Clockwork Heart

Clockwork Heart, Book 1

De: Dru Pagliassotti

Narrado por: Kate Rudd

Taya soars over Ondinium on metal wings. She is an icarus - a courier privileged to travel freely across the city’s sectors and mingle indiscriminately among its castes. But even she can’t outfly the web of terrorism, loyalty, murder, and intrigue that snares her after a daring mid-air rescue. Taya finds herself entangled with the Forlore brothers, scions of an upperclass family: handsome, brilliant Alister, who sits on the governing council and writes programs for the Great Engine; and awkward, sharp-tongued Cristof, who has exiled himself from his caste and repairs clocks in Ondinium’s lowest sector. Both hide dangerous secrets, in this city that beats to the ticking of a clockwork heart.

©2008 Dru Pagliassotti (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

It's Alright.

People are getting pickier about what they call Steampunk, so I’ll just hit the major points and you can pick out what sub-genre you want to file this under. The more fantastical element to the story is the lighter-than-air (anti-gravity?) metal that is used in the main character’s wings. It’s also bullet proof; which is amazing when you think of real world metals used in aircraft, like aluminum. On the more scifi steampunk side are the steam and gear computers that run on punchcards that are used in computations I doubt we could do today. However, if you require a Victorian culture to your Steampunk stories, you’ll not find that here.

The story is alright. It’s formulaic, which isn’t bad in itself, but that is partly the result of the bigger issue I have, which is how forgettable the characters are. They are static and a little flat at times. Changing situation and the exposing of different personality elements to the main character are used as a substitute for character development, and since the characters don’t change, you can easily predict how each new situation will play out.

However, it has romance, it has mystery (even if it was easy to figure out, but hey, who doesn’t like to feel smart), and it even touches a little on class struggle. The caste system dynamic is interesting and plays a central role to the story, but is sadly not explored in any depth.

And that really hits the heart of the matter; most folks who go in for SciFi/Fantasy novels love depth to both setting and character. This book has potential for both, but it just doesn’t explore those possible depths.

Still, if you want some fun steampunkish light reading then you could do a whole lot worse in this emerging genre.

Wonderful steampunk fantasy mystery!

This is the first book in the Clockwork Heart trilogy by Pagliassotti. I have had this book in my to read pile for a very long time and was excited to finally get around to reading it. It was a very enjoyable steampunk fantasy with a lot of mystery and some romance.

I listened to this on audiobook and it was well done. The narrator did an excellent job of conveying emotion and I enjoyed her voice. There were a few spots where it was hard to tell who was talking (the voices just weren’t different enough between characters) but aside from that I enjoyed listening to this.

Taya is an Icarus, she wears giant metal wings and flies messages around the great city of Ondinium. Her life changes when she spots a failing in the wire ferry lines and ends up rescuing a woman and child from the Exalted caste of citizens. In an effort to thank her the Exalted draws Taya into her life and Taya gains a celebrity-like status. Suddenly Taya finds herself not only embroiled in high level politics but also trying to solve a mystery involving murder and theft.

I really enjoyed this steampunk mystery. There are some wonderful steampunk elements in the story, the characters are engaging and interesting, and the world-building is well done. There is a complex caste system that was well described. I also really loved the city of Ondinium and how is has multiple layers and runs off of analytical engines.

The book is mostly a mystery. Taya is following a series of accidents and coincidences to try and figure out what is going on. There is a bit of a romance as well, but I didn't really feel like this book was a romance per-say (not sure why it is advertised as such).

Taya is an awesome character. She is curious and determined but never gets too serious. She doesn’t know when to stop and constantly runs herself into the ground trying to solve problems.

I also really enjoyed the character of Cristoff. He is an Exalted that left the caste to become a clockmaker among the lower caste. He is such a noble, honest, and geeky type that I just loved him.

This was an engaging read that I enjoyed. My only complaint would be that the story went a bit long, I think it would have worked better if it had ended earlier. There is some humor in here as well, which was fun.

I also have a very specific complaint as a chemist. At one point the character smells an ammonia-like smell and identifies it as methanol...totally not accurate. Methanol smells a lot like rubbing alcohol and absolutely nothing like ammonia. I know...I know a small quibble but it bugged me.

Overall this was a great book and I really enjoyed it. This book had some fantastic world-building, lots of fun steampunk elements, and very engaging characters. It is mostly a mystery with a bit of romance. I would recommend to fans of steampunk novels that involve a lot of political intrigue. I definitely plan on reading the last two books in this series.

Steampunk detecive romance

I was pleasantly surprised by this novel. The romance part of this steampunk detective novel didn't give me much, but the world building is artistic and it's character vivid. Aerial rescues by our winged Icarus heroine set in a magnificent city of multiple levels of wires, clockwork machinery and lighter-than-air metals. The narration is great and quite pleasant to listen to, my only gripe with it is that in stressful situations Kate Rudd portrays Taya as somewhat whiny whereas I instead imagined her to be made of stronger stuff.

Listen to the Sample. It gives, unlike many other audiobooks, a very decent preview of the book.

Steam punk heven

Being a steam punker I enjoyed this a lot, I'm a fan of this particular narrator so that didn't hurt ,A steam punk heroin hit my spot if I had any complaints it would be it's just a little to long ,I hope Dru has some more books coming audible's way I would certainly give it a go.

Exceeded Expectations!

Like with most of my audiobooks, I've read this one before listening. I wasn't sure how well this would actually translate to audio, but since it's one of my favorites I was willing to give it a try.

I would recommend this to everyone. It more than exceeded what I expected, and I will most likely re-listen to it again. It's worth the credit.