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The Doomsday Vault

Name: The Doomsday Vault
Rating: 3.63 (1 reviews)
Author: Steven Harper

Steven Harper

3.63 1.3k Ratings

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Synopsis

In a clockwork Britannia, Alice’s prospects are slim. At 21, her age and her unladylike interest in automatons have sealed her fate as an undesirable marriage prospect. But a devastating plague sends Alice off in a direction beyond the pale—towards a clandestine organization, mad inventors, life-altering secrets, and into the arms of an intrepid fiddle-playing airship pilot.

Books similar to The Doomsday Vault

The Inexplicables

★ 3.71

Cherie Priest

Rector “Wreck ’em” Sherman was orphaned as a toddler in the Blight of 1863, but that was years ago. Wreck has grown up, and on his eighteenth birthday, he’ll be cast out out of the orphanage.

And Wreck’s problems aren’t merely about finding a home. He’s been quietly breaking the cardinal rule of any good drug dealer and dipping into his own supply of the sap he sells. He’s also pretty sure he’s being haunted by the ghost of a kid he used to know—Zeke Wilkes, who almost certainly died six months ago. Zeke would have every reason to pester Wreck, since Wreck got him inside the walled city of Seattle in the first place, and that was probably what killed him. Maybe it’s only a guilty conscience, but Wreck can’t take it anymore, so he sneaks over the wall.

The walled-off wasteland of Seattle is every bit as bad as he’d heard, chock-full of the hungry undead and utterly choked by the poisonous, inescapable yellow gas. And then there's the monster. Rector's pretty certain that whatever attacked him was not at all human—and not a rotter, either. Arms far too long. Posture all strange. Eyes all wild and faintly glowing gold and known to the locals as simply “The Inexplicables.”

In the process of tracking down these creatures, Rector comes across another incursion through the wall -- just as bizarre but entirely attributable to human greed. It seems some outsiders have decided there’s gold to be found in the city and they’re willing to do whatever it takes to get a piece of the pie unless Rector and his posse have anything to do with it.

Boneshaker

★ 3.52

Cherie Priest

In the early days of the Civil War, rumors of gold in the frozen Klondike brought hordes of newcomers to the Pacific Northwest. Anxious to compete, Russian prospectors commissioned inventor Leviticus Blue to create a great machine that could mine through Alaska’s ice. Thus was Dr. Blue’s Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine born.

But on its first test run the Boneshaker went terribly awry, destroying several blocks of downtown Seattle and unearthing a subterranean vein of blight gas that turned anyone who breathed it into the living dead.

Now it is sixteen years later, and a wall has been built to enclose the devastated and toxic city. Just beyond it lives Blue’s widow, Briar Wilkes. Life is hard with a ruined reputation and a teenaged boy to support, but she and Ezekiel are managing. Until Ezekiel undertakes a secret crusade to rewrite history.

His quest will take him under the wall and into a city teeming with ravenous undead, air pirates, criminal overlords, and heavily armed refugees. And only Briar can bring him out alive.

Dreadnought

★ 3.87

Cherie Priest

Mercy Lynch is working at a war hospital in Richmond, Virginia, when she learns that her husband has died in a POW camp and her estranged father is gravely injured and wishes to see her. With no good reason to stay in Virginia, Mercy sets out to see her father in Seattle.

But crossing the country is no small task; it's a harrowing adventure through war-torn border states by dirigible, rail, and the Mississippi River. And once Mercy finally arrives in St. Louis, the only Tacoma-bound train is pulled by a terrifying Union-operated steam engine called the Dreadnought. Lacking options and running out of money, Mercy buys a ticket and climbs aboard.

What ought to be a quiet trip turns deadly when the train is beset by bushwackers, then vigorously attacked by a band of Rebel soldiers. The train is moving away from battle lines into the vast, unincorporated west, so Mercy can't imagine why it's meeting such resisitance. Perhaps it has something to do with the mysterious cargo in the second and last train cars?

Mercy is just a frustrated nurse who wants to see her father before he dies. But she'll have to survive both Union intrigue and Confederate opposition if she wants to make it off the Dreadnought alive.

The Conjurer’s Riddle

★ 3.77

Andrea Cremer

Charlotte may have left the Floating City, but she’s not out of danger yet. On the run from the British Empire’s clutches, she leads her group of exiles west and south, plunging into a wild world of shady merchants and surly rivermen on the way to New Orleans.

But the more Charlotte learns about the revolution she has championed, the more questions she has. As she and her friends get to know the hidden tunnels that run below New Orleans, home to criminals, assassins, and pirates, and head deep into the mystical bayou surrounding the city, Charlotte must make a decision.

Do the revolution’s goals justify their means, or are some things too sacred to sacrifice?

