Waiting on Wednesday [130] – KAREN MEMORY by Elizabeth Bear

WOW 2014 copy

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Breaking the Spine, and is a fun way to share upcoming books that we’re excited about with other bloggers and readers. Gosh, only a few more WoWs left in 2014! As we all know, 2015 promises to be a fantastic year for book lovers, so I look forward to lots of WoW posts next year as well.

This week I’m excited about:

Karen Memory

Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear. Releases in February from Tor Books. Elizabeth Bear is a HUGE name in science fiction/fantasy, and this book looks different from her usual books. Plus, check out the octopus on the cover! And that girl looks like she’s ready to shoot someone, so sign me up! Here’s what Goodreads says:

“You ain’t gonna like what I have to tell you, but I’m gonna tell you anyway. See, my name is Karen Memery, like memory only spelt with an e, and I’m one of the girls what works in the Hôtel Mon Cherie on Amity Street. Hôtel has a little hat over the o like that. It’s French, so Beatrice tells me.”

Hugo-Award winning author Elizabeth Bear offers something new inKaren Memory, an absolutely entrancing steampunk novel set in Seattle in the late 19th century—an era when the town was called Rapid City, when the parts we now call Seattle Underground were the whole town (and still on the surface), when airships plied the trade routes bringing would-be miners heading up to the gold fields of Alaska, and steam-powered mechanicals stalked the waterfront. Karen is a “soiled dove,” a young woman on her own who is making the best of her orphaned state by working in Madame Damnable’s high-quality bordello. Through Karen’s eyes we get to know the other girls in the house—a resourceful group—and the poor and the powerful of the town. Trouble erupts into her world one night when a badly injured girl arrives at their door, seeking sanctuary, followed by the man who holds her indenture, who has a machine that can take over anyone’s mind and control their actions. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, the next night brings a body dumped in their rubbish heap—a streetwalker who has been brutally murdered.

Bear brings alive this Jack-the-Ripper-type story of the old west with the light touch of Karen’s own memorable voice, and a mesmerizing evocation of classic steam-powered science.

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What are you waiting on this week? Let me know!

Posted December 17, 2014 by Tammy in Waiting on Wednesday / 12 Comments

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12 responses to “Waiting on Wednesday [130] – KAREN MEMORY by Elizabeth Bear

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