Clockwork Century: Difference between revisions
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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 [http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/fall-2008/fiction-tanglefoot-a-story-of-the-clockwork-century-by-cherie-priest/ 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
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.
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== The series contain the following tropes
* [[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.
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* [[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. {{spoiler|Instead Blue uses it to rob Seattle's underground bank vaults of over three million dollars worth of gold.}} Unfortunately we never actually see the device in action.
{{quote|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.}}
* [[Enemy Mine]]: Mercy and Ranger
* [[Fighting For a Homeland]]: {{spoiler|The Union plans to use gold and land grants to recruit [[Chinese Laborer
* [[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
* [[Gas Mask Mooks]]: Everyone is Seattle has a mask, so this happens by default. Jeremiah Swakhammer is the best example of the trope.
{{quote|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.}}
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