Review – The Clockwork Boys (Clocktaur War, Book 1) by T. Kingfisher (5/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Steampunk
Length: 230 pages
Publisher: Red Wombat Studio
Release Date: November 21, 2017
ASIN: B0783P29QP
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Clocktaur War series
Source: Borrowed ebook from Library
Rating: 5/5 stars
“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.”
Series Info/Source: This is the first book in the Clocktaur War duology. I borrowed this as an ebook from my library.
Thoughts: I thoroughly enjoyed this steampunk-leaning, fantasy adventure. The characters are quirky and fun, the world is well built, and the adventure is non-stop.
The premise is fairly simple: three criminals and a scholar leave their kingdom to venture to the kingdom next door to figure out how to stop the Clockwork Boys (a mechanical army that is invading their home kingdom). It’s a suicide mission and all three criminals will be given full pardons if they suceed (the scholar actually wants to go because..you know…scholars).
This whole story was a delight to read. The characters are broken, hilarious, and just trying to make the best of their dubious situations. The paladin who has a dead demon in his soul was especially a delight. Who am I kidding? All the characters were great. The document forger who is chosen to lead this band, the assassin who is particularly good at killing people and making sexual inneundos, and the scholar who fears the presence of women…all of them are wonderful.
The world is fairly basic but very well put together. The adventure these characters take to get to the Clockwork Boys’ city is fascinating; they encounter a lot of strange magic. However, most of the adventure is them trying to figure out how to deal with each other.
The writing flowed well, was easy to read and moved at a good clip. This was hard to put down and I was never bored. I loved the tongue-in-cheek humor throughout and the depth our characters had. There is a lot of action as well and it was very well written and easy to picture.
My Summary (5/5): Overall I loved everything about this book. It is humorous and entertaining with a well built world, intriguing characters, and a lot of action and adventure. I greatly enjoyed it and immediately went and picked up the second book of the duology. This is the second Kingfisher book I have read and I have loved them both; I look forward to reading more Kingfisher books this year. I would strongly recommend to those who love humorous (but still thoughtful) adventure fantasy books; this was an awesome one!
