The Clockwork Woman

Time Hunter #3

by Claire Bott

Honore and Emily find themselves imprisoned in the 19th Century by a celebrated inventor _ but help comes from an unexpected source - a humanoid automaton created by, and to give pleasure to, its owner. As the trio escape to London, they are unprepared for what awaits them, and at every turn it seems impossible to avert what fate may have in store for the Clockwork Woman. Part mystery, part detective story, part dark fantasy, part science fiction ... original adventures in time and space.

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Fiction

85 pages, Paperback

First published July 12, 2004

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another entry in to the Time Hunter series from Telos and it had me hooked.

Why well - for one thing it deals with automata which is a theme that recent series (from Tennant to Capaldi) have visited AFTER this book was printed (The first was "the girl in the fireplace" which was 2007 I think) - so that caught my attention.

The second is - and I do not think I am giving spoilers if I say that the perspective changes - the story is being told from the perspective of Dove rather than the main characters, which for me gave an interesting twist to it all. There was a sense of naïvety which you can see evolve and change through the book.

And finally and this might be wishful thinking - it appears to be setting the scenes for a larger story to come - after all we have been through 3 adventures now and we know so little from the people it centres around (Emily & Honore)

So rather than settling in to something predictable and almost serialised we have here a series which can still shuffle the cards - even as they are in your hand - and give you a new story one which I was not expecting. Now lets see what happens next.

[Bookcollector · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the third book in the time hunter series. It was originally published in 2004 and based on characters from a doctor who novella, the cabinet of light. When telos lost the rights to publish doctor who books they created the time hunter series featuring the two characters fom the original doctor who novella, Emily Blandish and Honorè Lechasseur. (Eighteen years later telos have reprinted the eleven time hunter novellas and as a bonus have presented an alternative cabinet of light as book zero, making twelve time hunter books.)
This is a very well written book with a good central story. The characters are very well done and the central character, the clockwork woman, is very well written. This is a disturbing story in parts but still very good. I didn't read these at the time they were originally released and decided to read them after seeing they had been reprinted. A very enjoyable novella in a good series.

[Kara-karina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a short story which I bought during Steampunk Convival. Unfortunately the story didn't deliver what I wanted - as in plenty of steampunk gadgets and adventures, concentrating instead on fight for women's rights in 19th century, Mary Wollstonecraft's work and evolvement of an automaton's mind into an independent being.

It wasn't bad and had some interesting elements, but barely held my attention.