Clockwork Heart by Dru Pagliassotti

I really don’t know what sort of story this is. It’s an adventure, it’s a mystery, it’s a crime novel, and a romance kind of all throw into one.  It's a complex blend of genres all set in a different world where technology is far behind our modern times in many respects, but has been carefully enough thought out that it makes sense.

At the center of the story is a young woman who works as an Icarus — basically the equivalent of a bicycle messenger, only state-sponsored and with wings instead of a bike. The setting is a city-state that supports a caste system of governance. Again, pretty well thought out and not too complicated. Taya, that main character, is a free-spirited, intelligent, unknowingly pretty protagonist who is drawn into a convoluted series of plots because she happens to be in the right place at the right time to save a woman and child who are members of the highest... Read More

Clockwork Heart by Dru Pagliassotti

The city of Ondinium clings to the side of a mountain where the rare and precious metal that the city is named for is mined. This substance is lighter than air and is used to create the marvels that the city is known for, including the huge clockwork engine that lives in the heart of the mountain. The castes of Ondinium live on separate tiers of the mountain with the lower castes occupying the sooty smog-filled expanse at the bottom. But Taya, whose family comes from the lowest caste, is an Icarus, a courier who straps on ondinium wings and freely flies up and down the mountain, without caste constraints. When Taya saves the lives of an Exalted’s family, she becomes embroiled in political intrigues that involve theft, terrorism, murder, computer hacking, and romance. And she doesn’t know whom she can trust.

Dru Pagliassotti’s steampunk setting is fascinating and Taya, who flies with metal ... Read More

Clockwork Lies: Iron Wind by Dru Pagliassotti

It’s been six years, but Taya, Cristof and Alister are back in Clockwork Lies: Iron Wind, a sequel to Dru Pagliassotti’s Clockwork Heart. You’ll really need to read that previous book to get the most out of Clockwork Lies: Iron Wind and this review will have spoilers for that first book, so proceed with caution.

Alister was blinded and exiled after his treasonous deeds in Clockwork Heart. His brother Cristof, who was happy just being a clockmaker, has reluctantly taken Alister’s place as an Exalted. He married Taya, the courageous Icarus who carries messages up and down the mountain city of Ondinium.

The city is named for its mines of ondinium, the precious lighter-than-air metal that Taya’s wings are made of. Many other countries would like to get their hands on some of that metal. The city is most vulnerable to atta... Read More

Kat chats with Dru Pagliassotti, author of Clockwork Heart, her first novel. 

Clockwork Heart is your first published novel, but how long have you been writing?

Like most writers, since childhood. Up until college I worked on a baby blue Smith Corona typewriter, with which I typed reams and reams of fantasy fiction on slick, erasable typing paper. Does anyone remember how that stuff smudged, anymore? I collected some rejections and became discouraged — like most new writers, I considered my fiction an extension of myself and took the rejections personally. Through college and graduate school I wrote fiction only for myself and my friends — on a Commodore 64 and Mac, respectively, thereby gaining editorial versatility but losing finger muscles. I began my fiction webzine, The Harrow, during an uncomfortable ... Read More