I have to start this review with a correction: I announced in a recent podcast I would review Cari Silverwood’s Lust Plague and also said that it had nothing to do with Steampunk. I was wrong. I judged prematurely from my previous reading of Iron Dominance.
Lust Plague is Steampunk, the elements are not just garnish, we get a far deeper view into the world of the Steamwork Chronicles and at the end, we meet a character from Iron Dominance again.
Now for what is going on: The airship Art of War is on a mission over zombie-infested territory and promptly gets boarded by air-mobile zombies (it makes sense, they can actually still think), that is when we meet the two main and two sidekick characters for the first time:
Kaysana, career officer and captain of the Art of War, Sten, mercenary/soldier/zombie-hunter and major-league hunk, his wolf Cadrach, and Emily, the librarian.
To understand, why this BDSM Steampunk Zombie novel works I have to explain the nature of the zombies: The strange, and quite metaphysical, virus infecting them turns them into slavering, ambulatory sex-drives, depending on how severe your infection is, you may just become very sexually active, if you get the full dose, it is bye-bye brain. To a certain extend, the zombies are like the reavers in Firefly.
On with the story, after saving Emily and Kaysana (the latter from a very rough situation), Sten gets himself, Kaysana and Cadrach off the Art of War in a gyrocopter. Kaysana, not wanting to be in the company of a frankenstruct and also not wanting to abandon her ship and crew, parts ways in a spectacular fashion.
Sten and Cadrach track her down and… Well, the effects of the lust plague see to the rest. There is a lot of things happening between Sten and Kaysana, both on a physical and emotional level. Cari really knows how to write this. The spark you felt right from the start between Claire and Theo in Iron Dominance takes a while to manifest, but (at the latest) after saving Emily, you know Kaysana and Sten are made for each other.
Which brings me to the most unexpected little jewel I ever encountered in a novel: Emily.
Emily is so many things at once: She is the sparkly, bubbly little girl, balancing out the horror of the situation, being stranded in a wasteland between zombies, and the roughness of Kaysana’s and Sten’s contacts. She is also the… No, I am not going to spoil it here, just one thing: Don’t mess with the librarian!
Concerning the erotic content: Rough. That’s all there is to say. This is not for the faint of heart and nervous of disposition. It is also not for anyone not into BDSM. I also found some scenes rather unsettling. There is no necrophilia in there, but there are several moments when the protagonists stumble upon a scene and you can just deduce what happened here and it was not pleasant. Sex crazed reavers on a rampage. The kind of love happening between Kaysana and Sten is also rough and far less sophisticated in its BDSM content than what went on in Iron Dominance. Lust Plague’s story is rough, in every aspect.
Outside the erotic content, there are a lot of details about the world to be picked up: Technology level, customs, history, political landscape. Steamwork Chronicles’ earth is a fascinating place, if you piece all the information together. The story is also fast-paced with action waiting at every turn.
Two things I did not enjoy: Some of the erotic content was definitely to rough for my taste, but tastes differ, so that’s OK, and:
The one clothing store still left unscathed in this one village after the zombies went through… That was a bit too much narrativum at work.
Another word of caution: As Cari has confirmed, Lust Plague is aimed at female readers. We get a lot of descriptions on how awesome and manly Sten looks, but comparatively little on Kaysana.
Before I forget, the steampunk elements, again, I do not want to put spoilers in, but: A steampunk mech saves the day!
All in all, Lust Plague is a very different reading experience, but how often do you get zombies, BDSM and Steampunk in one novel, anyway?
Lust Plague gets Nine out of Ten Zeppelins.