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    A Clockwork Heart
    A Clockwork Heart
    A Clockwork Heart
    Audiobook10 hours

    A Clockwork Heart

    Written by Liesel Schwarz

    Narrated by Amy McFadden

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    For better or curse.

    That might as well have been the wedding vow of Elle Chance and her new husband, the ex-Warlock Hugh Marsh. For the couple has scarcely returned from their honeymoon when the ancient battle between Light and Shadow tears them apart.

    As Elle devotes herself to her duties as the Oracle—who alone has the power to keep the dark designs of Shadow at bay—Marsh finds himself missing the excitement of his former life as a Warlock. So when Commissioner Willoughby of the London Metropolitan Police seeks his help in solving a magical mystery, Marsh is only too happy to oblige. But in doing so, Marsh loses his heart, literally.

    In place of the flesh-and-blood organ is a clockwork device—a device that makes Marsh a kind of zombie. Nor is he the only one. A plague of clockwork zombies is afflicting London, sowing panic and whispers of revolution. Now Elle must join forces with her husband’s old friend the Nightwalker Loisa Belododia to track down Marsh’s heart and restore it to his chest before time runs out.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateDec 3, 2013
    ISBN9781480537712
    A Clockwork Heart
    Author

    Liesel Schwarz

    Liesel Schwarz, a lifelong fan of nineteenth-century Gothic literature, is a hopeless romantic who loves Victorians, steampunk, fairies, fantasy monsters, the fin de siècle, and knowing the correct way to drink absinthe. She also likes medieval things, pirates, zombies, space operas, and all subjects in between.

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    Reviews for A Clockwork Heart

    3.5/5

    5 ratings4 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Follows Taya Icarus, a girl who flies around delivering messages with the use of metal wings. The steampunk theme and visions of a metallic city is really awesome. The characters are all fun and love-able. I love this book--its mysterious, funny, and sometimes sentimental. Well rounded and amazing!
    • 4/5
      by Dru Pagliossotti

      The story of Taya, the icarus (basically just a winged messenger), and the unexpected turns her life takes after she rescues an Exalted.

      I wasn’t expecting to love this book. The cover art was bad, it seemed like it might veer in a kind of trashy direction. Anyway, whatever the reasons, I was expecting to read it and not be highly impressed.

      I was wrong. While it never astounded it me, it was an entirely enjoyable story, with some very well-written bits. I especially enjoyed the main characters. The mystery aspect wasn’t incredibly strong, but I’m not sure that it was meant to be. Instead we were given the growing relationship between two people from very different backgrounds (but different in a way that worked, as opposed to inducing eye-rolling and exclamations of “Oh, come on“).

      And then there was the worldbuilding. It was fantastic. From the first introduction of the city and society I believed it. I believed the caste structure, I believed the language and the different groups which had developed. Pagliossotti sold her creation like crazy. In fact, as much as I enjoyed the story and the characters, I think the worldbuilding was what made the book for me.

      I did also appreciate that, while there are mentions of lovers and this clearly is not a chaste society, that didn’t necessarily mean that we had to have steamy explicit scenes.

      I very much hope that we’ll have a sequel to this some day, or at least another book set in the same world.

      Book source: public library
      Other links: Leila’s review; review at Angieville; book’s page
      Book information: Juno Books, 2008

      -----

      Clockwork Heart by Dru Pagliossotti: This may be the book that surprised me the most for the year. I was expecting it to be okay, maybe, and instead I ended up really liking it and immediately going back to re-read the best bits. I loved the world Pagliossotti created, and I’m really happy to hear that there’s a sequel in the works. [2010 in books]

      -----

      Clockwork Heart by Dru Pagliossotti: A re-read, because I enjoyed it the first time. Enjoyed it again. I believe there’s a sequel in the works, which is nice, as long as it’s good. [March 2011]

    • 4/5
      The story embodied great elements of steampunk, but took it into a new world order set in a caste system, instead of Victorian England. The evolution of the current world with it's current restrictions, technology advances, and backwardness steams from lessons learned from past wars. The story focusing on a young Icarus, a mail courier who uses armature wings, who gets sucked into a terrorism plot after rescuing an Elated (upper caste) woman and child. Pagliassotti weaves the adventure, mystery of a terrorist plot on a country with light social commentary and great descriptions of mechanical flight armatures and deferential engines.
    • 2/5
      Chosen to become an icarus at age seven, Taya has spent her life as a messenger of the skies. Icarus fly on feather-light wings made of the precious metal ondinium, delivering mail throughout the three provinces of Ondinium: Primus, Secundus, and Tertius. As a way to protect its citizens, Ondinium has been divided into a many-layered social structure teeming with rules and codes of behavior, ranging from the lowest manual laborers to the highest or Exalteds who must wear heavy robes and masks in public to protect their purity (!). As an icarus, Taya is granted the unique position of residing outside of the different castes in order to fulfill her duties as a messenger.When a cable car malfunctions, Taya is on hand to rescue an exalted and her son which unexpectedly puts her directly in contact with the exalted's family - including the lady's two cousins, the brothers Alister and Cristof Forlore. Both brothers seem interested in Taya and she's not really sure what to make of either of them: Alister the charming and handsome politician or Cristof who has rejected his caste and now fixes clocks in one of the rougher parts of town. Ondinium has always been plagued by spies and terrorists, but when a series of bombings and murders occurs, Taya is forced to work closely with the Forlore brothers who definitely are not what they seem.This was the first Steampunk novel I've tried and it left me feeling a little underwhelmed. The premise caught my attention quickly enough, however, the characters and plot itself failed to really capture, and ultimately more important, keep my interest. I had to really force myself to continue reading and that's never a good sign. My mind often wandered while reading and I ended up creating all these random connections to other things: the province names Primus, Secundus and Tertius reminded me of the brother's names in Stardust and I kept thinking about the 2000 election and the eternal debate over torn chads every time the Great Engine's programming was explained. (Ondinium uses a type of punch card to run a steam-powered computer/engine.) Taya as a character held much promise on the surface: a girl who files around on metal wings who can cross class lines is a pretty good start, but she just never took flight for me. She had her moments, but I kept wondering how the story would have been handled if another author had written it.Since one of the components of Steampunk seems to involve romance, I was hoping for a good love story at the least. Again I was disappointed as I never really felt any sort of connection between either of the Forlore brothers and Taya. Not to mention the continual awkwardness of two brothers falling for the same girl. Eek - I wasn't buying it.Please don't take this to mean it was all bad - there were plenty of interesting scenes with promise. Overall, I just felt like the story could have been a little tighter. On the plus side, I loved the cover: the wings, the girl with the gear in her chest - awesome. I just kept hoping the story would measure up...