Let the Steampunk Zombies Roll

By Stefan Slater
Literati Contributor
Dreadnought by Cherie Priest

Cherie Priest has written a total of three books (Dreadnought, Clementine, and Boneshaker) that take place in the “Clockwork Century.” While each book contains characters and references in the other books, they can still be read independently from one another without missing the overall plot or context of the story. The protagonists of these books are all women; they are strong, independent, and above all, willing to blow away a zombie head or two.

Vinita “Mercy” Lynch is working as a nurse in a war hospital in Richmond, Virginia, when she learns that her husband has died in a POW camp. Then she receives a telegram from her estranged father, who is dying  in the frontier town of Seattle, and wants desperately to reconnect with her. With little else keeping her in Virginia, she embarks on the long and arduous journey to the distant Western Territories.

Priest conjures an alternate history in which the Civil War has lasted for nearly twenty long years, and slavery is no more. There are airships, steam-powered robots, and fortress-like trains capable of leveling entire forests. Oh, and there are zombies: hordes upon hordes of flesh craving, gore-covered, rotting zombies.

Mercy’s journey through the war torn Border States is fraught with danger, and she barely makes it to the Mississippi River. In St. Louis, her trip takes a turn for the worse as she boards the only train headed out west: the monstrous Union steam engine known as the Dreadnought. It supposedly carries deceased Union soldiers to their final resting places, but Mercy learns that the Dreadnought also carries a mysterious cargo, which draws considerable Confederate attention, ranging from rebel bushwhackers to diabolical mechanized walkers.

Something far worse than outlaws awaits Mercy out west, and it could spell the end for not only those aboard the Dreadnought, but also the entire United States as well.

Priest does an excellent job of balancing Mercy’s mental and physical journey. The grief of losing her husband, as well as the painful possibility of reconnecting with (and then possibly losing) her long lost father.

Dreadnought carries a sort of Steampunk vibe, and because of that, it doesn’t seem unreasonable that there are robots or flying machines, as they are all defined by technologies that existed at that time. Discussing the zombies will give away some of the plot, but her reasoning for their existence is not unbelievable, and she easily places a horror element into a sub genre that very rarely has any.

The only flaw one may find with Dreadnought is that Priest creates such a fantastic world, but only examines a small portion of it. The book reads rather quickly, and will most likely leave the reader wanting to know more.
Dreadnought is an excellent read set in a unique world that is unlike most anything in Science Fiction today.  Reading this novel will most definitely spur you to pick up another one of Cherie Priest’s books, just so you can revisit “The Clockwork Century.”
Authors after Dark has nominated Dreadnought for steampunk novel of the year.


Check out video below of  Cherie Priest's interview with Science Fiction Book Club at the Dragon Convention in Seattle last month. She talks  mostly Boneshaker but at about 3 minutes the talk turns to Dreadnought...

Straight, No Chaser

It never fails. No matter what I've planned to read for this blog and how carefully I've penciled it in my to-do list, the minute I walk into a bookstore all bets are off. Anything could happen, and usually does. LeCarre's latest languishes on my nightstand because  I found a spectacular anthology that I just had to read right away, and lucky for you, I'm going to tell you all about it.

Blood, Guts, and Whiskey  (Kensington books, trade paperback, $14.00), is a collection of hard-boiled stories from the editor of ThugLit.com, Todd Robinson. Robinson curated these  24  tales of moral turpitude by 24 kick-ass writers, and, ladies and gentlemen, this is .44-caliber prose.
It's all here:  Cynical anti-hero/heroines of dubious repute, murky pasts, dames up to no good, and use sex as a weapon, and enough violence so that the blood spatter brightens up the dark mood. The characters and scenes fairly jump off the page, immersing you so quickly the beer and desperation hit you like a wave of humid air.
 Jordan Harper's Red Hair and Black Leather, the opener, sets the tone and starts this trip to the dark side where you'll meet a mobster with a bloody side job, a writer who discovers the darkness within, a couple of mobsters who run into trouble when someone flips the script on them, a shopkeeper at the end of his rope, and a mother who gives up her soul to make amends.  That's just the tip of the iceberg. This is a stellar collection that won't disappoint.

Mario Vargas Llosa Reacts to Nobel Win

The yearly speculation surrounding the Nobel for Literature is always frenzied and reaches a fever pitch as writers, editors and columnists from around the globe postulate and speculate, but the frenzy rarely, if ever, mentions the winner, and this year was no exception. The Peruvian novelist, who is admired and respected around the world, didn't make anyone's short list, although in South America he's afforded the same respect as Garcia-Marquez.
Below check out the video of the writer's press conference at Instituto Cervantes in New York yesterday reacting to the win. He gives statements in both Spanish and English.



