✍ Scribed by Elizabeth Bear
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
{ May 2021 - Verified ebook for complete book description, cover, table of contents, content separation, and epub format error checking. }
Hardcover, 346 pages
Published 2015
"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."
Set in the late 19th century—when the city we now call Seattle Underground was the whole town (and still on the surface), when airships plied the trade routes, would-be gold miners were heading to the gold fields of Alaska, and steam-powered mechanicals stalked the waterfront, Karen is a young woman on her own, 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 one night when a badly injured girl arrives at their door, begging sanctuary, followed by the man who holds her indenture, and 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 yarn of the old west with a light touch in Karen's own memorable voice, and a mesmerizing evocation of classic steam-powered science.
📜 SIMILAR VOLUMES
"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,
**Readers met the irrepressible Karen Memory in Elizabeth Bear's 2015 novel _Karen Memory_ , and fell in love with her steampunk Victorian Pacific Northwest city, and her down-to-earth story-telling voice. ** **** **_iO9 --_28 New Science Fiction and Fantasy Books Well Worth Checking Out in Marc
***Nothing brings back a memory like a melody.*** Willa ~ Something’s wrong. I don’t know what, but I can feel it. My best friend, my fiancée, even the hunky stranger who saved me are all hiding things from me. Which isn’t all that difficult considering I can’t remember the last six months of my lif