The Watchmaker of Filigree Street

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street #1

by Natasha Pulley

A sweeping, atmospheric narrative that takes the reader on an unexpected journey through Victorian London, Japan as its civil war crumbles long-standing traditions, and beyond.

1883. Thaniel Steepleton returns home to his tiny London apartment to find a gold pocket watch on his pillow. Six months later, the mysterious timepiece saves his life, drawing him away from a blast that destroys Scotland Yard. At last, he goes in search of its maker, Keita Mori, a kind, lonely immigrant from Japan. Although Mori seems harmless, a chain of unexplainable events soon suggests he must be hiding something. When Grace Carrow, an Oxford physicist, unwittingly interferes, Thaniel is torn between opposing loyalties.

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street is a sweeping, atmospheric narrative that takes the reader on an unexpected journey through Victorian London, Japan as its civil war crumbles long-standing traditions, and beyond. Blending historical events with dazzling flights of fancy, it opens doors to a strange and magical past.

Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Steampunk, Historical, Mystery, Magical Realism

Audible Audio

First published July 2, 2015

About the author

Natasha Pulley is the author of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, The Bedlam Stacks, and quite a lot more. An international bestseller, The Watchmaker of Filigree Street won a Betty Trask Award and was shortlisted for the Author’s Club Best First Novel Award, the Locus Awards, and remained on the Sunday Times bestseller list for much of summer 2016. The Bedlam Stacks was longlisted for the Walter Scott Award and shortlisted for the Encore Award.

Natasha has lived in Japan as a Daiwa Scholar, as well as China and Peru. She was a 2016 Gladstone Writer in Residence, and she teaches Creative Writing at Bath Spa University, alongside short courses at the Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education. She has also taught various courses for the Arvon Foundation and is always happy to be contacted about other residential teaching too.

Reviews

[Robin Hobb · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a tale that unfolds with the ticking precision of a fine timepiece. It doesn't hurry and it doesn't compromise. It definitely conveyed to me a feeling of a different time and a slightly different world.

The hardback itself is a lovely creation, with a keyhole cover, and a lovely font used throughout. The cover feels like suede. I mention this because it harmonizes so well with the atmosphere of the book. It feels as if I've picked up a book from another time and place.

In a sense, it could be categorized as steampunk, though I think Clockwork suits it admirably. It's a read to be savored rather than rushed through.

I liked her characterizations especially. I felt she didn't require me to like all of her characters, but presented them as they were and let me pass my own judgements upon them.

I will definitely watch for more books by Natasha Pulley. This is her debut novel.

[Sean Gibson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Generally speaking, I’m fully on board with genre-defying/genre-bending works. Is this historical fiction? Steampunk? Mystery? Alternate history? Romance? Yes, sort of, a little, kind of, and yeah, sure. ("It's a taste treat! It's a laxative! Stop--you're BOTH right!")

Where I tend to start losing the thread and incur cramping of the cerebellum (which is only slightly less painful than a calf cramp in the middle of the night) is when time travel gets involved. Now, there’s not time travel going on here, per se, but one of our primary characters, the inscrutable Keita Mori, is clairvoyant, which amounts to the same thing, particularly in the sense that as he intimates to various characters (particularly our protagonist, Thaniel Steepleton) his knowledge concerning the course of future events and subtly suggests how they might change them, that, in turn, changes his knowledge and perception of what is to come, resulting in the need to shove a banana into your ear so it can get to your brain (because potassium helps with cramps, right?).

I loved the atmosphere of the story at the start—very Sherlockian, oozing with Victorianicity (which is now a word, as I have declared it to be so). As things progress, however, we move from mystery to history to (nearly) unrequited romance, a somewhat jarring shift in focus. The writing is lovely, and each component of the story, taken individually, has merit; it’s just that, when mashed together, it feels a little disjointed. It’s a little bit like putting whipped cream and parmesan cheese on a hamburger—individually, all good things, but none of them really feel quite right together, and you’re left with a funny expression on your face if you try to consume them all at once. (I know one of you weirdos is going to wax poetic on the merits of whipped cream on burgers, so let me just stop you right there and suggest a tongue transplant.)

Ms. Pulley is a good writer and an imaginative storyteller—there’s enough promise here for me to keep an eye out for future works, even if this story didn’t totally work for me.

[Blake Fraina · Rating 5 out of 5]

All right, all you Sherlock Holmes fangirls, listen up.

What would you think of a version where “Sherlock” is a petite clairvoyant Japanese samurai/watchmaker with a Lincolnshire accent? And what if his “Watson” is a twenty-five year old Whitehall telegraph clerk who gave up his musical aspirations due to an acute case of synesthesia? And “Mary Watson” is an Oxford educated scientist with a butch haircut, a penchant for dressing in menswear and a Japanese dandy for a best friend? Think you might enjoy that?

Let me answer that for you. Yes. Yes, you would.

Okay okay, this isn’t really a Sherlock Holmes story. But it’s as good as. And I mean that respectfully and in every respect. I know from a little online investigative work that author Natasha Pulley is a Sherlock fan, and this novel, which is surely an homage to Arthur Conan Doyle’s number one son, definitely ranks among the best of them. I haven’t enjoyed a book this much in a while. The atmosphere of Victorian era London is lovingly recreated. The characters are completely enchanting and believable - by the end I was in love with them all. And in typical Conan Doyle fashion, the plot is labyrinthine and kind of outrageous (as is the resolution), but that’s all part of the fun. Plus, there’s a neat fantasy element that is completely unique and charming.

Like the entire oeuvre of recent Sherlock Holmes re-tellings, the focus is not really on the plot, which basically functions as nothing more than a convoluted Maguffin to deliver the real story – which is the relationship between these two very different men. I think readers will be delighted by the evident chemistry between the peculiar, misanthropic Keita Mori and hapless, pragmatist Nathaniel Steepleton.

I hesitate to say more, for fear of spoiling a story that was full of truly wonderful surprises. I loved this book. I hated that it ended because I wanted to spend more time with these people. So even though it’s unbelievably corny and I vowed I would never say this sort of thing, I’m kind of wishing for a sequel.

I’m confident this book will be a huge hit. It has all the right stuff.

