Clockwork Boys by T. Kingfisher

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.

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).

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.

I am only a few chapters in and giggling so hard I need to blow my nose. Funny and interesting and keeping me up.

3.5/5 stars. A suicide mission. A forger, an assassin, an imprisoned knight, and a religious zealot on a quest. An unlikely bunch marching off to their deaths. What could go wrong?This story barely scratched the surface, it's pretty short for a fantasy novel so it felt more like part 1 to a story; hopefully [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] remedies that.This was pretty fun. My first foray into a [a:T. Kingfisher 7367300 T. Kingfisher https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1642281799p2/7367300.jpg] story and I'm thoroughly satisfied. It's not steampunk despite what the cover and book title made me assume, the plot has more of a traditional fantasy feel to it with more modern humour that uplifted the whole story.I didn't feel much for the plot, aside from neutrality. I did, however, really like the characters. Not enough to make any of them very memorable I presume, but I did love seeing them quip and banter with one another, and develop their bond.This was a somewhat short, easy to follow adult fantasy with a plot and characters I thoroughly liked but didn't necessarily find special enough to warrant stronger feelings for. Though, know going into this that if you want a full story with closure you'll have to read both the books in this duology; Clockwork Boys doesn't really work as a satisfying standalone.