Clockwork Heart
Movies & Downloads • Reviews • Press & Interviews • Miscellaneous Facts
Taya soars over Ondinium on metal wings. She is an icarus — a courier privileged to travel freely across the city’s sectors and mingle indiscriminately among its castes. But even she can’t outfly the web of terrorism, loyalty, murder, and intrigue that snares her after a daring mid-air rescue. Taya finds herself entangled with the Forlore brothers, scions of an upperclass family: handsome, brilliant Alister, who sits on the governing council and writes programs for the Great Engine; and awkward, sharp-tongued Cristof, who has exiled himself from his caste and repairs clocks in Ondinium’s lowest sector. Both hide dangerous secrets, in this city that beats to the ticking of a clockwork heart….
Also available in e-book format from Fictionwise!
- Watch three student-made Clockwork Heart promos
- Download pdf file of full cover (10.6 MB)
- Download jpg of full cover (824 KB)
- Download pdf of Chapter 1 (324 KB)
- Download pdf marketing sheet (6.6 MB)
Reviews & Reader Comments:
Recommended. “Pagliasotti has brought forth a terrific novel, one that embodies a bold new direction in the fantasy genre. For those who enjoy the work of China Mieville or D.M. Cornish, here is another name to seek out on the bookshelves.” — Drew Bittner, SFRevu
5 Stars. “I must say, my little steampunk heart is just thrilled with this newest offering. It’s an off-world story and the author has done a fantastic job with the world-building.” — Elizabeth Headrick, BookFetish.Org
5 Stars. “Clockwork Heart is the best YA fantasy–the best book–I have read in a long time. Pagliassotti is now one of my new favorite authors, and I’ll look for any other book she comes out with.” — Cheryl Rainfield, CherylRainfield.Com
4.5 Stars. “Escape to the fantastic and captivating three-tiered city Pagliassotti has created. The plot is intricate and has multilayered characters who perplex, entertain, and gratify. This is a wonderfully written book — one for the keeper shelf.” — Romantic Times
4 Stars. “If you’re looking for traditional epic fantasy, this is not it. If you are willing to try something that carries hints of fantasy with no real magic or knights in shining armor, then this is worth the trip.” — John Hulet, FantasyLiterature.Net
“With a nod to hi tech (punch cards?) science fiction, the heart of CLOCKWORK HEART is a wonderful amateur sleuth fantasy.” — Harriet Klausner, Alternative Worlds
“CLOCKWORK HEART by Dru Pagliassotti was a treat to read. In fact, since finishing it I’ve found myself flipping back to reread my favorite parts, always a sign of a good book.” — Tia Nevitt, FantasyDebut.
“I don’t know if it was the technological slant of the book or the romance that hooked me, I suspect it was a little of both, but I thought it was very well done.” — SQT, Fantasy & Sci-Fi Lovin’ Book Reviews
“As the book progressed, the world got bigger and bigger, the technology became more and more interesting, the politics got increasingly more complex, and my perspective was constantly affected by snippets about the history of the world and by the different opinions of the characters. The interactions between different castes had me fascinated and I’m very curious about the world outside Ondinium,” — Leila Roy, Bookshelves of Doom
“I’m sitting here trying to think of someone I wouldn’t recommend this book to and I’m coming up blank.” —Angiegirl, Angieville
“I can wholly recommend Clockwork Heart for someone looking for a good read…” — Lys Rian, I Read What?
“This is a unique story which crosses the fantasy/romance barrier.” — Leanne Davis, Fresh Fiction.
“Fans of solid fantasy, steampunk or writers like China Miéville (though not quite as intense or quirky) will like this. Highly recommended.” — Doug Knipe, SciFiGuy.
Read the reader reviews at Amazon.Com.
Ventura County Star: “CLU Bookworm Writes a Novel“
BookFetish.Org: “On Wings of Ondinium: A Q&A with Dru Pagliassotti“
FantasyLiterature.Net Interview
Travis Heerman Interview
• Clockwork Heart was written for National Novel Writing Month, 2004
• Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction that features steam engines rather than spaceships. It’s classically set in the Victorian period, although books like Clockwork Heart move the subgenre into fantasy settings. You can read the 5/8/08 New York Times article about the steampunk aesthetic. (Don’t have an NYT subscription? Visit BugMeNot.Com.)
• The city name “Ondinium” is a thinly disguised version of “Londinium,” the Roman name for London, and descriptions of Ondinium’s pollution were based on descriptions of the smoke that hung over industrialized London.
• Many people think Clockwork Heart must have magic in it because it’s billed as a fantasy, but the only “magic” in the novel is the existence of the lighter-than-air metal ondium that allows icarii to fly.
• Cristof Forlore was inspired by all those “glasses guys” in anime and manga.
• You can buy a print of the cover art, “Her Clockwork Heart,” from artist Timothy Lantz.
drupagliassotti @ April 28, 2008