**GOOD NEWS, MY PRETTIES - According to this article/interview (http://www.theskinny.co.uk/books/feat...), Pulley has finished the sequel and is working on the final installment of the trilogy...Hooray!!**

[Maxwell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this advanced reading copy from the publisher with no requirement of review. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

2.5 stars

I think this book has so much potential. It follows Nathaniel ("Thaniel") Steepleton who works in the Home Office in London after he mysteriously receives a pocket watch that ends up saving his life. He meets the watchmaker, Mori, as well as precocious, intellectual woman named Grace, and all of their stories come together to *sort of* solve a mystery.

I say "sort of" because really there isn't much plot to this book. It develops sort of in the latter half of the book, and so I think with more editing and revising, and bringing some of that conflict and action to the beginning more, the book could be a lot better.

My main issue with this book was that it just felt very confusing. Characters' motives, the choppy, obscure dialogue, and a lot of unresolved threads or open-ended scenes left me feeling a bit disoriented in the end. For most of the book I was unsure if I was confused because I was supposed to be confused and it would resolve later or if it was just written in a confusing way. It turns out to be the latter.

I enjoyed the Victorian London, Sherlockian, semi-steampunkish fantasy elements of the story. But when it was 95% historical fiction with only about 5% fantasy elements, it seemed a bit unrealistic that no one in the story was ever really surprised by the fantastical bits. They all just accepted it as fact or went along with it with very little convincing.

As for the characters, I never really grew attached to them because I didn't feel as though I ever really got to know them. Their dialogue, at times, was fairly unrealistic or convoluted, so I couldn't always follow their internal dialogue/thoughts in order to understand their motives. Basically, there were more than a couple times where things people said or did seemed illogical, and that kept me at a distance from the story.

Overall, like I said before, I think with some rearranging of plot points, deeper development of characters, and sprucing up the dialogue, this book could be a big hit. It has some really intriguing and wonderful elements--albeit, some slightly racist undertones? (maybe it's the 1883 setting?)--that make for a potentially fun experience. But in the end, I was left feeling underwhelmed by my experience.

[Phrynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one started so slowly I really was not sure where it was leading. I quickly became attached to Thaniel who obviously had hidden depths. I loved Mori who also had to be so much more than he appeared.
Then the story progressed and the author seemed to gather confidence and it all became very enjoyable, but mostly by the reader who enjoys magic and /or steampunk in their books. I like both so I knew I was in for a good time!
Just occasionally the author rambled a bit but all things eventually came back to the one story line and it was a good one! I actually was taken by surprise by the ending but at the same time was delighted by it!
All in all an excellent debut novel and I will watch out for more by this author.

15/5/20 If I had known when I was reading this that there was going to be a part 2 which reveals so very much more I would have given this five stars. If you have read this book you must move on to The Lost Future of Pepperharrow

[Katie Lumsden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect and fantastic on every reread. What a book. A forever favourite of mine.

[Donna · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was written by a first time author which I was excited about. I usually enjoy reading books by newcomers because I feel as if I'm discovering them, myself, and can tell everyone about them. Their debut novels are often special enough for them to fight to get them published without a proven track record. And this book looked as if it would meet my expectations with its beautiful three dimensional cover and its intriguing premise.

The story takes place in Victorian England where Thaniel, a telegraphist for the Home Office, receives a mysterious gift from someone who broke into his place--a finely crafted pocket watch which wouldn't open until six months later, when it sounded a warning that saved his life during a political bombing. Soon Thaniel meets the mysterious watchmaker, Mr. Mori, a Japanese immigrant of noble blood, who creates beautiful clockwork figures. The Home Office feels Mr. Mori may be connected to the bombings, and even as Thaniel begins to form a tentative friendship with Mori, his employer asks that Thaniel gather possible evidence against him. Complicating matters when her path crosses Thaniel's is Grace Carrow, an independent minded, scholarly woman forced into giving up her research on natural ether unless a plan she hatches ensures her financial independence.

So this sounded very interesting to me with its blend of steampunk, historical fiction, and political mystery, along with a good dose of the paranormal. But after reading only a few pages, I knew this book was in big trouble. Still, I kept reading it because it was a gift and because I kept hoping the wrinkles in the writing and the story would smooth out. But it would have taken a steam roller to accomplish that, or one very determined editor.

I kept trying to figure out where the problem lay. I finally determined that the writing was so disjointed that nothing made sense without me rereading practically every other paragraph. Instead of the sentences flowing into one another to form a cohesive thought, action, or scene, it was as if the author had tossed sentences of her rough draft up into the air and wrote them down in the order in which they landed. Or it was as if only half of the ideas in her head made it to the page, leaving the reader to guess at what the other half were to understand the story. Here's an example of the disjointed writing you'll encounter when reading this book:

'As the cab stopped gently on the gravel drive, he saw Mori on the balcony. Although he must have heard them, he did not look down. Threading his way through the foyer and the crowded stairway, where people had lined the rail to watch the dancing from above, Ito went up to him. Even the white men didn't have to duck to pass beneath the chrysanthemums.'

So what does the word "them" in the second sentence refer to? The cab? A cab isn't a them. Perhaps it refers to the driver of the cab and its one occupant who aren't even talking to be heard? Perhaps it refers to the horses pulling the cab, of which there is no mention? And what the heck do chrysanthemums have to do with this paragraph? Talk about a non sequitur! And why should the reader care that they're tall, though I'm not getting a clear picture as to how they could be something for a person to walk beneath. Sheesh.

This kind of writing is rampant in this book as well as the author focusing on minute details, such as how silk skirts hiss when someone wearing them walks, in favor of developing the character wearing the silk skirts. On it goes. The characters are mostly flat, bloodless, and unlikable, and they all sound alike, whether man or woman, young or old, British or Asian. Which brings me to this: there's a peppering of racial remarks throughout the book aimed at Asians and other non British persons. I'm not sure why the offensive remarks are in here, especially when everyone sounds the same and pretty much looks the same. One of the main characters, who's Asian, has bleached his hair blond and cut it very short. How very strange for a story taking place in the 1880's.

Here's one more example of some of the writing that had me scratching my head:

'The snow came down and silently down. There was snow in his thoughts, too. Matsumoto had been afraid. So had Grace. Through the snow, he couldn't see whether it was because they both understood things he hadn't, or because they had failed to understand something. And so he couldn't tell whether he had just watched Mori go to do what he had said, or just what Grace had said he would.' Righty-o. Got that drift on the third reading.

