Clockwork Century



The Clockwork Century is an Alternate History created by Cherie Priest, in which the American Civil War has raged for nearly two decades thanks to Steampunk and Diesel Punk technology. Oh, and there are also zombies.

Cherie Priest created the series as a literary magnum opus for Steampunk fans. So far she has written four novels; Boneshaker, Dreadnought, Clementine and Ganymede, and a novelette Tanglefoot which can be read on-line. Another novel, The Inexplicables, is on the way.

Boneshaker is set in 1880 Seattle, which has been walled off after a Deadly Gas was released from underground by Dr. Leviticus Blue, inventor of the eponymous Drill Tank, who then vanished under highly-suspicious circumstances. His son Zeke Wilkes enters the poisoned city in search of evidence that will clear the family name, and his mother Briar pursues to get him back -- both find themselves in peril from Seattle's undead inhabitants, and a sinister figure calling himself Minnericht who may well be Zeke's Disappeared Dad.

In Dreadnought 'Mercy' Lynch is a nurse in a war hospital in Richmond. After receiving a telegram that her own Disappeared Dad is dying and wants to see her, she sets forth on a perilous journey across the war-torn states, eventually ending up on the titular Union armored train with a mysterious cargo that the Confederates are desperate to intercept.

Clementine focuses on Maria Isabella Boyd, a former Confederate spy whose fame has made her unsuitable for spy work. She finally finds employment with the pro-Union Pinkerton detective agency and is given an assignment from the Union government. A Union airship, the Clementine, is transporting needed military supplies and is being pursued by Croggon Beauregard Hainey, a freed slave and known pirate. Maria's job is to stop him.

Ganymede centers on Andan Cly, an airship pirate who is contacted his ex-lover prostitute Josephine Early and asked to come to New Orleans. She tells him about the submersible war machine Ganymede, which is hidden at the bottom of Lake Ponchartrain. If Cly can sneak it past Southern forces, it could end the war. Unfortunately, nobody knows how to operate it and anyone who has ever tried has wound up dead.

The series contain the following tropes:
"Swakhammer : You...are a woman! Briar: Very good."
 * Absurdly Spacious Sewer: A network of tunnels, adapted from those dug by the Boneshaker and the real-life Seattle Catacombs, is used to travel about the city without the inhabitants encountering rotters or needing a gas mask.
 * Action Girl: Briar and Mercy, but several minor female characters show they can use a firearm with remarkable proficiency.
 * Anti-Air: It's mentioned that anti-aircraft guns were invented within a few months of dirigibles being used for military purposes; the hydrogen-filled airships were easy prey. There's no description of the anti-aircraft weapon, but it's implied to be a large-calibre rifled gun.
 * Artificial Limbs: Lucy O'Gunning has a mechanical arm.
 * Captain Obvious: When Swakhammer first meets Briar.

"It would be the greatest mining vehicle ever constructed: fifty feet long and fully mechanized, powered by compressed steam. It would boast three primary drilling and cutting heads, positioned at the front of the craft; and a system of spiral shoveling devices mounted along the back and sides would scoop the bored-through ice, rocks, or earth back out of the drilling path. Carefully weighted and meticulously reinforced, this machine could drill in an almost perfect vertical or horizontal path, depending on the whims of the man in the driver’s seat. Its precision would be unprecedented, and its power would set the standard for all such devices to come."
 * The City Narrows: Subverted; Mercy is forced to stay overnight in a 'rough neighbourhood', but realises the next morning that it's regarded that way simply because of all the Negros living there.
 * Clear Their Name: In Boneshaker Zeke enters Seattle to find evidence that will prove the innocence of his father and grandfather.
 * Cool Ship: Ganymede, the third book in the Clockwork Century, involves an attempt to salvage the titular submersible.
 * Cool Train: Dreadnought
 * Covers Always Lie: The zeppelin in the goggles is not the Boneshaker. The mech is not the Dreadnought.
 * Deadly Gas: The Blight.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Briar Wilkes and her son Zeke; it seems to run in the family.
 * Diesel Punk: The Republic of Texas has discovered oil at Spindletop some fifty years sooner than in real life, and helps the South with the new technology allowed by the more efficient fuel. In Dreadnought the Confederate soldiers are quite proud of their 'walker' which runs on diesel as opposed to the steam-driven Union mecha. Coal-diesel hybrid engines are also used by paddlesteamers and trains.
 * Drill Tank: Dr Blue's "Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine" or "Boneshaker", designed to drill through the Alaskan ice to mine gold for the Russian government. Unfortunately we never actually see the device in action.

"The man with the tinny voice was speaking through a helmet that gave his face the shape of a horse's head crossed with a squid. The mask ended in an amplifier down front, and it split into two round filters that aimed off to either side of his nose."
 * Enemy Mine: Mercy and Ranger Korman -- both Southern sympathisers -- team up with a Union captain to make sure the Dreadnought gets to its destination. The captain later insists they rescue Confederate soldiers from the rotters despite the opposition of his men.
 * Fighting For a Homeland:
 * Forever War: The Civil War has long since become a massive grudge match. It's certainly not about slavery any more, as the South has abolished the practice for entirely practical reasons -- they need soldiers at the front line, not guarding against a slave uprising. And free Negroes make a more willing workforce to support the war effort.
 * Gas Mask Mooks: Everyone is Seattle has a mask, so this happens by default. Jeremiah Swakhammer is the best example of the trope.

