If you're a fan of steampunk then hopefully you've read some of Cherie Priest's clockwork century line. If you have then you've probably checked out her wikipedia page to find others in the series and noticed one that is impossible to find and that's Clementine. Well it's finally going into reprint. You can check out Miss Priest's site here for the whole story.
For those of you who don't know what the Clockwork Century is here's a little summary. It's a steampunk America, I like to think of it as Frontier Steampunk because it's very different from Victorian Steampunk which is set in Britian and those who are very into steampunk only consider Victorian steampunk to be the only true steampunk. I'm already very tired of typing steampunk out. Regardless of all of that, the books are very good. Each is stars a brand new group of characters and usually has 2 POV characters. While each book is not a direct sequel to the previous, the stories and characters are intertwined.
She also writes great female leads. The majority of media out there has male leads and a lot of people cannot write women, they either write them far to feminine or write them as women trying to live in a man's world. I prefer the former over the latter, but it's still upsetting that so few can write a strong female lead that is real and not obnoxious. I'd say one of the reasons I like the books so much is that it's one of the few places (another being Batwoman comics) where I can enjoy a story with a heroine.
As for Frontier Steampunk, well the America she has built is in the 19th century and is divided into fourths. We have the Union (the north) and , the Confederacy (south), who are at war. The Republic of Texas who seems to be somewhat allied with the South, and then the North-West is largely unsettled which you'll have to read Boneshaker to find out. Airships and trains are the most popular forms of transportation, airships are largely a pirate like enterprise since the middle of America being mostly farmland is like the ocean which is a very cool take on it.
To me, steampunk has always been less technology powered by steam and more of a world with futuristic technology in an unfuturistic time. A time where assembly line and automation hasn't taken over industry. Where people dress in hand made clothing and personal transportation isn't popular. I think the Clockwork Century series has more of a feel of what Bioshock Infinite which if you're excited for you might get a taste of from these books.
I'm really excited for Clementine as it's the only one I haven't read and I'll be sure to review it once it's available. In order the series consists of: Boneshaker, Clementine, Dreadnought, and Ganymede.
One thing that might make up your mind is that there are war mechs :D
Here's some fan art for the series which I just wanted to share.
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