Was there any saving grace to this book besides its beautiful cover? There were a few elements in the muddled story that kept me plodding through it. One of the main characters has two very special talents, one obvious and one hidden, both of them intriguing. And there's the clockwork itself, one of the figures an endearing octopus. And around the two thirds mark, the characters and story took a turn that twisted this book on its head. But none of this was enough for me to even come close to recommending this book to anyone even though a number of people have praised it. Still, I'll treasure my copy, a surprise gift--"just because"--from my younger daughter.

[Elle (ellexamines on TT & Substack) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a strange and very wonderful book about making clocks, the future, and also love in the 1850s.

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street follows Thaniel, a local clerk who finds a watch on his person. When this watch alerts him of a bomb about to go off, his suspicions lead him to Mori, a Japanese clockmaker who is strangely kind to him.

Pretty cool setup, right? We don’t get a strong sense of Thaniel right off the bat; Mori, meanwhile, comes off as ambiguous but always strangely likeable. There is also another character, Grace, who shows up and slowly becomes a part of the book’s narrative. It is weird, and atmospheric, and very interesting to see the cogs turn.

The thing is that there is very little I can say about this book without at least vague spoilers, because the entire thing is a bit of a let’s-go-in-and-fuck-with-your-head-a-bit. So. If you’re okay with a spoiler for fifty pages in, you can continue this review.

We get the sense very early on that Mori can sense the future, simply by an amalgation of his clear knowledge of the watch and his actions in the past Japan-chapters. And I absolutely loved how the author played with this power as something fallible. Mori can predict friendships far into the future, but cannot detect based on the fall of a coin. There’s a tidbit about Mori’s accent that I really loved – he predicts that he won’t be seeing Thaniel very much anymore, and so his English accent loses its definition. This definition becomes one of the main conflicts of the book and is played with an extremely deft hand.

There is also a romance, and I want to talk about something here. At one point in the book, Thaniel participates in a marriage of convenience to Grace, and when he alerts Mori of this, he thinks to himself that he is stealing years of their strangely-close-roommates relationship from him. At this point in the book they’re not in any type of relationship; they’re simply living together, but he still feels as if he has lost something in giving up this living arrangement.

I’ve brought this up before, but I think there’s something unbearably tender about loving someone so deeply as a best friend that you don’t notice your feelings have turned romantic. With being queer comes a lack of ability to notice the difference, sometimes, and a weird penchant for falling head over heels for friends you love too much to ever ask or expect anything from. It was incredible to see that explored so explicitly.

While the narrative does at times explicitly challenge racism against Japanese characters, some xenophobia within the narrative goes unchallenged; an off-color remark about kimonos is perhaps realistic for a white character in 1800s Britain, but sort of in bad taste to go uncriticized. The treatment of lady suffragettes also struck me as odd; they are treated by Grace like idiots, and the narrative does not implicitly criticize this. Grace is not on any level written to be a voice of reason within the narrative, but I did wonder about the narrative purpose of these bits.

On the whole, however, I thought this was a fun and very engaging ride, and would love to read more. I honestly am not sure how to sum up why I liked this so much – it’s a book about the conflict between fate and chance, and also an imaginative clockwork fantasy, and also somewhat of a mystery, and also very Tender love story, and the finale is... Wild, and I honestly just really enjoyed this.

Blog | Goodreads | Twitter | Instagram | Spotify | Youtube

[Belinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

4,5 sterren - Nederlandse hardcover 🌷🌷🌷
Quote uit het boek : ze schrokken allebei op toen twaalf machines tegelijkertijd begonnen te ratelen. Door de snelheid waarmee de berichten binnenkwamen kwam de transcriptieband op een slordig hoopje te liggen, en iedereen graaide snel naar zijn potlood om de codes te noteren. Omdat de anderen letter voor letter werkten, was Thaniel de eerste die door had dat de machines allemaal hetzelfde zeiden :
Urgent, bom afgegaan in...
Victoria station verwoest...
... station ernstig beschadigd...
... in begagedepot verborgen....
....geavanceerd tijdmchanisme...
Victoria station ...
...politie gestuurd, mogelijk gewonden...
...Clan na Gael 🦋🦋🦋
Wat een meesterlijk in elkaar overlopend verhaal van met meerdere hoofdpersonen en verhaallijnen. Wat heb ik genoten van het verhaal en Grace,
onder andere, in mijn hart gesloten. Wil zeker meer van haar lezen. Meesterlijk zoals de karakters van de hoofdpersonen ook verweven zijn in het tempo waarin hun stuk van het verhaal vertelt wordt. Schitterende cover. ☘️☘️☘️

[Meep · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this book.

An intricate maze of clockwork that spirals out with easy charm until you see the greater picture.

Characters are complex, charming yet flawed. And there's a clockwork octopus! (that might have been what convinced me to buy!)

Grace who would be the heroine of another book, so clever, held back by her gender, yet she has a Sherlockian disregard of people and lacks romance in her mathamatical soul.
Matsumoto, sharp beneath his pretty veneer.
Quiet Mori; gentle charm, coils, whimsey and tea, yet he strikes fear in many.
Thaniel the main pov character, a simple self-sacrificing man, who sees colour and locks his dreams away.

Genial policemen and the blunt force of the law. Everything is layered. The whole story has an air of magic and the joy is more in exploring the characters, their attitudes and how they fit together, than the mystery plot. Romance is subtle yet powerful, it feels strong though barely on the page.

I finished and went immediately to the audio which is also a delight.
A firm favourite, I loved this story and will be reading it again.

[Teru · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5⭐
Okay but why isn’t this book talked about more?? And what was I doing, not knowing Natasha Pulley’s work before? Shame on me, seriously. An oversight that’s about to be remedied.

The story of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street is incredibly unique, driven by a plot that takes its time unfolding, with interesting characters I enjoyed. While historical isn’t a genre I tend to gravitate toward, it was such a delightful mix of mystery and magical realism, with steampunk vibes and some Japanese culture set mostly in 19th-century London, that hooked me and refused to let go. Seriously, I’m barely keeping my eyes open, but I just HAD TO finish it tonight, no matter what!

