Clockwork Boys

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.