Moving backwards through the works of an author whose latest books I greatly enjoyed can sometimes be a disappointing journey, because I might not encounter the same level of storytelling of the later books, but this is definitely NOT the case with T. Kingfisher’s earlier novels, and I’m glad to report that I had a wonderful time with her Clocktaur War duology, which compelled me to read both books back to back, something I don’t usually do.

The Clockwork Boys starts with your typical quest undertaken by a group of people of disparate origin, but soon deviates from the usual narrative norm because both the quest and the characters are not what one would expect: Anuket City is waging war against its neighbors and does so not with conventional troops but through an unstoppable army of centaur-like mechanical constructs which lay waste to everything they find on their path, so that the ruler of the nearest realm recruits three convicted criminals for what amounts to a suicide mission to Anuket City - their goal is to learn where and how the clocktaurs are built and to obliterate the impending menace, even at the cost of their lives.

The unlikely trio is composed by Slate, a master forger and the only woman of the band; Brenner, an assassin-for-hire, and Caliban, a disgraced paladin who became a mass murderer when the demon he was exorcising took possession of him. To ensure that the three complete their mission, they are marked with a special kind of tattoo which will literally devour them if they deviate from their assignment. The fourth member of the group is no criminal, but a volunteer - Learned Edmund, a nineteen-year old scholar from a very misogynistic religious order who fears that prolonged contact with Slate will shrivel his private parts and liquefy his bowels. The four mismatched companions’ journey to Anuket City takes them through expected dangers and unexpected surprise encounters, while the personal dynamics between them shift and change, slowly but surely turning them into the cohesive group needed to unravel the clocktaurs’ mystery - and possibly to survive another day…

As is the case with all the Kingfisher novels I read so far, the characters are the unquestionable pillars of the story, particularly Slate and Caliban whose POVs take the readers through the risky journey, one where the perils of the roads go hand in hand with various discomforts, like Slate’s and Brenner’s unfamiliarity with horse riding, which offers the opportunity for some very amusing scenes. Their different personalities often clash, which doesn’t bode well for the success of the mission but on the other hand enables the author to develop her characters well through a few deft touches. At the start of the adventure, each of them is wrapped up in their own self-centered troubles: Slate feels like a dead woman walking, having fatalistically accepted that her demise might come either because of the mission or because of the past unfinished business awaiting for her in Anuket City; Caliban struggles under the weight of guilt for his actions and the loss of his god’s presence, while the remnants of the demon that possessed him still occasionally stir in the back of his mind; Learned Edmund teeters between lore-gathering and his fear of Slate’s proximity. As for Brenner… well, he’s something of a dangerously inscrutable presence and there’s always a not-so-faint air of menace hanging over him.

I warmed quite quickly toward Slate: her competence as a forger and her self-reliance go hand in hand with a fatalistic attitude that made her stand out immediately - that is, when she was not explosively sneezing from one of her many allergies. I knew from the start that her aversion to Caliban’s chivalrous attempts at protection (he’s still a paladin, after all) would put these two into an antagonistic relationship destined to transform into something quite different along the way: the slow-burn of it was handled with the usual dose of humorous incidents and misunderstandings that I’ve come to appreciate in T. Kingfisher’s romances, and in this particular case she also introduced the potentiality of a triangle thanks to Brenner and Slate’s past affiliation and the former’s constant, sneaky innuendo delivered with rapier-like subtlety.

Caliban is another intriguing character: he’s been cut off from the only life he knew after being subjected to the horrific control of a demon that compelled him to kill a number of people, and he’s looking, if not for redemption, for a way to atone for those actions. There are many layers to Caliban, and this first book in the duology only starts to peel a few of them off, but the best will be revealed only later on; what I found fascinating here, having encountered other paladins in the author’s subsequent novels, is the deconstruction of one of them as he’s presented after everything that made him a holy warrior has been stripped away from him.

Brenner remains quite enigmatic throughout this first book, and he reveals fairly little of himself, which sounds appropriate given his “profession” and the need to be invisible to be effective in his chosen line of work, while Learned Edmund is given more narrative space, particularly in his oh-so-difficult dealings with Slate as she never misses an opportunity to send barbed comments his way.

This was probably the most entertaining Kingfisher novel I read so far, peppered as it was with many giggle-worthy sentences: luckily for me, I read it only while at home, otherwise I might have risked looking like a crazy person when I burst out laughing in some of those instances. The only negative element I can think of is the abrupt conclusion of the book as the foursome reaches Anuket City, and I imagine how that would have annoyed me if I had encountered The Clockwork Boys at the time of its publication, but being able to move immediately to the second volume I did not have to suffer needlessly…. ( )

Entiendo que en realidad es una novela larga partida en dos, pero no me quito la sensaciĂłn de que este libro es simple introducciĂłn. Pero! El trabajo con los personajes y sus relaciones, como evolucionan durante el viaje y las escenas que crean; compensa toda sensaciĂłn introductoria.

Creo que es capaz de crear un sentido de la maravilla con un worldbuilding no muy extenso pero muy solido. A veces, menos es mas, y en esta novela se demuestra.

Tengo mucha curiosidad por leer lo que viene ahora. ( )

This was different and I still feel a little unsure perhaps of what I thought this might be and how it ended up being. But overall I liked the characters and premise and was entertained and I am curious where things will go in the next book. ( )

3.5 stars

This was enjoyable but felt a little incomplete -like the first half of a book not a whole book in of itself.
I like the characters and Im interested to see where it goes. ( )

Fairly reasonable fantasy/romance. Good enough to convince me to read the next book, but definitely not mind-blowing. ( )