Published by Juno Books, I first saw the steampunk fantasy romance Clockwork Heart
mentioned on The Book Smugglers' most excellent blog and then, when it made Thea's Top 10 books for 2008 I knew I had to sneak it into an amazon basket.
Clockwork Heart is Dru Pagliassotti's debut novel and was actually written in 2004 for NaNoWriMo - proof that the process can work! The lead character is Taya who works as an Icarus (essentially a metal-winged courier) who can travel freely across the city of Ondinium's sectors and mingle indiscriminately among its rigid caste structure. A daring mid-air wireferry rescue by Taya leads to involvement with two members of an Exhalted family - the handsome and charming Alister Forlore as well as his outcast clockmaker brother Cristof. She then becomes entangled in a web of terrorism, loyalty, murder, and secrets and gets closerI described this book in my first sentence as a "steampunk fantasy romance" but I am not sure that really explains it. It is absolutely all those things but they are more of a background to the story itself and the interaction between the large cast of characters takes centre stage along with a murder-mystery. This book was thoroughly good fun and I look forward to the sequel. In notice that over on Dru's website is a pdf of the first chapter if you fancy a sneak peek.
1 comment:
I love that Clockwork Heart was written for NaNo, and that even though it was published with a relatively small press, it has garnered a lot of online attention!
So glad you were able to give this book a read--while not without its flaws, it's an immensely enjoyable story. Pagliassotti's steampunk universe is pretty damn cool :)
(And thanks for the kind words too!)
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