Storyline: 2/5 
 Characters: 2/5 
 Writing Style: 3/5 
 World: 1/5 
 At the halfway point I was frustrated. I keep getting promised steampunk and Priest wasn't delivering. Priest gives us (view spoiler)[...more wheeled vehicles...tracer bullets...swamp boats...flashlights.... (hide spoiler)] Technology has repercussions, you can't just throw stuff out there haphazardly! I was looking forward to the change in scenery - moving away from Seattle and the transcontinental railway and on to the South - to New Orleans! The New Orleans that was delivered, however, read like it was written with a tourist brochure in hand (view spoiler)[ The obligatory stops and encounters with Jackson Square, St. Louis Cathedral, Cafe du Monde, and Marie Laveau (hide spoiler)]. It was like the Michael Bay Transformer movie where the famous tourist sites in the Middle East - the Pyramids, Petra - are right beside one another and coincidentally bear significance for the storyline. 
 The book makes some shifts at the halfway point and improves in some areas. There is actually some legitimate steam punk technology, and there is the promise of some dirigible action! Freshly served with new gadgetry I start to ponder the implications, and I find that I can't reconcile activities and attitudes across the books. The technology in this one so greatly supersedes that of the first, but in Boneshaker the villain was supposedly some great inventor. Similarly, gasoline vehicles abound here in Ganymede when they appeared to have been highly specialized and valuable bits of machinery in Dreadnought. The same problems arise when one considers the zombie problem, I.... and then I stopped pondering and admitted this is not a book to ponder. It is not a book to consider. One isn't supposed to think or compare (beyond the direct and explicit overlaps between books in the series). This is a book (and series) about aesthetics. This book exists to provide costume ideas and artwork for steampunk hobbyists. It is supposed to be stylish, amusing, and good for ice-breakers at parties. So I've got to stop expecting something different; it excels at what it is - a zombie, steampunk, west-meets-south, alternate history, action adventure, airport novel. For some reason (even though I'm not a die-hard fan), I feel personally aggrieved that this is being marketed and heralded as the symbol of steampunk.