Thaniel Steepleton barely managed to avoid being blown off when a bomb at Scotland Yard went off, only thanks to a pocket watch that set off a shrieking alarm at the right time. A pocket watch that mysteriously appeared in his flat a few months ago. Intrigued - and mostly alarmed (pun intended) - he seeks out the watchmaker himself, one Keita Mori. This strange, lonely man is famous for his watches and mechanical inventions, but soon it becomes clear it’s not just his creations that are freakishly accurate - Mori himself always seems to know things before they even happen. And now he’s the main suspect in the bomb-making, with Thaniel tasked to watch him very closely...

I don’t even know what part I loved the most. The plot itself is amazing, the setting incredible, the clockwork making and the technical aspects of it fascinating (even though it mostly went over my head), all the wondrous machinery brought to life under Mori’s hands... and the characters!

Usually, I pick a favorite, but I’m pretty sure I love both Thaniel and Mori the same; they just tug at my heartstrings so much! And while I wouldn’t label the book as a romance, we get some truly delicious crumbs of their budding relationship, and they genuinely feel like soulmates to me - especially Mori would do anything to have Thaniel close, I’m pretty sure 😳 There’s an unspecified age gap (at least ten years) but anytime it wasn’t mentioned I forgot about it because of how inconsequential it was.

I would’ve preferred a bit more emotion shown on page, everything was more or less hinted at, but on the other hand, it fit the historical genre and the characters themselves.

It’s the first part of a duology, and I honestly can’t wait to find the time to dive into it. There’s so much more unexplored, and I need to know more about Keita Mori!

ALSO!!! You don’t understand but there’s a mechanical octopus named Katsu and I would honestly sell my soul for him, HE’S SO FREAKING ADORABLE!! ❤️ Look at these two and tell me you’re not melting into goo 🫠

Having plotted the kidnap the night before, Thaniel had the day’s clothes out already and so dressed uninterrupted, but the victory soon felt guilt-tinged. Very big to have outwitted a little mechanical octopus whose only ambition was the acquisition of socks. He turned back to let him out. Katsu stayed curled at the bottom of the drawer. Thaniel lifted him out, but he stayed stiff. He put him back. After looking down at him for a little while, he tucked some of the last remaining socks around him by way of an apology.

When it comes to some OP drama... none, in my opinion. Technically, Thaniel meets Grace (she’s actually a very important side character) and they strike a bargain - they marry and both get something out of it, with no romantic feelings involved (and nothing physical as well, of course). It doesn’t last long, and it didn’t bother me, at least for the obvious reasons it normally would.

[K.J. Charles]

Mph. This was well written and I was really enjoying it. Lovely sense of time, stroppy unlikeable heroine, interesting steampunky 'science' without too much annoying airship bobbins and a great concept. But I do wish there had been a proper plot--it just kind of evaporated towards the end, leaving me with a sense that there's less to this than meets the eye.

Also, there are multiple problematic issues with the Japanese elements (and also just stupid ones. A sequence where someone who doesn't speak or read Japanese can decipher a letter in a reasonably short amount of time simply by using a kanji-English dictionary? Are you kidding me?!), and then it turns out the author is a Daiwa scholar who lived in Japan for 18 months or something, which surprised me.

Mph, again. I wanted to like it more than I did, the author can write and has ideas, but ultimately insubstantial.

[Veronika · Rating 2 out of 5]

Spoiler. Da unten sind Spoiler, die ich nicht getaggt habe, weil ich zu wütend war. Lesen auf eigene Gefahr.

Die Grundprämisse der Geschichte ist großartig. Es spielt in London und in Japan des ausgehenden 19. Jahrhunderts und es geht um Bombenattentate, einen englischen Telegrafisten und einen japanischen Uhrmacher, der die Zukunft sehen kann. Und einen mechanischen Oktopus, der vielleicht oder vielleicht nicht eine Seele hat.
So weit, so gut, nicht wahr? Die Atmosphäre ist in vielen Momenten sehr schön und ich mag Magical Realism. In seinen besten Momenten liest sich das Buch wie ein Märchen.

Leider machen zwei Sachen null Sinn und null Spaß und dass sind die Charaktere (inklusive sämtlicher Romanzen) und die Handlung selbst.
Nathaniel (der englische Telegrafist) ist der langweiligste und passivste Protagonist unter der Sonne. Er macht NIE irgendwas, sondern die Handlung schickt ihn halt von A nach B. Er wird praktisch durch die Handlung geschleift und guckt meistens nur groß und emotet auch nicht viel. UGH. Er ist das männliche Äquivalent zu einer "sexy lamp" und er ist nicht mal sexy. Aber ja, als Protagonist hätte man auch ne Stehlampe nehmen können und es hätte an der Handlung nichts geändert.
Also meiner Meinung nach hätte es der Story (UND der Romanze, aber zu der komm ich später) sehr gut getan, wenn Nathaniel irgendeine Agenda gehabt hätte. ANYTHING. Wenn er z.b. extrem karrieregeil gewesen wäre und sich deswegen bei Mori (dem japanischen Uhrmacher) einquartiert, um an Infos zu kommen und dann merkt, dass der Typ zwar seltsam aber ganz nett ist und Gewissenskonflikt und so. Das hätte VIEL mehr Spaß gemacht, als das was wir kriegen.
Zweitens Mori. Mori ist weniger ein Charakter und mehr ein Plotpunkt. Er hat mystische Fähigkeiten und redet und bewegt sich wie ein alter, weiser Mann - er ist ein wenig der Gandalf dieser Geschichte. Leider ist er auch das Love Interest, was für mich NULL funktioniert hat, weil die Autorin ihn beschreibt als sei er 80 und vollständig aromantisch. Ich sage nicht, dass 80jährige keine Romanze haben dürfen, aber die sind dann bestimmt leidenschaftlicher und emotionaler als Mori.
Kurz, ich mochte beide Charaktere nicht sonderlich (auch wenn ich Moris Vergangenheit und seine Fähigkeiten extrem cool fand) und ihre Romanze habe ich NULL abgekauft. Nur weil man ein Knäckebrot auf nen Lampenschirm legt, wird da halt keine Romanze draus.
Der einzig irgendwie interessante Charakter ist Matsumoto, der zwar nur dreimal auftaucht, aber wahnsinnig charismatisch und unterhaltsam wirkt und über den ich gerne mehr gelesen hätte. Leider kriegt der nicht ansatzweise die Story, die er verdient. (Und ernsthaft, ich hätte gerne eine komplette Novelle darüber gelesen wie Matsumoto mit seiner Entourage an Boytoys schicke Westen anprobiert, japanische Poesie übersetzt und mit aller Welt flirtet.)

