I can’t believe I forgot to write a review for this book when I read it.I have been a bit busy and ill over the past few months, but that’s no excuse for me not to recommend such a wonderful title as this.
I am a sucker for steampunk and this title by the talented Liesel Schwarz hit the button for me. I must admit to not having read the first book in the series, but I don’t believe this reduced my enjoyment of the story at all.
Eleanor Chance is the oracle, a human with the ability to connect to another world, a world where evil is commonplace, and when an army of automaton zombies begin to wreak havoc on London, she and her colleagues )including Madame Bathory, famed Vampire and wife of Dracula) take it upon themselves to put an end to the terror. As expected, things don’t go exactly to plan and we leave Eleanor on a mission to find her husband who has been “zombiefied”, for want of a better term.
There is a great sense of adventure in this novel and, as seems to be common among the steampunk genre, the heroine is strong and able…and just a little foolhardy. While at times one could be forgiven for likening the automated army to Doctor Who’s Cybermen, there is enough invention and uniqueness in the story to make any such thoughts fleeting.
If you like your novels with polished brass, flying ships and fin de siècle fog, you won’t go wrong with A Clockwork Heart.