Clementine by Cherie Priest

Clementine

by Cherie Priest

copyright 2010 by Cherie Priest, published by Subterranean Press, PO Box 190106, Burton,  MI 48519 http://www.subterraneanpress.com ISBN 978-1-59606-366-2 available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble for $4.99 for the eBook

Clementine is the second installment set in Cherie Priest’s “Clockwork Century” world. It is a world where the American Civil War still continues, great and terrible machines are being made and the city of Seattle, Washington is walled in and quarantined.

Clementine picks up the story of Croggon Hainey, a runaway slave who years before stole a Union war dirigible he renamed the Clementine. The Clementine is stolen from Hainey so he sets off in a second stolen airship to try to recapture the Clementine and a race across the country, from Seattle, Washington to Louisville, Kentucky is on.

As Hainey races to recapture the Clementine, Maria Isabella Boyd, better known as “Belle” Boyd, a former Confederate spy has just gone to work for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency; her job, to make sure the Clementine makes it safely to her destination. She’s given the information that Hainey, a man wanted by the Confederacy Belle used to serve, is hot on her tail. Belle is given a free hand to deal with Hainey any way she wants, including turning him over to her former pals within the Confederate Army.

Clementine is a really good read, although I didn’t like it as much as the first Clockwork Century novel Boneshaker. There is plenty of action in Clementine, but I didn’t feel as though there was enough tension in the book. It’s there in places, but it builds and releases coming to only a moderate climax at the end of the book. I personally prefer novels that continue to build their tension throughout the book without any of the periodic drop-offs that I experienced while reading Clementine.

I really enjoyed the characters in Clementine and the interplay that takes place between them. I was already slightly acquainted with Croggon Hainey through Boneshaker. To me he is the Civil War equivalent of a Rambo, rushing in guns blazing saying to hell with the consequences. He knows he wants his ship back and he’ll run over anyone or anything that gets in his way.

Clementine is worth the time it takes to read it. It’s relatively short. It’s fun and it’s a definite must read if you are a fan of Priest and her Clockwork Century world.

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A Cure for Chaos by Alan Tucker

A Cure for Chaos

By Alan Tucker

Copyright 2011 by Alan Tucker, published by MAD Design, Inc paperback $14.99 from Amazon or Barnes and Noble ISBN 978-0982686430, eBook from Smashwords $3.99 ISBN 978-0-9826864-2-3

A Cure for Chaos is Alan Tucker’s much anticipated sequel to A Measure of Disorder the premier book in Tucker’s Mother-Earth series. A Cure for Chaos reacquaints us with beloved characters from A Measure of Disorder including Jenni Kershaw, now a freshman who still wants nothing more than to be an ordinary teen and who finds herself being forced into situations that repeatedly require her to rise above the ordinary into the extraordinary.

A Cure for Chaos takes you across America and into Mother, a world beyond ours where beings from our fairy tales and mythologies come to vivid life, offering a unique glance into a world that offers a chance to experience what life could be like if all these things were real.

Jenni Kershaw, one of our heroes/heroines finds her kind, helpful, giving nature keeps landing her in difficult and often dangerous situations. Newcomers to Mother find themselves undergoing transformations and Jenni makes an unforeseen sacrifice.

A Cure for Chaos offers Tucker’s unique and fantastical perspective to children, teens and adults alike in a wonderful world where dreams can come true and where they can be magical things. It is a visit to the best places in the human spirit, where good prevails and uniqueness is celebrated. It’s a stellar trip into the world of imagination and a voyage you will never want to return from. I can’t wait till the third volume comes out!

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