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The Clockwork Cathedral (2013)

by Heather Blackwood(Favorite Author)

3.86 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0988805413 (ISBN13: 9780988805415)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Triple Hare Press

series

The Time Corps Chronicles

review 1: What an entertaining read. A sci-fi/fantasy adventure, with steam punk, time travel, alternate realities and strong female characters. A Clockwork Cathedral is the launch of The Time Corps Chronicles by Heather Blackwood, which thus far leans toward YA.Felicia Sanchez, present-day medical student slips through a time rip into 19th Century New Orleans, which is similar to her historical version of the city and her country. There are enough difference to see this isn’t her linear history and she must play the part to fit in and work toward getting back to her own time and reality. Luckily, she has help.Blackwood provides a landscape that still has slavery and where women are second-place to men. She provides strong women characters to counteract this, thankfully, black mar... morek in humanity. This was a fun adventure of ingenuity with good action and character development. There are no glaring editing issues.Read November 2014; Kindle Freebie
review 2: Mad science, poker on a Riverboat and explosions! What more could you ask for?Ok, so there's no poker on a riverboat scene, per-se, but they talk about it. It's there I promise.First off Seamus should have been Scottish. Because I am and other than that, the Irish mad scientist is totally me. Cutting the novel some slack for that obvious oversight (^_-) it turns out to be a great book.I am typically leery of books which involve time travel. It's just such an easy plot to screw up. Often either the language is either completely modern which throws you from the period or everyone is a cardboard cutout of the period. Clockwork Cathedral contains none of that. The author addresses the differing customs of the times but instead of wild gasps of outrage it's mostly head shaking and sending the "local street urchin" to pick up something more suitable.One of the most difficult things to deal with in differing times are strong social issues like woman's rights and slavery. Kudos to the author for managing to cover the topic without trying to be "The Color Purple." Which is a difficult thing to do. Once again I'm impressed with the author's ability to have the period characters react to it in a way that sounds plausible. She doesn't have them instantly become equal rights pioneers at the first mention that slavery should be stopped (like they had never considered that it's inhuman?) Instead she somehow manages to make the reaction seem period plausible without making you want to punch the guy repeatedly in the teeth.I'll definitely be following this series. I'm dying to see how the relationship between Felicia and the Professor ends up(*nudge*,) Hazel looks like she's going to turn out to be pretty involved in whatever kind of shenanigans come next (I'm leaving why out of the review due to it being a blatant spoilers) and there's definitely _something_ going on with the "Others" mentioned in the description "Others are watching" who all seem to know more about what's going on than any of the main characters while frustratingly managing to not bring any of the rest of us, characters or readers, into the loop.And as much as that is a VERY strong lead into wherever this series is going the author manages to actually end the story on a cliffhanger without completely pissing me off. I've stopped reading other authors who seem incapable of finishing a book. A novel should end. The story told in that novel should be connected to the larger story of the entire series but most of the events of the novel should leave you with a sense of completion. Even epic series like The Wheel of Time and The Lord of the Rings manage to let you close that book with a feeling of accomplishment. Without this how can you greet the next novel with wide eyed exuberance? Blackwood is no exception. There's no doubt _something_ is coming next, but I have no idea what it is and that means I can't want to find out. Hopefully she follows this one up as closely as she did her last book. less

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