Das zweite was mich massiv ärgert war die gesamte Storyline mit Grace, weil NICHTS daran Sinn macht. NICHTS.
Falls ihr euch fragt, wer auf einmal Grace ist und was sie mit der Story zu tun hat? Nichts. Sie ist zwar ein Hauptcharakter, aber sie hat mit der Hauptstory nicht wirklich was zu tun, sondern entwickelt eine eigene Storyline, die KOMPLETT BANANE ist.
In Kurzfassung: Grace will heiraten, damit sie endlich das Haus ihrer Tante erbt (das kriegt sie aber erst nach einer Eheschließung) und in Ruhe ihrer Forschungsarbeit nachgehen kann. Soweit so gut. Nachvollziehbare Motive.
Sie sagt Thaniel, dass sie ihn heiraten wird, als sie sich das erste Mal begegnen (jap) - und da Thaniel, wie erwähnt, keinerlei eigene Meinung zu irgendwas hat, ist er halt so "Okay, I guess." Außerdem bietet sie ihm an, seine Neffen auf eine fancy Schule zu schicken. Und er ist wieder so "Okay". (Ernsthaft, Thaniel ist das menschliche Äquivalent davon Farbe beim Trocknen zu zu sehen.)
Und dann heiraten sie, aber es ist klar, dass es eine reine Zweckgemeinschaft ist und die beiden verbinden keinerlei romantische Gefühle - wie gesagt, sie haben sich genau zweimal gesehen. Aber sie erbt eben ihr Haus und kann in Ruhe forschen. Everybody happy right?
ABER NEIN.
Mori hat ein Riesenproblem damit.
Grace bekommt mit, dass Mori in die Zukunft sehen kann - was sie nicht sonderlich stört. Aber sie bekommt auch mit, dass sich zwischen Mori und Thaniel die unspannendste Romanze aller Zeiten anbahnt und DAS stört sie ganz gewaltig. (Warum? KEINE AHNUNG! Weil sie Angst hat, dass sie das Haus dann nicht behalten kann! WHY?? Sie sind doch verheiratet, es ist völlig egal, wo er lebt und was er macht! Das hat in viktorianischen Ehen noch nie eine Rolle gespielt!)
Also entwickelt sie einen gigantischen evil Masterplan (YES. REALLY), baut eine BOMBE (eine FUCKING BOMBE!), die sie bei einem Konzert mit 1000 Besuchern hochgehen lässt (!!!!) - und all das, weil sie sich erhofft, dass Thaniel dann sauer auf Mori ist, weil er es nicht verhindert hat. Damit Thaniel ihn dann nicht mehr mag.
WAS? WAS???? WAAAS????
The fuck???
WAS?!! Whyyyy??
Ihr liegt nicht das Geringste an Thaniel, er ist sogar ein extrem bequemer Zweck-Ehemann, der seinen Zweck vorbildlich erfüllt hat und sie danach komplett in Ruhe lässt. Wieso ist ihr das nicht völlig egal, mit wem er sonst rumhängt und bedeutungsvoll Tee trinkt? Wieso BAUT SIE EINE FUCKING BOMBE, UM DIE BEIDEN AUSEINANDERZUBRINGEN??? WHY???
Und wieso sollte Thaniel deswegen sauer auf Mori sein??? Thaniel hat wie gesagt, keine ausgeprägte Meinung zu irgendwas, und er hat bisher nie auch nur in einer Silbe angedeutet, dass er Mori für alles Schlimme verantwortlich machen würde, was passiert. ALSO WAS??? WAS soll das???? Häh??

Nichts daran macht irgendeinen Sinn. Es kommt völlig aus dem Nichts und ist vollkommen bescheuert. Es hat auch mit der eigentlichen Handlung rein gar nichts zu tun.
Dabei hätte man ja im Hintergrund eine wirkliche Storyline haben können mit den irischen Bombenanschlägen und Moris Fähigkeiten und seiner Vergangenheit und so. Aber nein. Stattdessen geht es am Ende darum wie Grace eine Bombe baut und Leute in die Luft jagt, nur und ausschließlich um die Freundschaft ihres Zweckehemannes zu sabotieren. WHAT THE FUCK???

Das ist derart dämlich, ich kann einfach nicht mehr.
Die zwei Sterne sind nur wegen Katsu, dem Oktopus und der wirklich schönen Grundprämisse. Aber die Story und die Charaktere. Nope. Nope. Nope.

[Ivonne Rovira · Rating 5 out of 5]

In mid-1880s London, both Nathaniel “Thaniel” Steepleton, a 25-year-old lowly clerk and telegraphist first at the Home Office and then at the Foreign Office, and Grace Carrow, opinionated Oxford-trained physicist and daughter of old-fashioned Lord Carrow, both end up with a marvel of a timepiece. Both of these watches were lovingly crafted by a most unusual watchmaker, Keita Mori, related to a Samurai lord and a former assistant to the interior minister of Japan. These days Mori creates the finest watches in London. Scotland Yard suspect Mori’s mechanisms of being the heart of a series of bombs set by Irish nationalists, but Steepleton knows better. He recognizes that the tiny, gentle creator of the delightful Katsu, the clockwork, sock-stealing octopus, is no bomb maker. But there is much more to Mori than anyone would ever suspect.

To tell any more would be to spoil this charming debut by Natasha Pulley, one that celebrates the most unlikely of romances. Despite the frequent comparisons to the Sherlock Holmes oeuvre, The Watchmaker of Filigree Street reminded me more of Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass and its alternative clockwork world. Pulley’s wildly inventive tale kept me turning pages to the final startling revelations — although, in truth, the novel proves phenomenally original at nearly every turn. Highly recommended as one of the best books I’ve read in years.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley and Bloomsbury USA in exchange for an honest review.

[Eddie Clarke · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is a prime example of the old maxim ‘you cannot judge a book by its cover’. Bloomsbury Circus have lavished a truly gorgeous cover by David Mann on Natasha Pulley’s debut novel; sadly there is no sign of the same care being spent on actually editing the book. The publishers have really let this young writer down and have tarnished their brand – it’s actually that shockingly bad, in my opinion.

