A review by saoki
The Wonder Engine by T. Kingfisher
5.0
This is not really a sequel as much as a continuation of the first book. I'm starting with this line so that anyone considering reading "the latest one" drops such idea very fast and picks up Clockwork Boys. You really need to read this story from the start.
That said, I'm happy to say the second part is as much fun as the first, with some added spiritual themes and a whole lot of romance (of both the doki-doki kind, as in the first part, and the more hands-on approach usually found in western stories).
This is a series end, people. Mysteries are solved! A heist is planned! Love is found! People do stupid things and have regrets! Our lovable murder hobos create a lot of corpses! It's all very exciting and kept me up way past my bedtime (no regrets).
But, do you know what I kept thinking? That I want more. Not only of this setting (I loved the wonder engines and the gnoles), but of her longer fiction. That this is the first really longform story I've read from Ursula Vernon. I've read a lot of her short fiction and some short books I'm not sure I should call novellas, but I'd never read anything this long by her, and she just nailed it. Not every author manages to be good at both short and long fiction. Here is hoping for more long fiction from her!
That said, I'm happy to say the second part is as much fun as the first, with some added spiritual themes and a whole lot of romance (of both the doki-doki kind, as in the first part, and the more hands-on approach usually found in western stories).
This is a series end, people. Mysteries are solved! A heist is planned! Love is found! People do stupid things and have regrets! Our lovable murder hobos create a lot of corpses! It's all very exciting and kept me up way past my bedtime (no regrets).
But, do you know what I kept thinking? That I want more. Not only of this setting (I loved the wonder engines and the gnoles), but of her longer fiction. That this is the first really longform story I've read from Ursula Vernon. I've read a lot of her short fiction and some short books I'm not sure I should call novellas, but I'd never read anything this long by her, and she just nailed it. Not every author manages to be good at both short and long fiction. Here is hoping for more long fiction from her!