This book in
the Clockwork Century series has air pirate Andan Cly thinking about quitting
the business and settling down in Seattle to be near Briar Wilkes, now sheriff
of the broken city. He intends to quit running the Blight gas to the people
that make it into the horribly damaging drug Sap. To do this, he must have his
airship refitted into a regular cargo ship, not possible in Seattle. By coincidence, he is offered two jobs
at the same time- one from the new head of the city to make a supply run, and
another, mysterious one, from an ex-lover, Josephine, in New Orleans. He can
take care of all three of these things in one trip! Of course, he doesn’t know
what Josephine’s job entails, but that’s not something to worry him too much.
Once down in New Orleans he finds that the Texians are holding
the city under martial law. It seems they are looking for a machine- a machine
that could end the Civil War (which has been going on for over 20 years in this
universe). This machine, the Ganymede of the title, is an ‘underwater airship’,
and the people who attempt to run it keep dying in the attempt. This is where
Cly comes in; Josephine thinks that an airship pilot will have better luck with
it than a boat captain. Of course, because of the Texians, the Ganymede must be
moved in complete secrecy, which doesn’t make it easy to work out any problems
in running it.
Unlike the
other books in this series, Ganymede doesn’t move along with breakneck speed.
There is much less action; almost none until near the end of the book, when
there is a great battle scene on and in the water. There is a lot of suspense:
will they get caught by the Texians? By zombies? Will the Ganymede kill them,
too, or will they figure out how to pilot it safely? Why are there zombies down
in New
Orleans, anyway, when they originated in Seattle via exposure to the Blight gas? The
pace is very different from the other Clockwork Century books, but different
isn’t a bad thing.
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