The Wonder Engine

Clocktaur War, Book 2

De: T. Kingfisher

Narrado por: Khristine Hvam

In the sequel to Clockwork Boys, Slate, Brenner, Caliban and Learned Edmund have arrived in Anuket City, the source of the mysterious Clockwork Boys. They even managed to build some trust in each other's skills. That trust is built on quicksand as the risks continue to escalate. But the secrets they're keeping could well destroy them, before the city even gets the chance...

Old foes and consequences of past decisions lurk in the shadows. Every team member's skills are required to succeed - even more so if they hope to survive.

The Wonder Engine never lets us forget our funny, broken group even as the action propels our heroes to new highs and lows. It shows that making the most of the rest of your life can be rewarding - no matter how many mechanical abominations you need to destroy to get there.

©2018 Ursula Vernon (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

if Terry Pratchett wrote wages of fear

The desperate heist story is a classic for a reason. Mismatched protagonists thrown together on a mission of likely death, learning to work together or betray each other... it's a great story and it's still great here, where a big heaping dollop of humor makes it just so much fun!

Fascinating story, great world-building.

I enjoyed this story and the world it lives in. Characters are well/fleshed out, love the narrator.

Nearly as good as the first

Fabulous, absolutely fabulous narrator.

The story wrap up is also fairly good with 2 problems. Too much filler,too much internal dialog. And every stupid person ‘pinches the bridge of their damn noses’ in frustration, anger, fear, sadness, etc. The nose bridge pinching happens 2-3 DOZEN times. It’s both waaayyy too often and something I’ve never seen anyone do in real life. Including me!

Good storytelling

I am never disappointed with the writing style of T. Kingfisher. This book was not at the top of my list, but glad I got it as it tied up all of the loose ends in Book 1

Enjoyable

A fun read, had me laughing and crying. Binged both books in two days.
"Shut up, Brenner."

love these books

I love all of these books. It was very cool to hear more about the Clocktaur Wars after reading Saint Of Steel. Admittedly, I really sorely missed the voice/narrator from the Saint Of Steel books. His voice was so soothing. As well, the discrepancies in the pronunciation of places/things and in the knoll speech between the two sets of books also got on my nerves juuust a little. I also really do wish they were longer and more detailed but thats because i like them so much. However, this is all pickiness; the stories are great and I will be re-reading.

Great story and performance

Glad it was a 2 part story so the characters could be more developed. I liked how the details trickled out versus everything just being dumped in the beginning. I think listening to the fine narration gave the story an added layer of its own.

Poor narration, pretty good story

Let me just start by saying: I love T. Kingfisher and will read everything she writes. With that, this book ended quite abruptly and I’m still confused and skeptical about the “source” of work blight. Here’s a piece of my review from The Clockwork Boys, since these are really two halves of the same book.

“I accidentally entered the World of the White Rat out of order- I listened to Swordheart and the first three Paladin books before this one. It does make sense to start with these two Clocktaur Wars books, but I actually do not think they are as strong as the Paladin books. Perhaps it was the narration (I listened to all of these books on audio), which wasn’t great for this duo. Perhaps I did not connect with Slate the way I did with Halla or Grace or Clara, but I felt that these two books were just a bit thin and at the same time overly convoluted. Some nice world building and generally strong characters, but a few holes and “convenient” plot devices that I couldn’t quite get with. I might not have minded so much if I had started with these, but again, I think the Paladin books are stronger.”

The Wonder Engine started well and I enjoyed the first half quite a bit. Then I got a little lost about two thirds in and couldn’t quite stick with it. The emotion of the characters and the grit of their various relationships was excellent, but the ending needed to be fleshed out.

Rich world building and great characters

Great sequel to the clockwork boys.
Characters are funny, flawed and I wish there were more books with them in it and in this well developed world. It filled in blanks in the history from Swordheart (my favourite from this world)

witty writing and great performance

I have come to enjoy King fisher's witty writing and complex characters. Khristine Hver has become one of my favorite voice actors as she has a great range and really brings characters to life. The Paladin series is great listen.