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Clockmaker
The crew of the airship Sultana is destitute. No one knows this better than its captain, Melek, who’s almost desperate enough to sell her treasured family heirlooms to pay her crew’s wages. So when a gentleman wearing a golden mask offers a fortune to transport him and a mysterious cargo, Melek can’t bring herself to refuse, even when her instincts warn of trouble. Now strange noises haunt her airship at night, and deadly warships stalk the Sultana through dark, stormy skies. Melek’s masked passenger refuses to explain anything, and Melek just wants to finish the job and take his money (though, secretly, she enjoys his company and their arguments). But he’s even more dangerous than she suspected, and she’ll have to unravel the dark intrigue he’s brought aboard her ship before it kills them all. If you like gothic thrills and swashbuckling adventure, then you won’t want to miss this exciting steampunk novel. Download Clockmaker now and take to the skies!
- GenresSteampunk
160 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 5, 2018
3 people are currently reading
19 people want to read
About the author
Kristen Brand
29 books506 followersIf Kristen Brand could have any superpower, she’d want telekinesis so she wouldn’t have to move from her computer to pour a new cup of tea. She spends far too much time on the internet, and when she’s not writing, she’s usually reading novels or comic books. Icon by @heckosart.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 4, 2018
4.5 stars--
ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date March 5, 2018
The crew of the airship Sultana are nearly destitute. No one knows this better than their captain, Melek, who’s almost desperate enough to sell her treasured family heirlooms to pay her crew’s wages. Then a reclusive gentleman wearing a strange golden mask offers a fortune to transport him and a mysterious cargo to Istanbul. Needing the money, Melek can’t bring herself to refuse, even when her instincts warn of trouble.
Now strange noises haunt her airship at night, and deadly warships stalk the Sultana through dark, stormy skies. Melek’s masked passenger refuses to explain his private affairs, and she enjoys arguing with him perhaps a little too much. But he’s even more dangerous than she suspected, and she’ll have to unravel the dark intrigue he’s brought aboard her ship before it kills them all.
••••••••••
REVIEW: 4.5 star--CLOCKMAKER by Kristen Brand is a gothic, steampunk, slightly paranormal story line - a spin off from the author’s Ghost Machine- focusing on Captain Melek and the crew of the airship Sultana but can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Captain Melek and her crew were first introduced as secondary and side characters in the author’s steampunk novel Ghost Machine.
For those readers new to the steampunk genre a simple explanation: Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction that typically features steam-powered machinery, often set in an alternative history of the nineteenth century British Victorian era or American Wild West; a re-imagination of modern art, technology and fashion. An example or two would be to reference Wild, Wild, West (the original television series) or the writings of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells.
Told from first person point of view (Captain Melek) CLOCKMAKER follows the captain and her crew of the airship Sultana as they embark on a cross continent trek on behalf of the golden-masked but secretive Mr. Lesauvage, and his fragile cargo of unknown origins. Broke and with no potential customers on the horizon Captain Melek will be offered an inordinate amount of money to transport Mr. Lesauvage and the mysterious payload to Istanbul. Simple enough except from the outset their journey is fraught with attempts on their lives, attacks by giant automatons (robots), and several deadly encounters with the warriors they have come to call the ‘Clockmakers’. What ensues is an adventure not for the faint of heart; a voyage fraught with secrets, a stowaway, a potential traitor; and numerous raids and invasions meant to disable and destroy the ship and her crew. Mr. Lesauvage is the assassin’s target but it is his mind and his ‘precious cargo’ that are the ultimate prize.
CLOCKMAKER is an exciting, action packed odyssey; a passage of fantasy, sci-fi and the paranormal meant to intrigue and entertain. A motion picture for the mind CLOCKMAKER is a descriptive, complex and fascinating look the imagination at work.
copy supplied for review
www.thereadingcafe.com
ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date March 5, 2018
The crew of the airship Sultana are nearly destitute. No one knows this better than their captain, Melek, who’s almost desperate enough to sell her treasured family heirlooms to pay her crew’s wages. Then a reclusive gentleman wearing a strange golden mask offers a fortune to transport him and a mysterious cargo to Istanbul. Needing the money, Melek can’t bring herself to refuse, even when her instincts warn of trouble.
