Sally Strange reviewed Dreadnought by Cherie Priest
A decent follow-up to Boneshaker but with a slow start
3 stars
I will say, first off, that the final scenes at the end are thrilling.
The slow start that I mentioned has to do with us getting to know a new character, a young widow who's a nurse in a Confederate hospital. In this alternate timeline, the Civil war lasts for decades instead of 4 years. She journeys across the continent from Tennessee to Seattle, and along the way, she gets a bit of anti-racist education. My main critique is that the author takes too long to make it clear to the reader that she's not trying to build up sympathy for the Confederacy, and there's one moment where Nurse Mercy stops herself from calling a Black character she's just met the n-word, but Priest doesn't stop herself from writing it out. It's just my opinion that if it's inappropriate for the character to speak aloud to a Black character, then …
I will say, first off, that the final scenes at the end are thrilling.
The slow start that I mentioned has to do with us getting to know a new character, a young widow who's a nurse in a Confederate hospital. In this alternate timeline, the Civil war lasts for decades instead of 4 years. She journeys across the continent from Tennessee to Seattle, and along the way, she gets a bit of anti-racist education. My main critique is that the author takes too long to make it clear to the reader that she's not trying to build up sympathy for the Confederacy, and there's one moment where Nurse Mercy stops herself from calling a Black character she's just met the n-word, but Priest doesn't stop herself from writing it out. It's just my opinion that if it's inappropriate for the character to speak aloud to a Black character, then it should be inappropriate for the author to speak to her readers, which is what she did.
Other than that, it's a decent travelogue with steampunk adventure and dashes of horror. Train enthusiasts will especially appreciate it.
