Clockwork Heart by Dru Pagliassotti
Fantasy F Pagliassotti, D.
Steam-punk interests me. It’s set either sometime in the past or in an imaginary world with historical elements with some added technology that is far beyond anything we have available to us today. If you can’t imagine that, think something along the lines of the 1999 Will Smith movie Wild, Wild West or the better TV counterpart from the 1960s. In this steam-punk romance, Taya is a winged courier (an icarus) in the city state of Ondinium. Ondinium has strictly defined castes that rarely interact; only the icarii are allowed to mix freely. Taya rescues an exalted (the highest caste) woman and her child, which puts her in contact with the Forlore brothers, Cristof and Alister. Alister is everything an exalted should be, well-educated, charming and intelligent, while Cristof has left his caste behind to become a clockmaker. After a series of terrorist bombings, Taya gets caught up in an investigation of treason that reaches into the highest levels of government and threatens to bring down her beloved Ondinium. Clockwork Heart was a wonderful mix of genres. There’s a bit of mystery, a bit of science fiction and a bit of romance. Pagliassotti’s characters are extremely well-developed. I really felt like I KNEW Alister, Cristof and Taya by the end of the novel. Cristof especially is a great character. The world Pagiassottti created is really interesting. I want to read more about the people of Ondinium, especially the icarii. I just love the idea of being able to soar above the city on metal wings, free from the constraints of terra firma. - Jennifer Lohmann
The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
Fantasy F Jordan, R.
The Eye of the World is an excellent shepherd/farm boy/nobody-to-hero story, in which an attack on his village forces Rand Al’ Thor and his companions to leave their home and embark on an epic journey complete with a variety of magical beings, legends, prophesies and people who can talk to wolves. Robert Jordan does an impressive job of creating his own fantasy world with its own history, customs and species. The Eye of the World is the beginning of an eleven book fantasy series, but it does have a satisfying ending and can stand by itself whether or not you choose to read the rest of the books in the Wheel of Time series. - Elizabeth Watson
Science Fiction & Fantasy 37