Now strange noises haunt her airship at night, and deadly warships stalk the Sultana through dark, stormy skies. Melek’s masked passenger refuses to explain his private affairs, and she enjoys arguing with him perhaps a little too much. But he’s even more dangerous than she suspected, and she’ll have to unravel the dark intrigue he’s brought aboard her ship before it kills them all.
••••••••••
REVIEW: 4.5 star--CLOCKMAKER by Kristen Brand is a gothic, steampunk, slightly paranormal story line - a spin off from the author’s Ghost Machine- focusing on Captain Melek and the crew of the airship Sultana but can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Captain Melek and her crew were first introduced as secondary and side characters in the author’s steampunk novel Ghost Machine.
For those readers new to the steampunk genre a simple explanation: Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction that typically features steam-powered machinery, often set in an alternative history of the nineteenth century British Victorian era or American Wild West; a re-imagination of modern art, technology and fashion. An example or two would be to reference Wild, Wild, West (the original television series) or the writings of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells.
Told from first person point of view (Captain Melek) CLOCKMAKER follows the captain and her crew of the airship Sultana as they embark on a cross continent trek on behalf of the golden-masked but secretive Mr. Lesauvage, and his fragile cargo of unknown origins. Broke and with no potential customers on the horizon Captain Melek will be offered an inordinate amount of money to transport Mr. Lesauvage and the mysterious payload to Istanbul. Simple enough except from the outset their journey is fraught with attempts on their lives, attacks by giant automatons (robots), and several deadly encounters with the warriors they have come to call the ‘Clockmakers’. What ensues is an adventure not for the faint of heart; a voyage fraught with secrets, a stowaway, a potential traitor; and numerous raids and invasions meant to disable and destroy the ship and her crew. Mr. Lesauvage is the assassin’s target but it is his mind and his ‘precious cargo’ that are the ultimate prize.
CLOCKMAKER is an exciting, action packed odyssey; a passage of fantasy, sci-fi and the paranormal meant to intrigue and entertain. A motion picture for the mind CLOCKMAKER is a descriptive, complex and fascinating look the imagination at work.
copy supplied for review
www.thereadingcafe.com
March 26, 2018
https://functioninginsanity.blogspot....
I received a copy in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 4.5 Stars
The crew of the Sultana is small but they have come through and rebuilt after past wows. That has taken a toll and they are running on fumes. Captain Melek knows this so when she gets a very generous offer from a reclusive gentleman who wears a golden mask for a quick transport job she can’t refuse. Even if he is very mysterious about his cargo. Now noises haunt her ship and warships fill the skies looking for her ship bringing an added danger to her ship and crew. Despite the threats her passenger continues to be secretive and argumentative about his affairs but as the trip continues Captain Melek must have the truth if they have any chance of making it to Istanbul in one piece.
This is a mysterious journey with all types of monsters to behold and secrets to uncover. The back and forth with Captain Melek and Mr. Lesauvage was pretty entertaining even when I like her wanted to strange him and his secrecy. The dangers of the journey and situations they end up in keep you on the edge of your seat. This is a serious journey for our small but colorful crew. I loved the way they interacted with one another both good and bad as things get dicer and sanity and loyalty are tested. Emin, Ahmet, Ziska (who totally reminds me in small part of Kaylee from Firefly), Brocksby, and Mr. Moses. Each one of them has a story and a purpose they are working towards as well an important job on the ship.
I don’t want to spoil anything but as we get closer to the destination with lots of dings and near misses along the way truths come out and it brings back old horrors and enemies. Who can be trusted? Is the risk too high? Full of fantastical inventions like flying ships, recording spiders, and more it was a feast to the senses. I really enjoyed this story and could see it being a stand-alone but having read the original introduction to the good Captain I really enjoyed seeing more of her as she had been a favorite character.
