A paladin, an assassin, a forger, and a scholar ride out of town. It’s not the start of a joke, but rather an espionage mission with deadly serious stakes. T. Kingfisher’s new novel begins the tale of a murderous band of criminals (and a scholar), thrown together in an attempt to unravel the secret of the Clockwork Boys, mechanical soldiers from a neighboring kingdom that promise ruin to the Dowager’s city.
If they succeed, rewards and pardons await, but that requires a long journey through enemy territory, directly into …
A paladin, an assassin, a forger, and a scholar ride out of town. It’s not the start of a joke, but rather an espionage mission with deadly serious stakes. T. Kingfisher’s new novel begins the tale of a murderous band of criminals (and a scholar), thrown together in an attempt to unravel the secret of the Clockwork Boys, mechanical soldiers from a neighboring kingdom that promise ruin to the Dowager’s city.
If they succeed, rewards and pardons await, but that requires a long journey through enemy territory, directly into the capital. It also requires them to refrain from killing each other along the way! At turns darkly comic and touching, The Clocktaur War duology puts together a broken group of people trying to make the most of the rest of their lives as they drive forward on their suicide mission.
Paperback, 262 pages
English language
Published March 6, 2018 by Argyll Productions.
... this shouldn't be 2 books! Especially since my local library does not provide volume 2, which I neglected to check beforehand! Apart from my individual tragedy, this book offers fun banters between unlikely group members for the first two thirds of the book, and then gets rapidly more thrilling. A bit below full 5 Stars bc of its slow start and some generic constellations, but still very much recommended!
A fun and cute read! However, it was way too short, so I’ll definitely get the second book.
Very easy to read. Was on a train all day and just powered through. Turns out I remember very little from the first time. It's quite funny for a book that is basically set in a war zone.
I love the ironic taste of this fantasy romance, and all of the main characters are people i know (including the insufferable misogynist scholar)
Shares Terry Pratchett's legacy of acknowledging dumb gender role stuff and then turning it on its head.
Good stuff.
