Clockwork Heart by Dru Pagliassotti
Taya is an Icarus, a courier that soars above the mountain side city of Ondinium, the city named after the lighter than air metal that allows her to soar using wings made of this metal.
The novel opens up with her performing a daring midair rescue after a wireferry (aerial cable car) has an accident and only her quick thinking and skills allow her to rescue a mother and child that are in danger.
This act brings her to the attention of the Exalted Caste, of which the mother and son belong to. The tale continues on with danger, guns, muggings, extravagant dinner parties as well as several budding romances.
The world of Ondinium is a varied and multifaceted one. Multiple other nations are mentioned, and the core elements of the city are brought forth in the novel. The city is broken into three main sectors, Primus, Secundus, Tertius, roughly correlating to the various castes that are prevalent in the Ondinium society.
The different castes are
Exalted
Icarii
Cardinals
Plebians
With differences in each caste such as in the Icarus caste there are the Diplomats, Military, and Courier (Such as Taya is). There are a ton of different locations mentioned in the book, lending a sense of reality and truth to the setting and worldscape.
Eexalted Cristof is one of the ruling class, the Exalted, and the only one to have voluntarily left his caste in order to work with Clocks and to avoid the constraints and confines of his caste.
His brother Alister, is one of the Decatur, a programmer working with the Great Engine, an Analytical Engine that runs punch card programs that aid in the governing of the city state of Ondinium. These two along with Taya Icarus (as she is known to other castes due to her status) are the three main characters to the novel.
The title of the novel refers to a program written by Alister to aid in, well, romance. For more on The Clockwork Heart you will have to read the novel.
The book pulls in multiple Steampunk/Clockpunk staples including Analytical Engines, Caste Systems, aerial combats and intrigue. It has a greatly developed landscape along with interesting and engaging characters, that do not feel YA (Young Adult) instead this reader was not aware it is considered YA at all.
Heartily recommend this novel for a great, engaging read for fans of Steampunk, Clockpunk, or light hear romantic Science Fiction.
One fascinating item about this novel is pulled from the author's site, is that the core novel was written during NaNoWriMo 2004 (National Novel Writing Month) making it a winner in more than one sense.
Various Links
Cover Art to Clockwork Heart by Timothy Lanz
http://www.stygiandarkness.com/
Clockwork Heart page
http://drupagliassotti.com/clockwork-heart/
Dru Pagliassotti Author's Page
http://drupagliassotti.com
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