Clockwork Boys (Clocktaur War Book 1)

Great book. Loved the characters. The consept wasn't the most original, but the story was gripping. Some epic comic moments, some exciting and some emotional - a nice blend. Can't wait for the next. Well done!

Interesting characters, well paced, never dragging, and left enough mysteries hanging that I really want the next one right now right now. The world building, as always with this author, is wonderful.

As always, Kingfisher weaves a great story. I have to compliment her editor too: no irritating misuse of words or poor formatting, as seems overly common in my kindle experience.
The story is engaging, with a well developed female lead character (guys, and I do mean guys, don't let the sex of the lead character make you ignore an entertaining read).
Lost the one star because the male characters are a bit less well developed.
I am really looking forward to the next installments! I am hoping that different story lines get developed and woven together, as there are always multiple threads and points of view. Maybe that of the nominal enemy...?

When reading a T. Kingfisher book, there are a few things to expect: snarky dialogue, (mostly) sensible protagonists, and unpredictable but wondrously imaginative creatures and locations. Clockwork Boys is no exception - strongly recommended.

If you, like me, tire of impossibly perfect fantasy heroes, you will find this a refreshing change of pace.

A forger, an assassin, a priest, and a paladin set off on what looks like a suicide mission to find the secret of the Clockwork Boys. Nobody is quite what they seem, some of the party members are not prepared for the realities of adventure, and at least one entertains thoughts of running off with a kindred soul from a chance encounter.

Kingfisher creates characters that are delightfully relatable, flaws and strengths alike. Her world is populated with all the excitement and dangers one would expect, but her writing manages to turn a great many tired fantasy tropes inside out. It's fresh and nuanced and, at times, very, very funny.

Can't wait for the sequel!

Ursula just keeps getting better. This is incredibly well written if a trifle darker than her usual. (I say that having read everything of hers except Summer In Orcus, which I have heard to have given some people the serious creeps. I'm nerving myself up for that one.) Clockwork Boys is a good, fun, incredibly imaginative and delightfully weird read. More giggles than you'd expect from a group of adventurers going on what they're pretty sure is a suicide mission. I can't wait for the second half of the series. Duology? Is that a word? Anyhow, thoroughly enjoyable.

Repetive, and with no resolution.The characters are very uninteresting. The story never goes anywhere after the first 20 pages. I couldn't wait for it to end and I didn't realize it was a tease to buy other
books in the series.

This book is the first part and beginning of Clocktaur War, a story that continues in The Wonder Engine, about an apparent suicide mission undertaken by a thief, a paladin, an assassin, and a scholar. If you like fantasy, like, at all, you should read these books. Ursula Vernon's books are great. I haven’t finished reading ALL of her stuff, but I’m going to. You should too.

It’s easier to describe Clocktaur War by what it is not rather than what it is. It is not a Tolkien clone, it is not Grimdark, and it is not a Pratchett clone. Numerous pages are not expended on past histories, languages, and genealogies. In fact, despite using settings, character archetypes, and plot elements utilized in epic fantasy, I’m not sure you can call it epic fantasy due to its length. Both of the books that comprise this series are pretty short. Unlike Grimdark novels, it does not put a dark twist on traditional fantasy tropes, replace the battle of Good vs. Evil with sympathetic characters on all sides, or present the fantastic through a lens of gritty realist. It does have recognizably human characters interacting and reacting in recognizably human ways though. And it’s not as goofy as Pratchett’s work. It is funny though, in a sarcastic, sardonic, witty, clever, brilliant way. Humor-by-way-of-wit is so rare that when I encounter it in the wild, I really don’t know what to do except jump up and down and encourage everyone else to buy and read it so that more will be produced. I like it, you see, and if more people buy it, I might get more of it.

One of the reasons I enjoyed reading Kings of the Wyld last year was that the characters of that book reminded me of old Dungeons and Dragons characters that I had and gaming sessions that I experienced. Clocktaur War has characters that I wish that I had and gaming sessions that I wish that I had experienced.

Entertaining new fantasy novel, from an award-winning author. Great characters and dialogue. The world-building was a bit weak. A good editor could have tightened it up to be better, though.

It’s a medieval-ish fantasy world, a war between two kingdoms. One has developed some kind of machine referred to by the other side as “Clockwork Boys.” The Clockwork Boys have been devastating villages and throwing back armies. In desperation, the Dowager Queen chooses three criminals and a young scholar to sneak into the other kingdom to find out any weaknesses to these machines. The criminals include a young female forger forced to be in command, a cynical male assassin, and a former palace hero and demon-slayer who got taken over by a demon himself and committed horrible murders. The scholar is a 19-year-old young man who has been told that women are evil. A lot of fun is seeing how these misfits interact and slowly build something resembling a team.

However, I didn't believe the world that she created. As the team moves toward their goal, they encounter various magical threats that the reader has not been prepared for. Sure, an author can have surprises; but when the surprises appear to be tossed in just to have a cool magical creature and I haven’t seen how this particular world could HAVE these specific threats, I get knocked out of my “willing suspension of disbelief.” It’s kind of like a role-playing game with two different game masters who keep trying to take over and change the rules.

Fortunately the characters and witty dialogue kept me reading, so I will be interested in the second book. But it could have been much better.

As expected from Kingfisher, a work of fantasy that feels REAL. Real people with real strengths, weaknesses, fears, and desires. The story begins with the classic trope of condemned prisoners assigned a task that will probably kill them. Everything spins wildly out of control as opposing personalities butt heads but still get the job done.

The story grabs you and kicks your legs out fron under you, only to pause a moment to tickle you until you pee yourself laughing, then punch you again. The prose is descriptive and beautifully crafted, the dialouge whispers voices in your ear. I need the next book. NEED IT!

