Hethor is an aprentice clockmaker who lives in a literal clockwork universe. One night the brass angel Gabriel comes to him and charges him with the task of finding the Key Perilous so that he can wind the mainspring of the world so that the Earth will continue turning.

There were some things that threw me when I first picked up the book. First, I hated "Hethor" as a name choice. It made me cringe every time I read it, tossing me out of story. Second, while I'm all for starting in the middle, this book launched so quickly into the action of the story that I didn't have a chance to know anything about Hethor, so I just didn't care about him.

But these issues were eventually overcome. I started to ignore the oddness of the name, and I learned to care about the character through how he faced the challenges presented to him. The book also grew on me further as he journeyed into an ever-weirder world. Some of the oddities might be jarring, but I found them delightful, and I grew to thoroughly enjoy this strange and heretical book. ( )

This fantasy has the bizarre and interesting premise of a literal clockwork universe. The Earth’s mainspring is winding down and young apprentice clockmaker Hethor Jacques is charged with finding the Key Perilous and winding it up again by a Brass Angel. The equator of the Earth is a giant gear that meshes with another for Earth’s journey around the Lamp of the Sun. Set in an alternate 19th-century Earth where Her Imperial Majesty Queen Victoria rules over England and Her American Possessions, the story is set up in an interesting fashion with the promise of armed zeppelins to boot. But then the sluggish pacing sets in and before you’re halfway through you’re half convinced the protagonist is a dull-witted simp who often just gets lucky to get out of any particular scrape he’s gets into. It often seems that deus ex machine is at work several times within the story. Until finally, the story completely sputters out and leaves the reader wholly unsatisfied. There wasn’t even a compelling villain to hate. And also, several questions go unanswered. This was a waste of time. ( )

Its an edge of the seat sort of book. Just as soon as you figure out what is happening, the plot goes in a completely different direction. Great Steam Punk book. I can't wait to read the next one in the series. ( )

Inventive story that's a great example of Steampunk. Loved the worldbuilding and imaginative way Lake describes a world runs on a huge brass gear. Glad that the main character is a teen boy since the book was published for adults but this gives it older teen appeal as well. ( )

At what price is your faith worth placing aside?

This is an interesting piece of world building and thought provoking development at a personal worth level. The period and airships aside, we are immersed into a world on the verge of ending in an 'untimely' wind down. The journey is not one so much to a destination but is a searching of one's soul to ascertain a value placed upon creation itself and God's role for that creation.

I liked this title and would recommend it. Not for the "steam punk" aspects which are merely window dressing. I would not make this a part of any 'cannon'. It is simply a pretty good page turner on its own level. ( )