The Clockwork Dynasty

A Novel

By: Daniel H. Wilson

Narrated by: David Giuntoli, Claire Coffee

Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

An ingenious thriller that follows a race of human-like machines that have been hiding among us for untold centuries—from the New York Times bestselling author of Robopocalypse.

"[A] fantastic hybrid of Highlander and The Terminator…. It reads like classic steampunk on steroids." —Ernest Cline, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Ready Player Two

Present day: When a young anthropologist specializing in ancient technology uncovers a terrible secret concealed in the workings of a three-hundred-year-old mechanical doll, she is thrown into a hidden world that lurks just under the surface of our own. With her career and her life at stake, June Stefanov will ally with a remarkable traveler who exposes her to a reality she never imagined, as they embark on an around-the-world adventure and discover breathtaking secrets of the past….

Russia, 1725: In the depths of the Kremlin, the tsar’s loyal mechanician brings to life two astonishingly humanlike mechanical beings. Peter and Elena are a brother and sister fallen out of time, possessed with uncanny power, and destined to serve great empires. Struggling to blend into pre-Victorian society, they are pulled into a legendary war that has raged for centuries.

The Clockwork Dynasty seamlessly interweaves past and present, exploring a race of beings designed to live by ironclad principles, yet constantly searching for meaning. As June plunges deeper into their world, her choices will ultimately determine their survival or extermination. Richly-imagined and heart-pounding, Daniel H. Wilson’s novel expertly draws on his robotics and science background, combining exquisitely drawn characters with visionary technology—and riveting action.

©2017 Daniel H. Wilson (P)2017 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"The Clockwork Dynasty is my new favorite secret history novel! It's like some fantastic hybrid of Highlander and The Terminator—or maybe a cross between I, Robot and The Difference Engine, with a dash of Blade Runner for good measure. It reads like classic steampunk on steroids. In other words, it's totally bad ass and you're going to love it." —Ernest Cline, The New York Times bestselling author of Ready Player One

"Daniel H. Wilson is one of the foremost prophets of the near future.... In The Clockwork Dynasty, the irrepressibly readable Wilson has retreated to pseudo-vampiric sentient robots. I say retreated because he’s dealing with the past and present, rather than the future—though his rewriting of the past is no less radical than his speculative work.... The plot is driven by a human protagonist, June Stefanov. She represents human history and continues Wilson’s excellent run of female lead characters—a distinction not to be sniffed at in male-written robot sci-fi." —The Los Angeles Review of Books

"This bold adventure is a stew of cult-classic concepts—the avtomat reflect the Immortals in the Highlander franchise, while the ancient and deadly Elena is reminiscent of child vampire Claudia in Interview with the Vampire. It may wear its influences on its sleeve but it's also a welcome treat for steampunk and fantasy fans. A thrilling mix of influences, much like Sylvain Neuvel's Sleeping Giants and HBO's Westworld, that creates a captivating scenario begging for many sequels." —Kirkus (starred review)

A Tale of Two Narrators

Any additional comments?

Before I start getting into my thoughts, I need to make 2 things clear. First, I am incredibly critical when it comes to the narrators of audio novels. I return over half the novels I get from Audible because I don't like the narrators enough to actually listen to them.

Secondly, I listened to this book because of the narrators. I actually had no interest in this book at all, but I enjoyed both David Giuntoli and Claire Coffee in "Grimm", which I watched--until it became utterly unwatchable. Even though I gave up on that show, I always said I'd follow the cast and this was apparently my first stop.

So, because of that, I was incredibly excited to give this one a listen. I actually purchased some extra audible credits so that I wouldn't have to wait until the end of the month to download it. My hopes were high as I push play and the story began....

...and then I worried that I had made a horrible mistake.