I enjoyed the fantasy storyline, and the hint of a love triangle between the three main characters, but the thing I will remember most is the aftermath of the horse riding. I literally lay in bed, laughing until I teared up. Imagine having to ride a horse all day when you have never ridden a horse before. Then imagine getting off that horse....
I don't know if the author meant to make that scene quite so funny, but I have rarely enjoyed a laugh as much as I did reading the Clockwork Boys.

T. Kingfisher has enough cred as an author with me that I will give anything she writes a try. But it’s not reasonable to expect that any one author will hit your target every single time. This is a perfectly good story, excellently written, with engaging characters. It just didn’t hit my personal sweet spots in terms of story and characters. Your experience will most likely be different.

The author uses language magnificently and has a delightful turn of phrase. My favorite line from the book is "Hours passed, like a kidney stone." The characters are (mostly) well developed and believable and I quite liked being introduced to them. Given where & how it ends, it seems like this is the first part of what was originally a much larger manuscript, but the 2nd book is already out, so the cliffhanger isn't too bad. Overall, I quite liked it!

Well-written, fun fantasy with some steampunk elements. I don't usually like steampunk but really enjoyed this one. I really liked the main characters.
My only complaint was that it didn't really feel like a standalone novel - you really need to read the sequel (and vice versa) - more like a part 1 of 2.

This story has a wrapping of traditional fantasy, with a party and a quest, but that just covers a heart filled with wonderful weirdness. In the same vein, Kingfisher writes with a light touch that covers some real heart. The characters are well-drawn, so much so that I couldn't name a favourite, and the story is engaging - who are the Clockwork Boys really? Why does the demon-hunting paladin have a dead demon possessing his soul? Why does this quest really need a burglarising forger along?
This is all set in a land whose map would consider the notation "here be dragons" to be a bit staid and boring.
The only flaw is the wait for book 2.

I expected cookie cutter and wound up scaring my cats with violent chortling. Haven’t enjoyed a book so much in a long while. Sweet Jeeves. That first horse ride! Buy it. Read it. You won’t be sorry

I loved the characters, the dialogue, the plot . . . everything, really. The author has a unique way with metaphors that made me laugh several times. My only complaint about this book is having to wait a few months for the next.

I waited until the second half was out before reading this, which was a good call. It's been quite some time since I read a book (or in this case a pair of them) where I went right back to the beginning and read it again as soon as I'd finished.

This is a rollicking yarn about a band of misfits on a suicide mission. I was made to care about all of the characters, even the "bad" ones. Just when you thought our heroes were hosed, another wrinkle in the story. Can't wait to read book 2!

My brief, elevator pitch description of Clockwork Boys is “Dungeons and Dragons meets Suicide Squad, but written by the illustrious and talented Ursula Vernon.” Seriously, I had no idea what Clockwork Boys was about when I picked it up… all I knew was that it was by Ursula Vernon, and she’s literally never written a story that I haven’t loved.

Turns out, Clockwork Boys follows a group of criminals (and one teenage scholar/monk) who were selected by the Duchess of their country to sneak into a neighboring city-state and discover the origins and means to destroy their army of clockwork soldiers. Said neighbor is currently at war with pretty much everyone around them and winning, as the clockwork soldiers are as large as a house and almost indestructible. No one expects our heroes to succeed, themselves least of all, but if they do and somehow survive they will get full pardons.

Said heroes consist of Slate, a woman skilled at document forgery and creative accounting; Caliban, a paladin who was possessed by a demon and slaughtered a bunch of nuns before he could be exorcised; Brenner, an assassin and Slate’s ex-lover; and Learned Edmund, a nineteen-year-old scholar who’s practically never left his misogynistic monastery. The POV switches between Slate and Caliban, and they are the central protagonists of the novel.

I liked both Slate and Caliban. Slate’s down-to-earth and no-nonsense, and she’s also got severe allergies which are partly magical in nature. Whenever danger approaches, she gets hit with the smell of rosemary and can’t stop sneezing. Caliban is Vernon’s response to the paladin character type, which she says in the afterword kept annoying her. Caliban’s lost his god, his order, and everything he knew. Now he’s out in the real world and basically stuck working with a bunch of criminals… of which he is one.

The plot structure and world is very Dungeons and Dragons, with a group of mostly strangers thrown together on a traditional quest. That said, there are some interesting twists and turns along the way, and the pacing is fantastic. The story practically zips by, and I had trouble putting the book down. In a large part, this is aided by Vernon’s delightful writing, which is by turns emotionally charged and humorous. Sometimes both at the same time. Seriously, there’s some wonderful banter here.

As an example of the humor, I really loved the realism of two city folk (Slate and Brenner) having to ride horses for essentially the first time, for entire days… and what that feels like afterward. Weirdly, that never seems to come up in fantasy novels.

I have maybe two criticisms of Clockwork Boys. The first is that I wished there were more women. Slate’s great, but she’s the only significant female character and she’s interacting with mostly dudes. I’m pretty tired of science fiction and fantasy stories having only one girl on the team. I was hoping this would improve in the sequel… but it didn’t to any substantial degree.

Secondly, Clockwork Boys isn’t a complete story or even a story with its own arc. It’s literally the first half of a larger book — Vernon was worried that Clockwork Boys + The Wonder Engine would be too long, so she chopped them in half. Honestly, I would have preferred a giant, whomping fantasy novel. I can deal with those. As is, I immediately headed into book two, so I was essentially reading it as one novel.

While I might have had a couple of quibbles, overall Clockwork Boys was utterly delightful and tons of fun. It’s been a while since I enjoyed a book quite this much.