There are very serious issues wherever you look. For a detective/thriller story, there is an absence of narrative thrust, drama or sense of anything at stake. The writer shows no sensitivity for the historical period at all: either for modes of speech, or for manners. Historical research is crudely bolted on and at times bogs the narrative down. I also feel the magical realism was not handled as effectively as it could have been – Katsu the mechanical octopus is the finest character in the book (possibly because he can’t speak) and Pulley leaves it carefully ambiguous if he’s just mechanical or if he’s magically alive. A brilliant literary device such as this could be used to – for example - symbolize the growing relationship between hero Thaniel and Mori the titular watchmaker; be used as a sort of Pullman-esque ‘daemon’ as an index to Mori’s thoughts and emotions; to dramatize the theme of premonition; etc etc. However, Katsu sadly never transcends his strictly minor ornamental status or engages with the themes or narrative structure and ultimately gets used as the most banal of plot mechanics.

Again, it is indicative of this novel’s incompetence that Katsu’s fate evokes far more sympathy than that of the main characters. They are uniformly flat and underwritten. Again and again, characters behave in ways that are inconsistent or illogical or just flatly unbelievable. One character is seen taking her first ride in London’s steam-powered underground (cue historical research dump). She doesn’t particularly like it, yet a few pages further on the same character voluntarily takes part in a chase though the dark tube tunnels (with live trains) on foot. Later still during the same chase she demonstrates an incredibly sophisticated knowledge of a metro system she is experiencing for the first time alone. [Sidebar research point: then as now, the District and Circle lines ran on the same lines at Victoria. The Victoria line only came into operation in 1969, so at the time the novel is set, there were not 6 lines into and out of the Victoria station]

Similarly, I’m pretty sure there has never been a period of British history in which a powerful, well-connected aristocratic father would force his daughter to marry a lowly Foreign Office telegraphist for staying out late one evening (never mind getting the telegraphist to play along).

Far too frequently, Pulley’s use of language is unfocused and imprecise. She tells us far too much about extraneous matters and not enough of what we do need to know. Non-sequitors abound. Dialogue is completely undifferentiated and it is frequently difficult to understand which character is actually speaking. This all could have been ironed out by a thorough line-by-line edit.

On the credit side, the opening chapters are promising, and the story is full of interesting ideas. It’s just so disappointing the book ultimately falls so far short of its imaginative ambition.The author shows commendably great sensitivity to LGBT issues - although from a narrative point of view I would have loved to see the gay relationship flagged up more clearly during the course of the novel.

Why did I finish reading the book? I am a bit OCD about finishing books, I admit. I had one eye on my reading challenge for 2015 (this is the worst book this year by a long way). I was punishing myself for falling impulsively for a beautiful cover. Foyles I’m blaming you too.

[luce (cry bebè's back from hiatus) · Rating 4 out of 5]

| | blog | tumblr | ko-fi | |

3.75 stars

“Under the gas lamps, mist pawed at the windows of the closed shops, which became steadily shabbier nearer home. It was such a smooth ruination that he could have been walking forward through time, watching the same buildings age five years with every step, all still as a museum”.

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street mostly takes place during the 1880s in London. One of the main characters is twenty-five year old Thaniel Steepleton who works as a telegraph clerk at the Home Office. His mundane and solitary existence is thrown into upheaval after a mysterious pocket watch saves him from a terrorist time bomb. Believing that the maker of his watch is somehow connected to this attack, under false pretences Thaniel moves into the watchmaker’s residence on Filigree Street. The watchmaker, who goes by his surname, Mori, hails from Japan. Mori, who seems to have a polite and quiet disposition, is more than happy to have Thaniel around. Thaniel too finds himself warming up to Mori and his customs. While Thaniel soon realises that his new landlord is indeed hiding things from him, he questions whether his involvement in the terrorist attack.
Alongside Thaniel’s story we also read of Grace Carrow who studies physics at Oxford. Grace wants to pursue her studies and experiments but thanks to her parents she will only be able to do so as a married woman. Given that no one seems interested in marrying such an ‘uncompromising’ and ‘eccentric’ woman, Grace has few options left...
While Thaniel and Grace’s paths do eventually converge, readers might be surprised by the consequences of their acquaintanceship.

Thaiel and Mori were easily my favourite characters. There is a faltering quality to their friendship. In spite of their age, class, and cultural differences they soon became used to one another.
For the most part Grace struck me as the usual protagonist of certain contemporary historical novels, which often star heroines who are unfeminine and uninterested in marrying or adhering to the social norms of their time. Her main characteristic is her ambition, which does make her somewhat admirable. Later on however she makes some increasingly maddening choices that were not clearly explained.

Natasha Pulley does an excellent job in giving her story a Victorian atmosphere. Whether she was writing about London or Japan I found her historicism to be accurate and evocative. Her novel’s storyline could be best described as being part period mystery, part gentle adventure. One of the main ideas the story plays around with is as clever as it is fascinating...so much so that part of me wants to reread this book in order to pick up on what I’d initially glossed over.

The narrative also has a lot of steampunk elements—which range from gaslights to clockwork automatons—as well aspects that struck me as belonging to the magical realism genre.
I particularly appreciated the realistic depiction of being a Japanese expatriate in Victorian London. Mori, alongside other Japanese characters, is routinely exposed to racist behaviour and attitudes. Grace’s story instead emphasises the way in which gender discrimination oppressed, repressed, or constrained women lives.
A portion of the narrative is also dedicated to Japan. Here we read of the divide and conflict between conservatism and Westernisation, which made for some engaging reading material.

The budding friendship between Thaniel and Mori was extremely sweet and filled with a quiet sort of yearning, for above all companionship. Part of me wishes that instead of having sections dedicated to Grace we could have had some more insight into Mori’s character as he was a lot more interesting. Grace’s later behaviour made her particularly unlikable...yet the narrative seems to imply that we should condone her actions.

Grace aside, I really loved this novel. It is a slow-burn mystery and not for those who are looking for anything too ostentatiously fantastic. Pulley’s writing is a pure pleasure to read: from her vivid descriptions to her humour. What began as a seemingly unassuming story soon conveyed brilliant depths.
I thoroughly recommend this one, especially to fans of Victorian settings or steampunk.

