*drum roll* yet another megalomaniacal villain, a baddie that must be dealt with by bullets after what little mystery he has is wrung out by the most improbable of coincidences and the most deflating of reveals. After being touted as a wasteland king by the rest of the cast, and after questions that he might be Blue returned, he instead turns out to be. A worse disappointment by far, however, is Minnericht, the mad inventor who's taken over much of the blight. As soon as he removes his mask, however, he reveals a personality so bland he might as well have been an automaton for all the emotion he evokes. 150) His every aspect, from his strange technology to his italicized dialogue, is clearly designed to set him apart.

It was as if someone had taken a suit of armor and made it into a jacket. Swakhammer is introduced as a warrior in a gigantic metal suit, described as a man speaking through a helmet that gave his face the shape of a horse's head crossed with a squid. That's not to say, however, that she can't imbue a character with promise. That being said, on an emotional level, this might be the book's strongest section, in large part because it's one of the very few times that Priest lets her characters breathe, and the relationship between Briar and Zeke is distant and well portrayed. Clockwork Century: Fiddlehead : A Novel of the Clockwork Century (Series 5). Once the reporter leaves, we see Briar and Zeke live their lives, and Briar go to work, all without a hint of their circumstances changing. Shop for Cherie Priest Steampunk Books in Science Fiction Books at Walmart. Like many of the novel's characters, there's the feeling that Maynard is supposed to be morally ambiguous, but anyone who believes Maynard should have left the convicts to die likely believes that speeding, possession, and insults should all be hanging offenses. Instead, we discuss the family's other notorious figure, Maynard, who emptied the prison as the gas spread to allow the convicts to escape.

Mind you, however, that you won't know the characters are Blue's family for quite some time. The narrative – though not yet the story by any means – then picks up with a journalist coming to speak with Blue's widow, Briar, and son, Zeke, many years after the disaster.

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