I really don't want to write what I'm about to write, but what is the purpose of a review if not to share how you felt about something? Claire Coffee is the first narrator and the first thing that I noticed is that her voice is much higher and reedier than I realized. I don't know if she modulates in her acting roles or if I just never noticed it when I was actually watching her, but her voice is not the type that I prefer to listen to. Still, I wanted very much to like this so I told myself that I could get over the timbre issues and continued. Then I noticed that she seemed to never have enough breath to finish her sentences. I think we've all had those times when we are just trying to squeeze out the last bit of breath in our lungs to get out that last thought, but she seemed to be doing this for nearly every sentence. That is indicative of breath control, and something I find horribly irritating (in part because it induces flash backs of my college voice instructor yelling, "SUPPORT!" and jabbing her fingers into my side). Honestly, I was shocked that Coffee was having this issue, as it is something that actors master early in their training. Things were not going well.

Still, I continued to listen and I was, frankly, floored by her one-note performance. There was barely any animation to her voice and her character, June, came across as lifeless. In one of the early action scenes, Coffee did liven things up a bit, but in a way that really didn't make any sense. She was more animated in the description passages, but the actual dialogue was almost lifeless. I wasn't even sure how I was supposed to feel during this section. Then, there were the accents. Or what should have been accents. I'm not exactly what she was trying to do, but the result was not any accent that I recognized, which was that thing that just made every.single.thing.worse. for me. Honestly, if a narrator can't do an accent, they just should even try.

In short, I felt that Coffee was just reading a book..and let's just keep that sentiment in mind for a moment.

Coffee and Giuntoli alternate chapters, with Coffee reading the present day sections told from June's point of view and Giuntoli reading the sections set in the past told from Peter's point of view. Once I got about 30 seconds into his first chapter, I was all, "What strange magic is this?" Look, I've always known Giuntoli was a capable actor (probably more than capable, but "Grimm" really didn't give the actors much to work with), but I never would have pegged him as someone up to the task of giving the performance I found in this audiobook. It wasn't that he was animated (although he was), but that he drew me into the story. His pacing was spot on, he imbued his passages with great humanity (keep in mind, he was reading the part of what is essentially a robot. A robot with a soul, but still.), he brought to life not only Peter, but any character he read, he hit all the accents nearly spot on, and I could not stop listening.

When it came down to it, he wasn't reading a book, as Coffee was, but telling me a story..and I didn't want it to end. Within his first chapter, I put him on that list of narrators who I would listen to for any book. That list, by the way, now has a whopping two names on it (and that other name happens to have 2 Oscars, 2 BAFTAs, 2 Golden Globes, and an Emmy--among many other awards). Of course, just my luck that this is the only book he's narrated...so far (yes I checked...and keep checking...)

I wish that Audible gave me the opportunity to rate the narrators separately, so that I could Giuntoli the 5 stars he deserves and Coffee probably a star more than she deserves, but that's not a possibility. Thus, I settled on 3 stars for the performance, a fair average of the two.

I had a problem. I desperately wanted to finish this book because of Giuntoli's narration, but I couldn't bear to suffer through any more of Coffee's narration. There was only one way to remedy this--I ended up downloading the Kindle version of the book and synced the two. I would read June's chapters and listen to Peter's chapter and that worked surprisingly well. As an aside, though, I should point out that when you do this, you can listen to the book through either the Audible app or the Kindle app. I tried both and found the Kindle app to be buggy for listening. If you try this, just stick to the Audible app. As long as you have WiFi, or have your apps set to use cellular data, the two will still sync.

The experience of this book, for me, was mostly about the narration, but I do want to address the story itself. I was lukewarm on it, but I am chalking that up to preference instead of quality. Steampunk is an acquired taste and is not for everyone. I know the basics of Steampunk and have read one other book in the genre, a middle grade novel, but this one was just a bit too much for me. From other reviews, it looks like those who enjoy steampunk are loving this book. But, if you aren't too familiar with the genre, I wouldn't call this a gateway novel and you might want to start with another title.

When it comes to recommending this book, if you like Steampunk, you'll probably love this. If you want a truly exceptional listening experience, get the audio book and listen to David Giuntoli's chapters. If you aren't really in to either of those, I'd skip this one.

Great story but...

