Hi Rose,
I didn't comment on yesterday's post, because I didn't read it yet! I am only 184 pages in but hope to finish by next Monday (or sooner, if all goes well).
I am enjoying what I have read so far. In terms of the steampunk being tacked on, it's hard to say. I, also, don't read much steampunk so it hasn't bothered me. Seemed more like a setting question than a sub-genre.
More later. :-)

I'm generally bored with steampunk, but I feel like it worked here, given the context of the Yukon contest and the early development of various technologies in Priest's Clockwork Century.

I have to say that I'm not sold on that unfortunate mapping. I've seen my share of westerns, and the rotters didn't read at native peoples, stereotypical or otherwise. They are an urban enemy, and a major point of the book is that anyone can be changed into one of them through carelessness or mischance.

I did like the blighted Seattle of the book, though. Very much. So much, in fact, that I've shelved an idea I had for a historical fantasy, because Priest's setting was so much more vivid than what I'd planned.

And you're right about the outside being scarier than in: The sense of exposure to danger in the open spaces is palpable, and Priest builds tension very effectively by limiting the characters' sensory input with the Blight and the gas masks.