Ganymede

★ 3.84

Cherie Priest

The third book in the Clockwork Century series, following Cherie Priest's steampunk adventure--and runaway hit-- Boneshaker and its sequel, Dreadnought The air pirate Andan Cly is going straight. Well, straight er . Although he's happy to run alcohol guns wherever the money's good, he doesn't think the world needs more sap, or its increasingly ugly side-effects. But becoming legit is easier said than done, and Cly's first legal gig―a supply run for the Seattle Underground―will be paid for by sap money. New Orleans is not Cly's first pick for a shopping run. He loved the Big Easy once, back when he also loved a beautiful mixed-race prostitute named Josephine Early―but that was a decade ago, and he hasn't looked back since. Jo's still thinking about him, though, or so he learns when he gets a telegram about a peculiar piloting job. It's a chance to complete two lucrative jobs at once, one he can't refuse. He sends his old paramour a note and heads for New Orleans, with no idea of what he's in for―or what she wants him to fly. But he won't be flying. Not exactly. Hidden at the bottom of Lake Pontchartrain lurks an astonishing war machine, an immense submersible called the Ganymede . This prototype could end the war, if only anyone had the faintest idea of how to operate it…. If only they could sneak it past the Southern forces at the mouth of the Mississippi River… If only it hadn't killed most of the men who'd ever set foot inside it. But it's those "if onlys" that will decide whether Cly and his crew will end up in the history books, or at the bottom of the ocean.

Fiddlehead

★ 3.85

Cherie Priest

Ex-spy ‘Belle Boyd’ is retired – more or less. Retired from spying on the Confederacy anyway. Her short-lived marriage to a Union navy boy cast suspicion on those Southern loyalties, so her mid-forties found her unemployed, widowed and disgraced. Until her life-changing job offer from the staunchly Union Pinkerton Detective Agency.

When she’s required to assist Abraham Lincoln himself, she has to put any old loyalties firmly aside – for a man she spied against twenty years ago.Lincoln’s friend Gideon Bardsley, colleague and ex-slave, is targeted for assassination after the young inventor made a breakthrough. Fiddlehead, Bardsley’s calculating engine, has proved an extraordinary threat threatens the civilized world. Meaning now is not the time for conflict.

Now Bardsley and Fiddlehead are in great danger as forces conspire to keep this secret, the war moving and the money flowing. With spies from both camps gunning for her, can even the notorious Belle Boyd hold the war-hawks at bay?

A Trace of Copper

★ 3.65

Anne Renwick

A small Welsh village. An interrupted romance. A rogue frog on the loose threatening their future.

New recruit to the Queen's agents, Dr. Piyali Mukherji is given a simple first assignment. Travel to the small Welsh village of Aberwyn and solve the mystery of a young woman's blue skin lesion. A challenging task, for the alarming infection is unlike anything she's seen before—and it's spreading.

Evan Tredegar, the town's pharmacist and the only man to ever capture her heart, knows more than he's telling. Despite his efforts to push her away, her touch reawakens old desires. As more villagers fall victim to the strange disease, he'll have no choice but to reveal his secrets, even if it means sacrificing his freedom.

Together they must move past broken promises, capture a rogue frog, and stop the infection before it spreads out of control.

WHAT READERS ARE SAYING:

“A delightful blend of modern and mystical.”

“I can’t wait to read more from this series…”

“…the perfect mix of mystery, romance, science and steampunk”

“Unexpected plot twists, an intriguing premise and strong secondary characters”

“The plot was quick, suspenseful, and entertaining; the comic relief was laugh-out-loud funny”

“I love that you can feel the story being grounded in scientific fact while still spinning an incredible tale that requires you to suspend your disbelief”

“Who knew a frog could ever cause so much trouble?!”

Tropes:
Second Chance Romance
Small Town With Secrets
Myth Meets Science
Forced Proximity
Women in STEM
Secret Agents
Alternative History
Mad Science
Scientific Mystery
Cozy But Dangerous
Welsh Steampunk
Gaslamp Fantasy
Biotechnology
Adventure Romance
Romantasy

The Dragon Men

★ 3.90

Steven Harper

As China prepares to become the ultimate power in an era of extraordinary invention and horror, Alice Michaels' fate lies inside the walls of the forbidden kingdom.... Gavin Ennock has everything a man could desire--except time. As the clockwork plague consumes his body and mind, it drives him increasingly mad and fractures his relationship with his fiancee, Alice, Lady Michaels. Their only hope is that the Dragon Men of China can cure him. But a power-mad general has seized the Chinese throne in a determined offensive to conquer Asia, Britain--indeed, the entire world. He has closed the country's borders to all foreigners. The former ruling dynasty, however, is scheming to return the rightful heir to power. Their designs will draw Gavin and Alice down a treacherous path strewn with intrigue and power struggles. One wrong step will seal Gavin's fate...and determine the future of the world.

The Doomsday Vault

Books similar to The Doomsday Vault

The Inexplicables

Boneshaker

Dreadnought

The Conjurer’s Riddle

Ganymede

Fiddlehead

A Trace of Copper

The Dragon Men

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