This will be a fairly short review as I have to admit I didn't finish the book. Heck, I didn't even make it halfway through it, sadly enough.

It tells the story of a woman and her son, as he tries to find out more about his father, inventor of the Bone-Shaking Drill Engine, in an alternative 1880s, which feature steam engines and dirigibles. Then engine went crazy, released some sort of gas that turned much of Seattle into a city of the undead.

16 years after these events, the boy decides (why? We're not sure) to head into the city to see their old house. The mother finds out and heads in to save him. Through a series of already hard to believe events, she can't use the same way in, so she gets to fly in.

Both characters made me think of the author - they are all in search for something. The boy for his old house, the woman for her son and the author for a story. I made it nearly halfway through and still not much had happened. Some exposition on the current state of things, but otherwise, the boy was wandering around and the mother wandering around somewhere else. I gave it a few tries and wanted to give it one more push, but life is too short and my To Read list is up around 800 books, so it was time to move on.