Dru Pagliassotti, Clockwork Heart

Clockwork Heart, Dru Pagliassoti, 2013, ISBN 9781770530263

This fantasy/romance tale takes place in a very stratified society.

Taya is an icarus, a courier (with metal wings) who can move freely between the social classes in the city of Ondinium. A person's class is tattooed on their forehead; only through reincarnation can a person rise in class.

One day, Taya saves an Exalted (members of the elite class) and her son from what could have been a mid-air disaster. There is a growing terrorism problem in Ondinium; was this their handiwork? Her heroism attracts the attention of Exalted Alister Forlore, a member of the ruling council (he is also very handsome). He also writes computer programs for the Great Engine, the analytical engine that helps to run the city. He has written a program that is supposed to predict a person's most compatible mate. Taya also meets Alister's brother, Christof. He is a sarcastic you-know-what who has renounced his Exalted status and lives in the Ondinium equivalent of the inner city.

Tempting as it is, Taya knows that having any sort of intimate relationship with an Exalted is a really bad idea. A few days later, an aircar in which Alister was supposed to be riding explodes in midair. There is no chance for a definite identification of the dead, but everyone assumes that Alister is dead. It becomes known that someone has been trying to run unauthorized programs in the Great Engine, which is a huge offense, even for an Exalted. Taya and Christof learn, to their shock, that Alister staged his own death, and that his personal-compatibility program is only the beginning of his plans for the people of Ondinium.

I totally enjoyed this book. It's got steampunk, and it's got really good writing that is easy to read. It also has a bit of romance. I am very interested in reading the other parts of this trilogy (whenever they are available).

Clockwork Heart

Dru Pagliassotti

Juno, Mar 2008, $6.99

ISBN: 9780809572564

The immense powerful city of Ondirium depends on its incredible Great Engine to run everything from the ground lowest caste corridors to the exalted peaks of the elite privileged sectors serving as a precise CLOCKWORK HEART of the metropolis. Taya the metal winged Icarus courier, who due to her position, can journey anywhere in the city from exalted Primus to middle caste Secundus to run down Tertius. One day while soaring across the city she notices a wireferry carriage failing; though she rescues the passengers including exalted Viera and her son Ariq, Taya had never seen machine failure before.

Viera introduces her savior to the highest elite where Taya has never been until now. These wealthy lofty individuals run the city. Taya is especially attracted to Decatur leader Alister Forlore and admires the dedication to the poor of his more forbidding somewhat estranged brother Cristof. However, a terrorist attack precisely engineered by the anti- Great Engine Torn Cards kills Alister and Viera's husband Caster. Taya and Cristof grieve yet feel strongly a need to investigate to learn why Caster and Alister were the targets although officially they are not sanctioned to do so. They will soon find more than they were seeking in the corridors of the city.

With a nod to hi tech (punch cards?) science fiction, the heart of CLOCKWORK HEART is a wonderful amateur sleuth fantasy. The story line is fast-paced especially the investigation while the multitude cast makes the caste system seem real. Fully developed are the heroine, two of her Icarus peers, the dour hero, his late brother, and other exalted; the support cast is solid coming from all over the city. However it is Ondirium that stars as the exalted heart of an enjoyable tale of three cities .

Harriet Klausner