I loved this book. So far, I've enjoyed all of the stories that are being told in the world of "The Clockwork Century". Dreadnought is the best so far.

The story is carried by a strong, richly drawn main character, Nurse Mercy Lynch, whose only flaw is perhaps being a bit too unflappable. Then again, her strength does not come falsely and she uses it to help others when needed. Surrounding her is a potpourri of supporting characters that, with the exception of some infantrymen, are also well-drawn and easy to distinguish.

The plot proceeds at breakneck speed, barely pausing occasionally for a little reflection and the binding of wounds. It's filled with airships, trains, and other battle vehicles powered by steam and reflecting the best minds of the century applied to the technology of war. And applied to war they are with credible descriptions of high-powered battles.

A few things didn't work for me. There was a bit too much traversing of various characters from one end of the train to the other in the midst of a pitched battle. I was a bit disappointed that one of the characters that seemed to be getting a big build-up as an adversary too quickly turned into an ally and then simply disappeared into the background. Once again the simple geography of the story didn't completely always work for me, especially in the giant train battle. I simply could not visualize so many sets of tracks intersecting in the Western frontier of Utah so few years after the Trans-Continental Railroad made it's first connection. But all this is forgiven in the name of alternate history and fabulously fun adventure. ( )

I liked this book but wish the author had explored the political impact of slavery and the Civil War head-on instead of glancingly. The book felt a little imbalanced without a stronger grounding in its alternate history and almost as if it were romanticizing the Confederacy (though I don't believe that was the author's intent) ( )

It's been years since I read the first book in this series and I was initially concerned - did I need to reread it before going to this one? Luckily that wasn't the case and I happily sank into the world of Mercy Lynch, a nurse traveling from Virginia to Seattle, crossing war-torn states via dirigible, boat, and train. It was thoroughly exciting and had such a great strong main charcter. ( )

This is a second book in a series, and it shows. I didn't like it half as much as the first, but soldiered my way through to the end. ( )

I'm really beginning to enjoy the series for the well-drawn examples of the world of an extremely drawn out American civil war and a time period where technological advances now border on the peculiarly modernish Japanese fascination with huge walking robots. Most fascinating about this novel was the scenes aboard the train with the same name as the novel. I really felt like I was reading a travelogue that just happened to have airship crashes, zombie outbreaks, train chase scenes, and lots of spies. It was a plan dear to read. I never knew a nurse in the civil war could get herself into so much trouble just getting on commercial passenger rail.

Now that I've gone through three novels I'm not complaining as I had complained with the first one. Things don't really require resolution, the way the author is placing us deep into the story as it progresses. It's not about the tying up of loose ends. It's about showing us the world and watching how the characters in it survive or don't. I should have guessed it when we're dealing with zombies, but surprisingly enough, zombies are just for tension in the novels, not the main topic. That's a good thing, by the way. I much prefer to see character novels over a world war z treatment.

I really enjoyed reading about our nurse and her adventure, and I think I enjoyed this one all the better for remembering our erstwhile spy from book 2. It was curious and fascinating to see how we got from point a to point e. I've developed a lot of faith in the writer to know she'll get us where she hints we'll go. I suspect she could draw out some unlikely characters in the future to get some other big things accomplished. (Even if the big things are tangential to the promise of the book.)

On to the next! ( )