I enjoyed this, but a little less than the previous books in the series. The dialogue is clunky in places, and the main character is an obnoxious little jerk - he's kind of supposed to be, but is often stupidly so. Like, repeatedly complaining about the need to wear a gas mask when he knows the air is poisonous. Overall, though, it was an enjoyable story. I've already bought the next book. ( )

I really, really wanted to like this book. I've been waiting for Cherie Priest to set another story in the messed up version of Seattle she created in [b:Boneshaker|1137215|Boneshaker (The Clockwork Century, #1)|Cherie Priest|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1312047238s/1137215.jpg|1124460], but she's only teased with dribs and drabs in other books. Finally, she's back in the Emerald City (now a putrid shade of yellow in the Boneshaker universe). But I was a bit disappointed. I'm giving this one three and half stars (but Goodreads won't let me add fractions).

Four stars once again for setting and characters and imagination. Also four stars for readability. But I'm marking this down a bit for the story itself. It just never quite clicked for me. Ms. Priest warned her followers that we might not like Rector "Wreck-em" Sherman, but that isn't really the problem for me. My issue is with his story. I never quite felt like he really had anything on the line. Sure, he had no skills and nowhere to go when he gets kicked out of the orphanage. And he's a bit mentally unstable. But once he's inside the walls of the ruined city and nursed back to health, things seemed to bog down. I felt like the only point of the story was to give him/us a tour of the city and bide time until something interesting happens. The stakes aren't really raised until Act 3 and then everything is quickly resolved. I expected more story, maybe some deeper foreshadowing. And why was such a big deal made of Rector's nickname, when nobody calls him "Wreck-em"?

All-in-all, I did enjoy reading the book and look forward to the next one in the series. ( )

The Inexplicables moves a lot faster than Ganymede did, and I found it much more satisfying. Bringing a sap addict in as a main character was a good move.

As with the other books in the Clockwork Century, we continue with strong characters (particularly strong female characters), fun and novel plots and settings, good writing, and a near total absence of romantic subplots. All of the stuff that sci-fi/fantasy authors decry is too hard to work into novels, too demanding of readers to expect, Priest has done with these books. Highly recommended. ( )

Unlike the fast-moving and exciting BONESHAKER, an irritating and unappealing lead character makes THE INEXPLICABLES a hard slog. ( )

Not as good as the others. I think it's the main characters and the premise of this book isn't as interesting or as exciting to me.
( )