[Helle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A whimsical, difficult-to-classify, atmospheric, speculative novel of the kind I haven’t read in years but which I was ultimately (surprisingly) pleased was suggested in one of my reading groups. I felt a slight whiff of The Night Circus, a tiny hint of steampunk and the suggestion of inspiration from Philip Pullman. And yet the novel is entirely original.

The setting: Victorian London, and Japan.

The characters: a young telegrapher called Thaniel, a Japanese watchmaker called Mori, a young Oxford-based scientist called Grace, a girl orphan called Six, some Whitehall civil servants, an anglified Japanese dandy, other minor English and Japanese characters.

The plot: One evening, in his dingy Pimlico flat, Thaniel finds a fantastically delicate watch mysteriously left for him by an unknown and uninvited guest. Around the same time, Irish Clan na Gael (Fenian Brotherhood) have threatened to bomb Scotland Yard, a bombing which really took place in 1884 and for which the Fenians took credit. The watch warns Thaniel at the last minute, and he manages to save his life, but this ignites his curiosity – and that of the Yard – and he is off to Filigree Street where the maker of said watch lives.

Mori’s little watchmaker shop is full of dainty clockwork: watches, small birds, fireflies and a small octopus called Katsu. The meeting between Thaniel and Mori sets off a series of events which the rest of the book explores, going down various routes into a Japanese past and possible English futures. Along the way, we discover how Thaniel sees colours in sounds, how Grace believes in the existence of ether in the air, and how Mori’s memories are not what we, or Thaniel, at first thought.

Style: What raises this novel from yet another potential steampunk-ish pastiche with elements from magical realism (not fantasy) were the quirky sentences, the interest in turning out a good phrase to either explore character or create an ambience, and the occasional philosophical musings. It is not a plot-based page-turner. In fact, it took me some 60-70 pages to really latch on to the story, and there were some confusing moments along the way, not least in some of the dialogues. But the last third or so was magical, and it appeared that some of the confusion had been deliberate.

Below a few extracts, though there were many more:

War was punching the clock instead of looking at the broken mechanisms.

She moved like a faulty bicycle, by turns too fast, and then too slowly. (And later, about the same character:) Her joints were moving badly, all unoiled hydraulics.

There were a dozen languages fluttering under the chandeliers.

Matsumoto gave him the amused look of an experienced dandy meeting his younger self.

He tried to feel around the idea of prison. The edges of it were too sharp to touch.

And of course, the cover is suitably whimsical and lovely with a little peep hole through which you can see the numbers on the watch. Not something I would normally ‘fall for’, but upon closing I seemed to have changed my mind. I was charmed by this book.

[Dannii Elle · Rating 4 out of 5]

First Read: March 2019, Rating: 4/5 stars
Second Read: December 2020, Rating: 4.5/5 stars

This book was a total cover boy, a few years ago, and then I added it to my shelves and never felt the urge to pick it up again. A recent purge of my shelves had me re-evaluating many of the titles there, however, and finally hastened me to give this a read. I am SO glad I did!

I had assumed this to be a straight-forward historical mystery but was pleasantly surprised to also find this a whimsical cross-cultural tale with a hefty dose of magical realism and murky steampunk tones, throughout.

This book is heavy on its description and the flowery language perfectly encapsulated the whimsy of the tale it depicted. Central characters, Thaniel and Mori, also make this a delightful read and if their adorable relationship isn't explicitly stated as being something more than friendship in the rumoured sequel I will SUE!

The only slight mar on the excellence of this piece was the open-ended nature of the conclusion. I found I still had many questions, when turning the final page, and much of the mystery was too neatly packaged whilst other portions were neglected entirely. This was altered during my reread and when a sequel was confirmed, however.

This slight dissatisfaction was also minor in comparison with my overall enjoyment. This remained bizarre and bewildering throughout, but what else could I expect from a book that featured a clockwork octopus named Katsu, with a penchant for petty theft and closet drawers!?

[charlotte, · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rep: gay mc, Japanese gay li, Japanese side characters

sometimes family is a japanese watchmaker, an english foreign office civil servant, and a mechanical octopus

[Alex ✴︎ · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 stars

So this really.... sucked. Which is unfortunate because the premise seemed so promising. What's not to love about magical realism, steampunk and Victorian London?

The book follows three main characters. Thaniel is a boring 25 year old man who works a boring job and really has nothing to live for except to make enough money to send to his sister. Keita Mori is a watchmaker who built a clockwork octopus that is uncannily lifelike and seems to be at the center of strange happenings. Lastly, we have Grace: a character who quite literally only cares about her science experiments and the fact that "she's not like other girls."

All three of these characters are not properly written. Throughout the book, we know nothing of their motives, desires or thoughts outside of the obvious. Grace's only characteristic is that she's obsessed with science. Thaniel... I don't even know what he wants out of life at all. And Mori? There was nothing compelling about him either. So we have these characters that you just can't relate to or form any emotional attachment with. At first it was okay because I thought that this was part of the story. Mori was obviously a bit of an enigma because he was sort of a plot device for solving this massive bombing mystery, right??? Wrong.

Aside from the poor characterization, the writing was choppy and unclear. I constantly had to read paragraphs again because I didn't understand who people were referring to. Transitions happen too quickly. After a long couple of pages describing something, we are all of a sudden thrown into something else with no transition or preamble. The writing was just poor. And not in a "it's basic" kind of way. But in a "I can't follow anything" kind of way.

Which leads to my next gripe: because the characterization was a problem, the actions of the characters were oftentimes confusing or made no sense. Our main characters had some strong feelings towards each other (either positive or negative) throughout the story. However these feelings never felt explained or justified. Spoiler: Why did Mori have such a dislike for Grace? Because he was clairvoyant and could see her future actions? Why did Thaniel never question Mori? What was the point of Grace's master plan? So many things happened that the plot just couldn't justify.

So basically, I disliked all of the characters. I was hoping that Mori would just turn into an evil, manipulative mastermind because that would have made more sense and would be at least somewhat compelling. No one really questioned Mori or the magical elements in the book, but the book doesn't give cause for everyone to be nonchalant about the fact that Mori has some magic going on.

So yeah, the characters were not well developed, so their relationships, motives and actions didn't make any sense.

