Clockwork Alchemist

The Thief's Apprentice, Book 1

By: Sara C. Roethle

Narrated by: Shiromi Arserio

Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's Summary

London, 1890. The city is ruled by the nobility and the Watch, or so it seems. When an underground organization pursues the alchemical formula to create a soul, bodies begin to pile up, and important figures begin to go missing. Masked men turn the gears of fate, pushing London into a new era where artificial life is only the beginning.

Arhyen is the self-declared finest thief in London. The mission was simple. Steal a journal from Fairfax Breckinridge, one of the greatest alchemists of the time. He hadn't expected to find Fairfax himself, with a dagger in his back, nor had he expected his automaton daughter, Liliana.

Suddenly entrenched in a mystery too great for him to fully comprehend, he must rely on the help of a wayward detective, and an automaton who claims she has a soul, to piece together the clues laid before them.

Will Arhyen uncover the true source of Liliana's soul in time, or will London plunge into a dark age of nefarious technology, where only the scientific will survive?

©2016 Sara C. Roethle (P)2018 Sara C. Roethle

More like a cozy mystery

The story was ok. It did not have enough of the steampunk technology that you would expect. Liliana, the automaton, Arhyen, the thief, and Ephraim, the detective, are constantly being chased. The story does not communicate the eminent danger for society. It is more of a mystery of, who killed my dad (creator) and his contemporaries. There is the nefarious organization, the London Network that wants Liliana because of her uniqueness.

Much of the story showed Liliana as human. There was the dichotomy of what is human and what is a automaton. Liliana eats to feel human. How is she able to digest the food? There are a lot of characteristics for an automaton that could have been used for Liliana that were not included. Liliana will need more character development.

At an important point Liliana could not identify her father’s handwriting. As an automaton or human, if you spent time transcribing notes for someone, you should be able to identify the handwriting. These little inconsistencies detracted from the mystery, which is why I did not give it five stars.

Okay, but a little slow and careful

I liked the premise and the promise of a steampunk storyline, but the writing was less than I had hoped with a slow storyline that didn't really ever pick up. The steampunk elements revolved almost exclusively around the android theme, with a couple of references to "steam" as gates opened remotely. There was a lot of room for development in the heroine that wasn't really utilized, with respect to her emotional growth and experiences. The hero is fairly stock and not particularly interesting. The sidekick was the best character, actually, because he wasn't bound down by romantic expectations or fears. Could've used some more definite romance, too, for that matter. Everything was a little unnecessarily tame.

The narration was somewhat lifeless and flat. She did a passable job reading the story but didn't bring anything extra to it. Narration is supposed to be a performance, not a recitation. Not sure if I'll listen to the rest of the series.