CBR18 BINGO: Right for Clockwork Boys (a character does the right thing even though it didn’t fit with the mission), Success for The Wonder Engine
Clockwork Boys
This is my 3rd Kingfisher book, and she is now 3 for 3 with road trip books. If I didn’t know better, I’d think that was her bread and butter. Nettle & Bone? Traveling. Swordheart? Basically a romantasy road trip. Clockwork Boys? More traveling. Mostly traveling, in fact.
It’s a good thing she does it well. She tends to suck me in immediately with her characters and the situations to which they are reacting. It also helps that she is funny, and the characters often are too, whether it’s the comments they make or the way they react to things. The characters in this case are Slate (forger), Brenner (assassin), Caliban (long story), and Learned Edmund, three-quarters of whom are criminals who will be pardoned if they go on a dangerous mission to figure out how to stop the clockwork machines attacking the Dowager’s lands.
It’s all traveling. Like, seriously, the whole book once the group has been assembled. With horses, which Brenner and Slate aren’t super familiar with. It makes for some entertaining scenes and lines, like “Brenner, who had never been on a horse in his life, had taken out his dagger and was showing it meaningfully to his mount. The horse did not look impressed.”
This is so clearly a set-up novel for the second book, which will presumably be where the meat and potatoes are, but there’s still a lot to enjoy here. We learn a lot about the characters, and they learn a lot about each other, and of course we get to discover parts of Kingfisher’s world. For me, this included revisiting the Vagrant Hills, chock full of creative and bizarre creatures. I had a lot of fun with this one and have already started the sequel.
The Wonder Engine
This picks up right where the first book ended, with our characters having safely (relatively) arrived at Anuket City. Now they need to start figuring out where the clocktaurs are coming from and how to stop them. Meanwhile, Slate is hiding from her dangerous past and also keeping that past hidden from the rest of the group.
The Wonder Engine is a much more plot-heavy book than the first one, but it doesn’t neglect characters or world-building. One of my favorite parts is learning more about gnole and gnole culture, which comes from Grimehug continuing to be part of the group and introducing them to other gnoles. For example, gnole pronouns are dependent on the role of the gnole. We learn that Grimehug is female, but because he’s a job gnole, he uses he/him pronouns.
Compared to the first book, this is much less funny. There is still humor that shines through, and I especially appreciate Slate’s sarcasm and sardonicism. The situation is more dangerous though, leaving a little less room for the humor.
I really enjoyed this duology, and now that I am more familiar with the world, I can move on to Paladin’s Grace. I foresee myself becoming obsessed with T. Kingfisher, and I’m ok with that.