Vargas Llosa's work is not only artistically beautiful to read (in the original Spanish), but spans a wide breadth of forms (journalism, plays, poetry novels, criticism) that demonstrates a powerful talent. One of his most powerful books, The Feast of the Goat is a harrowing account of the last days of the Dominican Republic's fomer dictator General Rafael Trujillo.  In Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter he uses humor to weave the story of  the beginning of his journalism career at age 15 and the start of his affair with his first wife, Julia Urquidi who was more than ten years older and related to his uncle by marriage.

Picador, a division of MacMillan publishers announced that they will immediately reprint 10 of the writer's titles in paperback to meet the expected demand after the announcement.
Vargas Llosa lives in Madrid, Spain and Lima, Peru. He is in New York for this year teaching creative writing and literature and Princeton University.

Check out this slide show of Vargas Llosa photos and the audio (in Spanish) of the first people to congratulate him, a radio station in Peru.

Hispanic Heritage Month

As an American with roots in Latin America, I find it hard not to look askance at alleged celebrations of heritage. After all, Latinos and Asians, Arabs and African-Americans for that matter, are part of society 12 months of the year.  We don't need 30 days of exclusive recognition to realize that we count, that we matter, we're part of the melting pot. It is perfectly obvious to us that America is all of us and we are it.  We know this. I mean, McDonald's serves burritos, empanadas are street food, you can get frozen dumplings and microwave lo mein at the supermarket,and macaroni and cheese, that soul food staple, is the favorite dish of every kid in America under the age of 8 regardless of ethnicity. A delicious falafel pita is never more than a block away (ok maybe a little further outside Manhattan).  What all Americans need, no matter where our roots are, is to develop an understanding and appreciation for the "other" whoever that other may be. Literature, music and the arts allow us to do that.

Conventional Idiocy: Why the New America is Sick of Old Politics by Rick Sanchez

The popular CNN host writes about the public's disaffection with the same-old, same-old  politics as usual. In his fast-paced talkative style, he shares what his viewers are telling him and warns politicians and the media to ignore it at their own peril.

Bloody Twistby Carolina Garcia-Aguilera

Lupe Solano is back, chicas! The intrepid Miami detective is back in her seventh mystery. This time she's investigating a high-paid call girl who's also a virgin, and the two dead guys she says she didn't kill.

Making a Killing: Femicide, Free Trade, and La Frontera  By Alicia Gaspar de Alba and Geogina Guzman
The murder and rape of over 500 women in Juarz Mexico has never been properly investigated by authorities in Mexico or the U.S. The murders have been the subject of at least 1 feature film (starring Jennifer Lopez), a documentary and several books by journalists, and independent investigators,  none of whom could ingnite a proper investigation or a semblance of concern by authorities. Now, twos scholars from the Chicana studies Department at UCLA have put together a scholarly analysis of the killings and the situation that has made them possible, from a number of perspectives. Chilling but necessary.
Alone in the Crowd: An Inspector Espinosa Mystery (Inspector Espinosa Mysteries)

Ahhh Copacabana. The sun. The surf. The bikinis. The bodies?  This fantastic mystery series features the existensial Inspector Espisosa never fails to disappoint. Did the old lady fall or was she pushed in front of the bus? Why did she visit the precinct just hours before her death? Who's the creepy bank teller? What gives? All will be answered in a psychologically compelling, suspenseful whodunit.

The Devil's Highway: A True Story  by Luis Alberto Urrea       This is one of the best feats of writing and journalism I've ever read, and should be required reading in every higschool. Urruea tells the story of a group of  men who decide to cross the border from Mexico into the U.S. by walking through the desert, as many have before. This time though, something goes horribly wrong and the men are abandoned by their "coyote" guides and are left to make their way through the desert alone as best they can. Dying of thirst and heatstroke isn't pretty, and if you're willing to risk it, there must be a damn good reason, don't you think? Urrea weaves together his account from all the perspectives involved ; the men who cross, the border agents whose job is to deter and detain, and the Mexican consulate in Arizona, who must collect, identify and preserve the remains of those who don't make it.

Even Silence Has an End: My Six Years of Captivity in the Colombian Jungle  by Ingrid Betancourt

A former Presidential Candidate in Colombia, Ingrid Betancourt was kidnapped by FARC guerillas and endured six years in captivity in the jungle before a daring rescue freed her in 2002. This is the story of her captivity (which she spent in chains most of the time), numerous escape attempts, and of her enduring spirit.

Pirates of the Levant 
by Arturo Perez-Reverte
Your swash has never been buckled like this. Perez-Reverte, the enormously talented Spanish writer of The Flanders Panel and The Queen of the South, unleashes the sixth Captain Alatriste adventure this month. Think Three Musketeers on the high seas, complete with pirates, swords capes and heart-pounding battles.

