When a writer opens a new series with a wonderful, unexpected smash hit, inevitably and unfairly everything after that will be based on the expectations of the first one. Inevitably, the writer can never live up to these expectations, because it is either a matter of diverging too much or repeating too much.

Fiddlehead is a good, engaging read, especially so the first half, but it is no Bone Shaker. If you come for the zombies, you have to stay for the steampunk, which at least for me is less engaging. No doubt about the fact that the Clockwork Century is a wonderful setting and that Priest can write engaging action-thrillers but I wish there were more zombies.