I received a copy in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 4.5 Stars
The crew of the Sultana is small but they have come through and rebuilt after past wows. That has taken a toll and they are running on fumes. Captain Melek knows this so when she gets a very generous offer from a reclusive gentleman who wears a golden mask for a quick transport job she can’t refuse. Even if he is very mysterious about his cargo. Now noises haunt her ship and warships fill the skies looking for her ship bringing an added danger to her ship and crew. Despite the threats her passenger continues to be secretive and argumentative about his affairs but as the trip continues Captain Melek must have the truth if they have any chance of making it to Istanbul in one piece.
This is a mysterious journey with all types of monsters to behold and secrets to uncover. The back and forth with Captain Melek and Mr. Lesauvage was pretty entertaining even when I like her wanted to strange him and his secrecy. The dangers of the journey and situations they end up in keep you on the edge of your seat. This is a serious journey for our small but colorful crew. I loved the way they interacted with one another both good and bad as things get dicer and sanity and loyalty are tested. Emin, Ahmet, Ziska (who totally reminds me in small part of Kaylee from Firefly), Brocksby, and Mr. Moses. Each one of them has a story and a purpose they are working towards as well an important job on the ship.
I don’t want to spoil anything but as we get closer to the destination with lots of dings and near misses along the way truths come out and it brings back old horrors and enemies. Who can be trusted? Is the risk too high? Full of fantastical inventions like flying ships, recording spiders, and more it was a feast to the senses. I really enjoyed this story and could see it being a stand-alone but having read the original introduction to the good Captain I really enjoyed seeing more of her as she had been a favorite character.
March 28, 2019
This is a fun and enjoyable read.
I like the setting and the characters are fun. It is a fast read and being such, there is a shortage on world building which I would have enjoyed.
This definitely has the touch of Gothic Horror with a good dose of Mary Shelley in the story, so props to that.
I like the setting and the characters are fun. It is a fast read and being such, there is a shortage on world building which I would have enjoyed.
This definitely has the touch of Gothic Horror with a good dose of Mary Shelley in the story, so props to that.
May 3, 2018
Nice Read
This was a good story which flowed well. It was just the right length. My interest did not wane. The story kept my intetest.
This was a good story which flowed well. It was just the right length. My interest did not wane. The story kept my intetest.
September 27, 2019
Action-packed would be an understatement for Kristen Brand’s Clockmaker. From the beginning, when a desperate and cash-strapped Captain Melek takes a job that she knows is too good to be true, the Sultana and her crew are flying, and fighting, for their lives.
It has been a looong time since I last reviewed a steampunk work here. In principle, this is a style of work that I rather like, but since I was so disappointed in the anthology I reviewed in 2009 I have largely stayed away. Because Clockmaker is published by Silver Empire, I was willing to give this one a chance, and I am glad that I did.
Clockmaker is an adventure, a romance of the sky and of the wind. Accordingly, Captain Melek is quick with her wits and her fists, although she does have a bit of a preference for the latter. I have to imagine that Captain Melek shoots first on principle. Captain Melek’s preferred method of dealing with crew members questioning her authority is to beat them senseless. Fortunately, since she is the heroine, she is superior in degree to all comers. An interesting problem that can arise with this strategy of crew management is that you have the problem of being the fastest gun in West. Someone is always looking to displace you, and you can, in principle, lose authority over your crew if bested in this fashion. Melek is acutely aware of this, and worries about it.
Since it is also steampunk, that means it overlaps just a little bit with alternative history. One of the hallmarks of alt-history is the airship, a technology that was promptly displaced by airplanes in our world, but that is just too fun to ignore in fiction. With an airship, you can combine the fun of piracy on the high seas with relatively rapid travel and menacing clockwork contraptions. We get all of this in spades. Although, I would like to see Melek’s enemies, supposedly bright men, had heard of gorgets.
