T. Kingfisher

Slate is a thief who specialized in stealing, forging, and planting paperwork. When she is arrested for treason, she finds herself part of a suicide mission with Brenner the assassin and the disgraced paladin Caliban, once a demonslayer, now host to the dead remains of the demon which sent him on a murderous rampage and shattered his world.Their goal is both simple and nearly impossible. Find a way to stop the Clockwork Boys: the massive ivory creatures wreaking ruin upon the countryside. But to do that, they must first cross a war zone, braving plague and magic, to reach Anuket City, the distant home of the enemy.

Clockwork Boys

Sarah Sammis

Clockwork Boys by T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon) is the first book in the Clocktaur duology. It's a quest to get information on horrifying surreal creatures that are terrorizing the trade routes.

http://pussreboots.com/blog/2018/comm...

Sandrin

delightful little read
love suicide missions with unlikely allies
the story couldve used some more world building(we dont get a lot of explanation about the society, magic, culture, food, and the religion is kinda glossed over) and it did end rather abruptly but still i liked the characters and their relationships with each other (snarky comments and sarcasm win me over every time) and the sexual tension between Slate and Caliban is... well. its there and i love it. 
felt that Brenner could have been developed more as a character not just the funny dangerous third wheel that was there just to create tension(i really hate love triangles so thats that). 
it would have been great if we got more backstory on each of the characters(hopefully in the next book).

Janice Hopper

10/2022: re-read for fun and to have something easy.

T. Kingfisher is Ursula Vernon for grown-ups, I think. 

There's a lot going on in this book. There's the suicide mission, performed by Caliban, the paladin who'd been possessed by a demon and MOSTLY exorcised, Brenner the assassin, Learned Edmund, the 19 year old Scholar, and the forger/burglar Slate, who leads them.

Lots of interesting things going on here. As others have wondered, how did a demon-fighting Paladin get POSSESSED by a demon? What exactly is going on with Brenner? What exactly is a gnole, and why is it willing to travel with folks who want to destroy the Clockwork Boys? (The gnole had been traveling with the Clockwork Boys when he fell off and got captured by the Rune (the deer people.) 

There's lots more to find out in this story. What happened to Slate in the city of Anuket previously? What are the chances of success for our fearless adventurers?

I felt like I saw influences from Pratchett and Bujold's Chalion series here. Not bad things at all.

Looking forward to the rest of the story now!

Magnus Dahl

Podcast review in Swedish: http://lashart.podbean.com/e/t-kingfi...

dead line

Saayan

So ridiculously good and laugh-out-loud funny! I was hooked from start to finish. I loved the world building and all of the main characters. The bit of a love triangle going on was yummy too. Can't wait to listen to the 2nd book next. The narrator of the audiobook gets an A+ as well.

Clockwork Boys

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