I LOVED the story!! If I still had the time and patience I would totally buy a real book and read it again. The female narrator murdered this book for me. I will be sure to add her to my list of ones to avoid in the future. The male narrator was wonderful and I could listen to him all day! I’m not sure if/how a sequel could be done but if it’s narrates by someone else, I will definitely keep listening!

This story coupled to these narrators just flopped

I just felt... Incredulous. Disbelief is not easily suspended with this book and the author doesn't install the necessary psychological 'wormholes' for the reader to take that trip to disbelief without dissonance. The manner of the constant refrain to "My Pravda" could be seen ending in a train wreck a hemisphere away. The constant time traveling perspectives weren't by themselves deal breaking mechanisms, however I'm sorry but magic-not-named-as-such just doesn't do it for me. I was attracted to Robopocalypse for its longshot plausibility in a not too distant future, Robogenesis took it even further with regards to magical thinking, and was only saved by the emotional intensity of the plot, i.e. The author used an "Irate Shah" (angry king), as a heavy attention-gravity-well to provide cover from rationality for a bunch of experimental "magical thinking". Here we see Wilson perhaps doing something he wanted to do all along, abandon the hard constraints of science for the airy climes of imaginary worlds. Unfortunately, even for magic, everything runs on rules and the rules of magic as such are firmly grounded in mythology. When Wilson went off the rails and into the diversion of this book (perhaps to cleanse his palate after two novels of relatively good representations of hell) I was expecting a strong mythological substructure which would tie together all the fragments he has woven in admittedly graphic detail. I did not find much of that mythos and scant logos either. Disappointed.

If I want fantasy I'll read Tolkien or Rowling, those authors have a master's understanding (at least effectively) of the mythological world. Wilson may be a good scientist, but I see betrayed via this novel large holes in his mythological breadth and depth. Maybe clockwork dynasty is the mistake that will give the author the missing information that he needs to write an excellent third book in the Robopocalypse trilogy.

A great concept!

DEFINITELY a fun and interesting concept. the novel's pacing and structure is quick and nicely done and the twin performances were great (particularly Piotr's role).
My only critique is that the end is a bit abrupt and I wish we'd seen more characterization and backstory on the other characters ...prahaps in a sequel? I'd buy a second book.

Interesting Historical Scifi

This narration needed some pizzazz, like a full cast. I didn't hate the female narrator, but she didn't quite carry the story. Maybe I would have liked her better if there wasn't such a jarring difference between her style and the style of the male narrator who she swapped back and forth with. I lay the blame on the production. The story was interesting, but I probably would have enjoyed it more if more questions were answered. Sequel?

Awful story, confusing, female narrator immature.

A close friend raved about this and I ordered it without even looking at the story review. I trusted her so much. She had recommended books like Circe and Spinning Silver. It started off so promising with an interesting content and direction. Then I just lost comprehension and interest fairly fast. I admit I had to jump around to see if anything happened that was worthwhile plot wise but I never found it.

Fun Listen

Enjoyable and engaging! Plot was a bit incoherent at times, and got lost in its own descriptions of violence, but overall an engaging story.

unique story

this was a fabulous story. it got a little boring towards the end.... but overall an excellent read.

David's smooth voice was intoxicating.
the female... not so much.

Not a review of the readers

(Though they were fine) I enjoyed the book. Its a fun romp through the ages, with each ch told thrugh a different characters eyes. The author knows about robots & robotics but doesnt let the story get too bogged down with a factual how to create a living robot (that could pass off as human.) The story is plausible but you have to suspend your belief a little. But what SF book doesnt? Its fun, I kept listening because the characters are compelling.

plot holes

Coffee did well but Guintoli drops his voice to add tension, for me, listening as I drive, it just means I can't hear him. Turn it up and the normal voice is startlingly loud.
The story itself just had too many holes. It is present day yet a piece can be reverse engineered in 30 seconds from observing a hole? A woman described as slender can somehow get her arm free when pinned, enough to swing at the bulky man kneeling on her? Even though he is sitting on her with his arm across her throat, when she somehow turns on the drill and catches his hair, he doesn't knock her out so she'll stop?
This was not worth this month's credit at all. What a waste of time.