Alt-history is often also a good opportunity to engage in the reactionary aesthetics common to Mad Men, Downton Abbey, and the recent Paddington Bear movies. In our democratic age, aristocracy and hierarchy are suspect. However, as the popularity of all of these demonstrates, we kind of like fantasizing about living in worlds that are
part of a stable community, rooted in custom and place and history. There is a rhythm to the year, based not only on the church and on the commemorations of national history, but on the inescapable realities of an agricultural community – planting, harvest, haymaking and so on….
Steampunk worlds are of course part way through the process of losing all of these things, but they have more of them than ours does. And more airships, obviously.
Clockmaker feels like it could be the start of a great series, wherein Captain Melek guns down pirates, flies the blue skies, and perhaps even finds love. Let us see how it turns out.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout.
It has been a looong time since I last reviewed a steampunk work here. In principle, this is a style of work that I rather like, but since I was so disappointed in the anthology I reviewed in 2009 I have largely stayed away. Because Clockmaker is published by Silver Empire, I was willing to give this one a chance, and I am glad that I did.
Clockmaker is an adventure, a romance of the sky and of the wind. Accordingly, Captain Melek is quick with her wits and her fists, although she does have a bit of a preference for the latter. I have to imagine that Captain Melek shoots first on principle. Captain Melek’s preferred method of dealing with crew members questioning her authority is to beat them senseless. Fortunately, since she is the heroine, she is superior in degree to all comers. An interesting problem that can arise with this strategy of crew management is that you have the problem of being the fastest gun in West. Someone is always looking to displace you, and you can, in principle, lose authority over your crew if bested in this fashion. Melek is acutely aware of this, and worries about it.
Since it is also steampunk, that means it overlaps just a little bit with alternative history. One of the hallmarks of alt-history is the airship, a technology that was promptly displaced by airplanes in our world, but that is just too fun to ignore in fiction. With an airship, you can combine the fun of piracy on the high seas with relatively rapid travel and menacing clockwork contraptions. We get all of this in spades. Although, I would like to see Melek’s enemies, supposedly bright men, had heard of gorgets.
Alt-history is often also a good opportunity to engage in the reactionary aesthetics common to Mad Men, Downton Abbey, and the recent Paddington Bear movies. In our democratic age, aristocracy and hierarchy are suspect. However, as the popularity of all of these demonstrates, we kind of like fantasizing about living in worlds that are
part of a stable community, rooted in custom and place and history. There is a rhythm to the year, based not only on the church and on the commemorations of national history, but on the inescapable realities of an agricultural community – planting, harvest, haymaking and so on….
Steampunk worlds are of course part way through the process of losing all of these things, but they have more of them than ours does. And more airships, obviously.
Clockmaker feels like it could be the start of a great series, wherein Captain Melek guns down pirates, flies the blue skies, and perhaps even finds love. Let us see how it turns out.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout.
March 3, 2018
Told from the perspective of Captain Melek, Clockmaker follows the adventures of the airship Sultana a bit more than a year after the events of Ghost Machine. In the previous novel, the Sultana was attacked by armored mercenary soldiers and clockwork automatons, and Captain Melek watched many of her most loyal crew members die before her eyes. Now, with business crawling to a halt and only a handful of crew members to manage the ship, Melek is struggling to make ends meet. When a reclusive inventor named Mr. Lesauvage offers to pay a hefty sum in advance for merely transporting himself and some cargo to Istanbul, Melek knows that the job can't be nearly as simple as it sounds. But with money so tight, she has no other choice but to take the risk. When Lesauvage's dangerous enemies catch up to him, will Melek and her crew be strong enough to fend them off?
See my full review on TheGothicLibrary.com (after March 5).
See my full review on TheGothicLibrary.com (after March 5).
September 4, 2019
I'm hooked! This author has really pulled me into Steampunk! The characters are strong and continue to grow throughout the story. The story moves at a good pace with action and background weaved in. Excited for more!
June 22, 2018
Fast moving with interesting concepts. I thought the fight scenes were a little drawn out but that may appeal to other readers. If you're looking for a steampunk read this one is worth reading.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews