Clockwork Boys

Clocktaur War, Book 1

By: T. Kingfisher

Narrated by: Khristine Hvam

A paladin, an assassin, a forger, and a scholar ride out of town. It's not the start of a joke, but rather an espionage mission with deadly serious stakes. T. Kingfisher's new novel begins the tale of a murderous band of criminals (and a scholar), thrown together in an attempt to unravel the secret of the Clockwork Boys, mechanical soldiers from a neighboring kingdom that promise ruin to the Dowager's city.

If they succeed, rewards and pardons await, but that requires a long journey through enemy territory, directly into the capital. It also requires them to refrain from killing each other along the way! At turns darkly comic and touching, Clockwork Boys puts together a broken group of people trying to make the most of the rest of their lives as they drive forward on their suicide mission.

©2017 Ursula Vernon (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

It’s only part 1, but it’s a good part 1

This is half of a 5 star story. It’s common in fantasy series to have the first book be “assembling the team”, but the expectation was set at the start that there was a quest and that the story resolution required finishing the quest. I enjoy a good series arc but I’ve now listened to this twice and the abrupt ending just as momentum built up caught me off guard both times. There are ways to set expectations and that it wasn’t done properly is the main fault of this novel. Having previously read the rest of the story, I can recommend it, but know that this book is entirely “assemble the team” & “get them to the staging point to start the quest”, the end. You will need the sequel to get to the rest of the story.

That said, the story is engaging, the stakes are high and real, the merry band of misfits has, every one, done something horrible before joining up, but they’re compelling and even likeable and it’s easy to invest in their quest and their personal & team growth.

(Slightly spoilerish list of the bad things done by each: murder for hire, forgery sufficient for treason, murder by dint of demon possession, dismissal of half of humanity as inhuman and unworthy of consideration, and aiding the clockwork boys.
/end spoiler)

The plot kicks along and we learn about the characters’ skills and quirks. They way they treat each other evolves well over time They run into problems on the road and need several tricks to get out of or avoid tight situations. There are horrors, but not the kind that put me off. (I don’t like most horror stories. I don’t have problems with the horror elements in this story.) The weird stuff is, to me, quite clever & weird, instead of the same cookie cutter fantasy elements. Even the more classic elements like demons are handled deftly. The pacing is great too, which is why the abrupt ending is so grating.

Steam: low. Lore than zero because there’s some tension, & references to consensual activities such as adults would think about, rather than ignoring it like lots of fantasy authors do. But the most actual action is a kiss and a cuddle. But there’s something there that could progress and the POV characters think about it.

Narration: I find this narrator incredibly pleasant to listen to. Top tier work. Intonation & feeling match the text, there’s good flow and variety in character voices. The production quality is good & I don’t have to max out my speaker volume to hear the story clearly.

Wonderfully Strange New World

This story is full of unexpected twists and manages to keep the reader/listener engaged and invested in turning the next page or listening to the next chapter. I have been looking for a story that isn’t just a repetition of the same old same old and finally discovered it right here. It’s impossible to guess what might happen next and that is so difficult to pull off in this genre sometimes. It’s an adventure, a mystery, a romance that is not the raison d’etre of the tale, and has an abundance of wonderfully bizarre, but likable, characters and creatures that make their appearances and surprise the reader as much as they do the characters themselves. That’s a refreshing change from the current 95% of newer fantasy available. My one complaint is that it is a bit short and I am hoping that the sequels are as good as I found the first. Trust me, it will start off pretending to be average and suddenly you’ll discover you’ve fallen into a Alice in Wonderland kind of story. But without being that kind of story at all, although there is a short appearance of a talking rabbit. Just get it.

It gnoll my heart

Wonderfully written. But I fell in love with it near the end because of the gnoll.

very entertaining,

a good listen to on a rainy day. No awkward sex scenes. the voice actor gives each character their own voice.

good trope, great world

great world building in the quest trope. really enjoyed the performance. she has an expressive voice and a noir meets humor delivery

Another Win

Excellent story my the author. Love the world building. Slow burn with character developement. Author not afraid to use very flawed people.

Far exceeded my expectations

I will admit, I'm not a Kingfisher fan. I've tried to read their books before and invariably gave up. However, I found this on sale on Audible and decided to give it a try. I'm glad I did.

The good:

While there were problems, overall I got a kick out of it, mostly I think due to the narrator's presentation. Loved the voices she gave to the characters and I've never heard a narrator be able to sneeze so well. Slate sneezes a lot and the narrator did an excellent sneeze whenever she did.

Will admit, the creatures that popped up toward the end of the book - Runes and Gnolls (spelling could be off as I only heard it) surprised me as while I was prepared for magic and clockwork, I wasn't aware of all the creatures available in this universe.

The Clockwork Boys are definitely an imposing enemy and I look forward to finding out how they are created and how Slate & Co will bring them down. And tattoos that will eat you if you don't obey? Brilliant idea.

Each of the main characters: Slate, Callaban, Brenner, and Learned Edmond were well defined personality wise and kept to those personalities, which I appreciate. I dislike it when an author changes a character's personality for no reason.

The bad:

Whoever edited the narration did not do a good job. There were several places where lines were repeated exactly. That should have been edited out and jarred me each time it happened.

As I said earlier, the author's writing style isn't my thing. Too much quipping - I"m talking there was a LOT of quipping. And yet, this is probably only the third audiobook ever to make me laugh out loud. And it did it several times.

I could only listen to the book for 2-3 chapters at a time before I needed a break. However, the story kept calling me back. Or perhaps that was simply the wonderful narration. I honestly don't know. Would I have been able to read the book? Or would I have DNF'd it? That's a question I won't be able to answer since Khristine Hvam kept me coming back.

Though there must be something in the story - because I've already downloaded book 2. Which is why I gave the story 4 stars. It was good enough to make me continue on to the second book. Plus, like I mentioned. It kept making me laugh out loud.

Narration lives up to the story

T Kingfisher is joining Jim Butcher and Ilona Andrews on my automatic buy list. Great characters in an interesting world. The narration is a great performance, not just someone reading a book. The main character voice is perfect: male characters are good. Loved it!

a joy to find

First if you're expecting steampunk, you might find this book disappointing. It is a first-rate fantasy. There are villainous creatures made of something like a clockwork mechanism but the book does not revolve around making up steam powered mechanical alternatives to household items, or hot air balloons, or ether powered guns.

This part of the story is a travelogue that ends at the destination. Our heros travel by horse and mule, and fight with knife and sword. This book is the bonding part of of an unlikely troop on an unlikely mission . While the trope is familiar, the story is original The next book I expect will get into the fulfillment of their mission.

In this time of cookie cutter bloodletting fantasy, sure is nice to find a fantasy with a story; a story that's actually intriguing with interesting characters and fantastical happenings that don't blow readers out of the book, too disbelieving to enjoy the story. Not to say there isn't a fair share of bloodletting.

Looking forward to the sequel.

Enjoyable

A bit strange, but mostly fun and light hearted. The characters are likable, the plot is fun. The world and style are a bit simplistic, it feels kinda like a YA book.
Either way, I gulped it up. And moving on to the next installment.