Clockwork Boys

T. Kingfisher

2017 • 228 pages

Ratings107

Average rating4.1

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.

Genres

Moods

Content Warning

misogyny

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Series

2 primary books

#1 in Clocktaur War

Clocktaur War is a 2-book series with 2 released primary works first released in 2017 with contributions by T. Kingfisher.

Series

7 released books

The World of the White Rat

The World of the White Rat is a 7-book series with 7 released primary works first released in 2017 with contributions by T. Kingfisher. 1 book is still to be released. The next book is scheduled for release on 2026-01-01.

Popular Reviews

Reviews with the most likes.

MeowMeow

Classic fantasy adventure with a group. The story isn't complete, however – kind of left hanging right in the middle of things. Basically one book was chopped in two... so if that sort of thing pisses you off, you'll be mighty annoyed.

I've fallen in love with the writing style of T. Kingfisher (aka Ursula Vernon).

June 5, 2019

BulbasaurusThe7th

I don't like action and fantasy type deals that turn into annoying insta-love, “OMG, so complicated” romance bullshit. Sorry not sorry. I'm over the “she is not special but all the cool men are so into her because she is speshül”.
Life is too short for things like this, thanks, bye.

November 6, 2018

Jonathan Palfrey

This book and its sequel [b:The Wonder Engine 38352077 The Wonder Engine (Clocktaur War #2) T. Kingfisher https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1517810851l/38352077.SY75.jpg 58381662] go together, so I'll review them together. After only one reading I'm unsure whether to give 3 or 4 stars, so I'll give 3 to one and 4 to the other. I reread books, so I may revise this later.I grew up on science fiction, and I like any weird stuff in a story to have an explanation. Some fantasy stories have magic with rules and limitations, and if the magic follows the rules I accept that as an explanation. This story is what I call wild fantasy: there are no rules, no limitations, and no explanation beyond “Well, magic”. So, not really my kind of fiction.But I read the whole two-volume story because I found it readable, it's fluently written and I liked the characters.There's a definite plot to it, the characters are on a very dangerous mission, and they go through various kinds of suffering. But their personal interactions seem to be the most important thing here. The fictional dangers and suffering in some stories make me uncomfortable, but here I managed to read on through all that without taking it too seriously. Is this good or bad? Some people seem to like feeling uncomfortable in that way, but I don't.The characters are diverse and engaging, and their interactions are amusing. Some reviewers have mentioned Terry Pratchett. Most of the time I wasn't particularly reminded of him, but there are some similarities to his work, and the gnoles do remind me of him.

February 26, 2020