Ganymede / Cherie Priest

Ganymede by Cherie Priest (a Clockwork Century novel). 349 p.

Another really enjoyable story in the Clockwork Century setting, in which the Civil War has dragged on into the 1880s, in part because of the technological advances made in this alternate history. New Orleans is occupied by the Texians, who technically aren't involved in the war because Texas is a separate state. It's not as bad as if the Confederacy actual held the city, but the residents still want the Texians out. Miss Josephine Early, the proprieter of a brothel staffed entirely with free women of color like herself, is spearheading the effort to retrieve a sunken Confederate craft from Lake Ponchartrain and deliver it to the Union. The catch is that no one has managed pilot the submarine, the Ganymede, without drowning almost everyone on board. Josie thinks maybe an airship pilot could succeed where sailors have failed, and she has an old friend named Andan Cly who might come down from Seattle to give it a try....

This may be my favorite of the series so far. There's enough politics to be interesting but not enough to bore me rigid, some exciting battles and tense sneaking around, and characters with a history together who aren't getting back together. Plus zombies, of course.

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