKER, but what more can you reveal? Is there a release date in mind yet?

CHERIE: CLEMENTINE is a hoot and a half, and I’m really excited that Subterranean was interested in it. In short, one of my favorite secondary characters in BONESHAKER needed a little more page time … and I wanted to show what happens to him after the final events in BONESHAKER (the story does not end fantastically well for him).
So yes, it’s the story of this man and his crew heading back east in pursuit of a stolen dirigible—and along the way, they pick up disgraced former spy Maria “Belle” Boyd, who’s now working for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. Together, the old spy and the old pirate wreak a little havoc and raise a little hell.

MH: Seattle’s catacombs are used to great effect in BONESHAKER. Were the catacombs instrumental in creating your story or did you see it as something you could just work in to the story? (for background visit here)

CHERIE: The Seattle Underground is a well-known local institution, and I do love touring it. In fact, it’s usually the first thing I do when out-of-towners come calling—I drag them downtown to the Underground. Support your local historic societies and their projects, that’s what I say!

To sum it up quickly: In 1889 Seattle essentially burned to the ground. The subsequent rebuilding involved a regrade that lifted the city some thirty feet off the mud-flats upon which it had been originally established. Due to a discrepancy between how fast the business owners wanted to rebuild and how fast the city officials wanted to regrade, the underground was created. The streets were raised and then the sidewalks were installed years after the businesses reopened … shutting off the ground floor of most of the shops and services.

It’s hard to describe. But the end result is that basically, the entire old quarter of Seattle is completely hollow underneath the sidewalks. And yes, it’s very difficult to know about this without wanting to write about it. However, my version of the hollow underground and the real version of the Seattle Underground share virtually no historic similarity. The underground in BONESHAKER is mostly a result of the residents excavating beneath the city – connecting basements and cellars with tunnels, tracks, and pathways – in order to escape the poisonous gas.

MH: What is your preferred type of hat?

CHERIE: I’m a fan of top hats in the winter; I have several, including a good wool one that’s very warm. But when the weather is nicer, I dig wee tiny (essentially decorative) top hats with netting … and the occasional sunhat. Yes, I have one. It’s cream-colored, and has a lovely silk band. Because you can’t wear brown and black all the time, that’s what I say.

MH: Do you have any plans for any new books outside of The Clockwork Century series?

CHERIE: Oh, certainly. In fact, I have a couple of books coming out from Bantam in the next couple of years, and these books have absolutely zilch to do with the Clockwork Century. BLOODSHOT and HELLBENT are very modern, urban fantasy chic. Also, I’m working on the next Wild Cards mosaic from George R. R. Martin’s consortium—and that’ll be a noir detective piece.

But after those, I’m not sure. I’m noodling on a young adult project or two, as well as a Belle Epoque Lovecraftian project that I’d love to work on. But not right now. Too much other stuff in the queue. Ah, well. Hopefully after the New Year, things will calm down enough that I’ll have time to think about what happens next.

MH: If you could be any character from a fantasy book who would it be and why?

CHERIE: Um … Gosh. Probably Jack from Charles De Lint’s “Jack the Giant Killer” books. Because those were the first really modern fantasies I ever truly loved—and let’s be honest. She was a total bad-ass.

MH: Who are some authors/books you think are under appreciated and deserve a wider audience?

CHERIE: I’m afraid I’ll be accused of friend-nepotism here, but I wouldn’t recommend them if I didn’t think they were awesome, so here goes: definitely Mark Henry{Road Trip of the Living Dead}, who is probably the funniest guy writing perverted zombie fiction alive; Kat Richardson’s Greywalker series is also very cool if you like dark modern noir with monsters; and Caitlin Kittredge{Street Magic} is still a bit new on the scene, but her Black London books are really excellent; Cat Valente’s {The Orphan’s Tales}books are always fascinating, dreamy reads; Jess Nevins is a librarian who composes some of the damn-finest reference volumes out there, including The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana and others; I just picked up Sara Harvey’s The Convent of the Pure and it’s remarkable.

These kinds of questions are always hard because I know so many writers, and so many of them are just so GOOD. But if I don’t stop rambling, people will just start eye-rolling, so I’ll wrap it up there.

MH: What are 2 things about you most people don’t know? Do you have a pet monkey you keep sequestered in the backyard? Are you building your own clockwork automaton?

CHERIE: Let’s see. (1). I have a scar on my lower abdomen from an accident years ago, when an old boyfriend tried to teach me how to surf. I fell off the board and got caught in an undertow, which scraped me along the ocean bottom and wore a hole through my bathing suit and my skin like low-grit sandpaper. (2). I loathe black licorice. Even the smell of it makes me gag; and I can’t eat anything flavored with anise for the same reason. Red licorice is fine, though. And I’m actually kind of fond of the “Starburst”-flavored strips. Those are fine. But black licorice? Will seriously make me throw up.

MH: Is there anything else you’d like to add?


CHERIE: Thanks a bunch for having me! You have a wonderful site here, performing a great service for us spec-fic writers everywhere.

MH: Thank you for your time. I’m looking forward to more Steampunk awesomeness.  Keep away from the black licorice!

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