Book Review: The Clockwork Dagger by Beth Cato

The Clockwork Dagger is an intriguing and rewarding read. It’s the story of Octavia Leander as she embarks upon a mission to aid a war-plagued village, and the people and obstacles she meets along her journey by dirigible.

Octavia is immediately engaging, her healing magics fascinating, and her determination is refreshing. An orphan after her parents were killed in war, Octavia was taken in by Miss Percival, the head of a healer school. Having now completed her studies, Octavia has been hired to a post in a remote village where the war between Caskentia and the Waste has left poison behind it.

A recently signed armistice does little for the tension in Caskentia. A kidnapped Caskentian princess was the catalyst for the war with the Dallows as they call themselves, or Wasters as Caskentia calls them, and the Waster tactics of biological and magical attacks have touched almost every life in Caskentia.

Poor government does no favors for Caskentia, and leaves its citizens somewhat ambivalent about the future. The Queen has withdrawn from the reach of Dallowmen, but also from the plight of her subjects, and there seems no relief even though the actual fighting is stopped.
The Clockwork Daggers are the Queen’s royal guards and assassins, trained to be so skilled at their task they almost become their tools (daggers) and seem more or less than human (clockwork).

Beth Cato creates a fascinating and rich world in The Clockwork Dagger. It is a melange of magical and mechanical, steam and clockwork. One may travel by horse, mechanical wagon, buzzer (airplane), or by dirigibles lifted by various aethers. One might have a mechanical pet, or one created by biological experimentation. Magics and enchantments are commonplace.

Cato’s characters are rounded and well-drawn. Besides Octavia’s travelling roommate who publishes apparently trashy paperback novels, a couple of ship’s porters, a bartender, and a travelling salesman, one finds code-breaking professors, creators of undetectable (except by magic) mechanical prosthetics, proselytizing anti-Magic proponents, and a gremlin.

Why you should read this book:
It’s a lot of fun. I laughed, and I connected with the characters, and I read it all in one sitting. (I’m a speed reader, so maybe don’t try that at home.)

Octavia’s magic is different, and really interesting. Seeing how that magic system fits into the larger world is rewarding as well. One of the main characters is a person of color. (Others may be as well, but this one was described in depth and detail.)

The protagonist is a woman of resource, guts, and motivation. She does not wait around to be rescued. In fact, sometimes she rescues herself and her male companion.

World-building is one of my favorite things in fantasy and sci-fi, both of which one could claim steampunk fiction is related to. Regardless of the genre’s literary roots, The Clockwork Dagger is a stellar example of some first-class world-building.

The gremlin is really, really adorable. Seriously cute.

Some cautionary notes: There are some fairly descriptive passages regarding wounds and magical healing which some readers may find disturbing. The Dallows/Waste society appears to be an patriarchal group which values women so much it shuts them up to bear children. A main character is a war veteran and an amputee with a prosthetic limb. There may be other sensitive areas which I have missed because I’m not personally sensitive to them.

The Clockwork Dagger is available in paperback and e-book now.