"Dr. Minnericht’s mask was as elaborate as Jeremiah Swakhammer’s; but it made him look less like a mechanical animal than a clockwork corpse, with a steel skull knitted together from tiny pipes and valves. The mask covered everything from the crown of his head to his collarbones. Its faceplate featured a flat pair of goggles that were tinted a deep shade of blue, but illuminated from within so it appeared that his pupils were alight."
 * Also Minnericht himself.


 * Gatling Good: You didn't think they'd miss out on this trope, did you? Just look at the cover of Clementine.
 * Goggles Do Something Unusual: In this world, there are goggles that allow wearers to see a normally invisible zombifying gas.
 * Goggles Do Nothing: At one point in Dreadnought, an airship captain dons a pair of goggles that are said to be largely for show. This is likely an affectionate dig at the Steampunk movement's overuse of goggles.
 * High Altitude Battle: The theft of an airship (itself recently stolen from the Confederate military) leads to a midair battle between two Sky Pirate gangs in Boneshaker.
 * Historical Domain Character: Dreadnought opens with Mercy being informed by Clara Barton and Dorence Atawater of her husband's death in Andersonville Prison Camp.
 * Marie Laveau, a New Orleans Voodoo practitioner, appears in Ganymede.
 * Honor Before Reason: Maynard Wilkes deserted his post to release prisoners in the Seattle Jail who were helpless against the advancing Blight, and was killed by the gas. Most assume he was bribed to set them free, but the criminal community regard Maynard as a Folk Hero.
 * Humongous Mecha: Walkers
 * Just Think of the Potential:
 * Lensman Arms Race: Between the Union and Confederates.
 * Mad Scientist: Minnericht (Boneshaker). Malverne Purdue (Dreadnought).
 * Mama Bear: The driving force of Boneshaker.
 * Ninja Zombie Pirate Robot: Zombie Sky Pirate Steampunk Mecha
 * Noble Bigot with a Badge: Horatio Korman has no liking for Mexicans or the Union, but when his job forces him to co-operate with such people he does so without horsing around.
 * Not Quite Dead:
 * Not Using the Z Word: Rotters (Justified Trope due to time period)
 * Ganymede, set in New Orleans and including appearances by Marie Laveau, does refer to them as zombies.
 * Our Zombies Are Different
 * Precision F-Strike: Appropriate for the time; everyone tends to watch their language when women are about, but in moments of stress both sexes let the word "shit" spill out.
 * The Gunslinger: Ranger Korman draws Guns Akimbo and shoots two men, just as one was about to pull the trigger of his rifle.
 * He manages to kill one, with his good hand, while the other is wounded, but still out of commission (he dissappointedly says he was aiming higher)
 * The Reveal:
 * Runaway Train: The Dreadnought is racing at full speed to keep ahead of the much-faster Confederate train Shenandoah, which is on a parallel line. When the latter pulls ahead everyone realises that they could blow up the tracks ahead and derail the train, killing everyone, so they need to stop the train. Unfortunately the Dreadnought is so heavy and powerful that even with every brake applied in the locomotive and every carriage there's still a question as to whether it will stop in time.
 * Sky Pirate: Captain Cly, among others.
 * Sonic Stunner: Dr. Minnericht’s Doozy Dazer can stun rotters for about three minutes.
 * Spanner in the Works: Minnericht's imprisonment of Briar provokes the other residents of Seattle to rise up against him. This was probably going to happen anyway, but harming the daughter of their folk hero was the final straw.
 * Spot the Imposter:
 * Spider Tank: Anti-aircraft crawlers in Dreadnought.
 * Survival Horror: While the novels are nominally Steampunk, the everpresence of the Blight-infectee zombies in conjunction with oppressive surroundings forces protagonists to tiptoe around and constantly count ammo, as is seen most clearly in Boneshaker. As a result, Priest gets to let her penchant for horror bleed through almost constantly.
 * Technology Porn: Averted. Although the titular mecha are briefly described (see Drill Tank above), they have little to do with the stories which are character based.
 * Train Chase: The Dreadnought finds itself being chased on a parallel track by the lightly-armed but much faster Shenandoah which (in The Western tradition) tries to head them off at the pass (where the rail lines converge to cross the Rockies).
 * Train Job: The James Gang attacks the Dreadnought, though it's more of a "recon by fire" as the train is too well armed to seize.
 * Zeppelins from Another World: Airships are used mainly for transporting freight and passengers. Military models exist, but they are of limited use due to the need to armour them, increasing their weight and thus reducing their lifting capacity and range.
 * Zombie Gait: Happens at the early stage of conversion, but rotters get faster as they get more hungry.
 * Zombie Infectee: Averted as being bitten by a rotter isn't enough to make you one. The closest they get to this is when a drunk doesn't fasten his mask correctly, and attacks his friends when they go to find out what's wrong. Fortunately he's still in the slow stage.
 * However, it seems to be played straight as of Dreadnought. Though the implication is that infection-through-biting has a lower chance of happening than breathing the gas.