The Latino Reader
 Almost from the moment Columbus landed Latinos have been recording, interpreting and sharing impressions of life in the new world. This extraordinary collection includes Cabeza de Vaca's account of the new world, and memoirs, essays, fiction poetry and drama spanning  five centuries. An invaluable resource and historical treasure of Latino history in the United States.

Stephen King: Readers are too  Lazy to Read Short Stories

In a brief interview with publisher Simon and Schuster, Stephen King bemoans the fate of the American short story, blaming readers who, according to him, prefer American Idol to good fiction. King, who had called himself the literary equivalent of a Big Mac earlier in his career, has had just as many of his short stories/novellas translated into film as novels, starting with the legendary Creepshow.   Apt Pupil, Stand By Me, The Shawshank Redemption and  1408 are just a few of the films based on King's short stories.

Do you think King is right? What was the last short story or anthology you read?  What is your favorite story or anthology of all time? Post a comment.

  And try short stories campfire style for Halloween. Light up the jack-o-lanterns, set up the snacks light the fire and play an audiobook of scary tales like King's Sorry, Right Number and Other Stories. Then try and sleep.

Digital Revolution Hits Writers in the Wallet.

The Wall Street Journal reports on the paradigm shift in the book publishing world, in which the emergence of Kindles, Nooks, Readers and computers is making the e-book the standard in book delivery. While digital downloads are good news for anyone with over-stuffed bookshelves and a tight budget (e-books rarely cost more than $15 while a new hardcover can cost from $25-$30), for writers it means that making a living with words is becoming less likely.
Frightened publishers are publishing less new authors, and when they do, advances are now much less than $15,000, when they used to be around $50,000 for a promising debut novel, reports the Journal.
"The bar is higher," says Jamie Raab, publisher of Lagardere SCA's Grand Central Publishing, which is buying less debut fiction than in prior years. Although launching debut titles is one of the most rewarding aspects of publishing, Raab says, "publishers are buying more selectively, agents are being more selective with choosing clients, and retailers are taking fewer titles."
E-book sales haven't reached the point where they can mean serious income for a writer, unless that writer is a brand name, like James Patterson, John Grisham or Stephen King. Literary writers, like John Pipkin, need to keep their day jobs. His first novel, Woodsburner  won several literary prizes and print sales of more than 10,000 copies, he has only sold 359 digital copies.

Pipkin, who has Ph.D in English Literature, says he cobbles together an income based in part on grants, fellowships and a partial advance he has received for his second book. "I've had to rethink my plans in terms of supporting my family full time as a writer," he says.

PEN USA Announces 2010 Awards

PEN USA, the West Coast center for the writers’organization International PEN, announced the winners of the 2010 Literary Awards. The prizes honor outstanding work by writers in 11 separate genres, including a new award for Graphic Literature. They will be presented at the 20th Annual Literary Awards

Festival, known as LitFest, on November 17, 2010.

The winners are:

Fiction

Victor Lodato for Mathilda Savitch: A Novel

Poetry

Amy Catanzano for Multiversal

Creative Nonfiction

Vicki Forman forThis Lovely Life

Research Nonfiction

Minal Hajratwala for Leaving India: My Family's Journey from Five Villages to Five Continents

Children’s/Young Adult Literature

Paul Fleischman for The Dunderheads

Journalism

Mary Melton for Julius Shulman in 36 Exposures in Los Angeles Magazine

Translation

Fady Joudah for Mahmoud Darwish’s If I Were Another

DramaScreenplay

Julie Hebert for Tree

Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner for Up in the Air

Teleplay

Peter Blake for House: “The Tyrant”

The Graphic Literature Award

Matt Fraction for Outstanding Body of Work

Exceptional First Book Award

Angela Garcia for The Pastoral Clinic: Addiction and Dispossession along the Rio Grande

Inaugural Prize for South Asian Authors Announces Nominees

The long list of nominees for the first annual DSC Prize for South Asian Literature was announced today, reports Outlook India.com . The prize will award $50,000 to "writers of any ethnicity writing about South Asia and its diasporas," says DSC, and must have been written in English or must have been translated into English.

The longlist of fourteen includes Upamanyu Chatterjee for Way to Go, Ru Freeman for A Disobedient Girl: A Novel, HM Naqvi for Home Boy: A Novel and Jaspreet Singh for Chef: A Novel .

The fourteen nominees will be winnowed down to a shortlist of five, which will be announced at the end of October during the South Asian Literature Festival. The festival will take place October 15-25  in London and from October 26 to 31 in the rest of the UK.  The winner of the award will be announced in January 2011 at the Jaipur Literature Festival.  The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature is open to any author in  any part of the world as long as the work is based on the South Asian region and its people.