History Literature / ClockworkCentury

The Clockwork Century is an AlternateHistory created by Cherie Priest, in which the UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar has raged for nearly two decades thanks to SteamPunk and DieselPunk technology. Oh, [[EverythingsDeaderWithZombies and there are also zombies]].

* GasMaskMooks: Everyone is Seattle has a mask, so this happens by default. Jeremiah Swakhammer is the best example of the trope.
-->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.
** Also Minnericht himself.
-->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 [[ScaryShinyGlasses illuminated from within so it appeared that his pupils were alight]].

''Boneshaker'' is set in 1880 Seattle, which has been walled off after a DeadlyGas was released from underground by Dr. Leviticus Blue, inventor of the eponymous DrillTank, who then vanished under highly-suspicious circumstances. His son Ezekiel 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 Dr. Minnerich. [[spoiler:Who may well be Zeke's DisappearedDad.]]

* DeathRay: [[spoiler: In ''Clementine'', the Union is developing a 'solar cannon' large enough to destroy a city.]]

* DrillTank: 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.

* FightingForAHomeland: [[spoiler:In ''Dreadnought'', the Union plans to use gold and land grants to recruit {{Chinese Laborer}}s as soldiers. The West wants to get rid of them, the East need soldiers, and the Chinese want US citizenship. The South on the other hand is none too happy.]]

* {{Just Think of the Potential}}: [[spoiler:Malverne Purdue says this while they've being besieged by rotters, having intended to use the Blight gas as a weapon of war. Mercy is not impressed.]]

* [[spoiler: BigfootSasquatchAndYeti]]: [[spoiler: the Inexplicable turns out to be a blight-infested Bigfoot]]

* NotQuiteDead: [[spoiler:Averted; Minnericht is not Leviticus Blue, as Briar Wilkes has known all along.]]

* HandicappedBadass: AbrahamLincoln survived the [[BoomHeadshot assassination attempt]] at Ford's Theater but was disabled and needs a wheelchair.

Cherie Priest created the series as a literary MagnumOpus for SteamPunk fans. So far she has written six novels; ''Boneshaker'', ''Dreadnought'', ''Clementine'', ''Ganymede'', ''The Inexplicables'' and ''Fiddlehead'', 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]].

* VehicleTitle: Several of the novels are names after vehicles:

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dreadnought_1965.jpg