But aside from the characters, the plot also didn't make a ton of sense- because there really wasn't a plot. You would think from the snippet and the first quarter of the book that the plot is sort of a fantastical "whodunit" in response to a bomb going off. But really, for most of the book no one cares about the bomb and it's a nonissue. There's no tension about the bomb and really whoever did it doesn't matter. In fact, I can't really tell you much about what happened. The whole book is just a series of minor reveals that never satisfies you because the characters are boring and uninspired. The ends do not justify the means. The best character was the steampunk octopus.

I was okay with the first half because I thought answers would come later, but then I realized that the answers didn't come, or the answers did come and they were a complete let down.

1.5 rounded up to 2 stars. It wasn't unreadable and there were some interesting/redeemable moments to prevent it from being a complete failure. (Matsumoto)

[Mary Robinette Kowal · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is 4:45am and I have just finished this astonishingly good novel. I knew nothing about it other than that it had a lovely cover, and that the first page was beautifully written. It's historical fantasy, set in London and Japan. The language is vivid and compelling. The characters are achingly real. I could tell you about the plot, but I think you will like it best if you discover it yourself.

Just make sure you have plenty of spare time, because it is very hard to put down.

[Mona · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m getting tired of writing these words, but it seems like a great many of the highly touted, recently published novels I’ve read lately in the fantasy/magical realism genres have great potential, but never become the excellent books they could have been.

Things like insufficient editing, poor pacing, etc. ruin these novels.

This is yet another one. It was so promising at the start.

But it was ruined by weird (often glacial) pacing, insufficient editing, and mildly sympathetic or unsympathetic characters, who we never really get to know, with confusing and constantly shifting motivations.

The book resembled a “faulty bicycle” (which is how the author described the way one of the characters, Grace Carrow, moved). It moved jerkily, sometimes too fast, sometimes too slow.

Just because a fantasy novel is whimsical and imaginative, does not in itself make it worth reading. There are other elements go into creating a good novel.

Are so many of these books being published without editing? Or has the quality of editors dropped so much that they don’t know how to do their jobs? Maybe the authors are just relying on feedback from friends or peers for the editing process. In any case, I’m getting tired of reading unfinished manuscripts being passed off as fantasy novels.

Thomas’s Judd’s rather flat audio reading didn’t help matters.

I’m giving this three stars instead of two because there were some good things about the novel (the titular clockmaker is intriguing). But it was a disappointing read.

[Suzanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was described to me as a wittier and twistier Sherlock Holmes (with a samurai! With that awesome cover! When will I ever learn that the old adage about not judging a book actually means something?), and I'm disappointed to say that it didn't live up to its potential at all. It was confusing, disjointed, the dialogue felt clunky and awkward, and I felt that the characters deserved a better story.

But at least the clockwork octopus was amazing. Fuller review to come eventually.

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were times when the writing felt perhaps a bit too subtle and elusive for all of the beats of the story to really land, but in the end there were surprising emotional moments and interesting twists that grounded it for me and ticked up my rating a notch. Definitely original and fascinating stuff in this book.

[richa ⋆.˚★ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5 ⭐

A whimsical tale that falls into the unique intersection of clockwork, magical realism and fate. The writing carried a comforting quality to it. If you're looking for a more loosely plot based book, then TWoFS is a must. ThanielMori had no right to be so cute 😭 I don't know why my dreary brain conjured them as Hannibal-Graham but make it violence-less and more clairvoyance. My only qualm is with Grace and the science that doesn't add up. Extremely interesting theories but they're unbelievable.

[Krystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, just give me a minute to get my thoughts in order. What a whirlwind ending!

Can I start by talking about the cover? Covers so rarely rate with me but this one is simply stunning. I'll admit - it's the sole reason I picked this book up in the first place. Beautiful design.

So.

It's a bit of a random story but I really enjoyed it! There's this fellow, Thaniel, who is stuck in a bit of a dead end job. He's a nice enough guy but is very routine and the highlight of his life is drinking tea. Then he gets this mysterious watch that saves his life. Cue the end of normality and boring. (Not the tea, though. There is so much tea.)

The watchmaker of the title is Mori, a reclusive Japanese fellow with a pet clockwork octopus. Katsu is probably my favourite character in the whole book, because he's this adorable lil random kleptomaniac with a thing for socks. He makes me want my own clockwork octopus. Mori is okay.

There's also Grace, a mad scientist who does very 'un-ladylike' things and her bff Matsumoto who's a smug Japanese guy who is quite obviously in love with Grace. Heaven forbid either of them admit it, though. *eyeroll*

Honestly I think it's the characters that make this such a delightful read. They're so different and quirky and they do things you just don't expect. I was constantly surprised by the directions this book took. It was its own, random, clockwork octopus. (Hashtag teamkatsu)

The writing is clear and concise yet beautifully captures scenes so that the reader can easily partake in the action. I just really enjoyed the words and the language, and it was never overloaded with style gimmicks. It flowed gracefully, and every sentence owned its place.

Overall, there was no set direction for the story so it was really a case of settling back and just enjoying the ride, which I did immensely. There's kind of the mystery of who set off the bomb, but honestly I was much more interested in what kind of mischief everyone was getting up to. The clockwork was like a dozen characters on its own.

You are now entering spoiler territory.

I absolutely was not expecting this to be a love story, so when it happened it took me completely by surprise. I was left wondering what had happened and what I'd missed and yet it just fit beautifully. It made a lot of sense and I think it was the not expecting it that made it come together so wonderfully.

I never really got a handle on the whole 'remembering the future' thing (way too confusing for me to try to understand scientifically) so again it was just a case of going with the flow. I'd hate to stop and try examine the concept because I feel like a few plot holes might appear.

I'm incredibly heartbroken over the loss of Katsu, and I can only hope he turns up unexpectedly one day after crawling out of the rubble. Or Mori makes a new one that is an exact replica of the old.

I was a bit confused by the allusion of the ending - the whole, Mori setting up Matsumoto and Grace bit. Mat was on a train to Berlin, right? And he was apologising for being late? So did Mori make him late or is it thanks to Mori he was there at all? I mean I kind of just assume the latter is correct but I have no idea how that actually works.

It was such a delightful, unusual story with such lovable clockwork octopi characters that really brought the story to life. Being set in 1800s England meant there was a lot of consideration of historical traditions, values and practices and it really enhanced the dynamic between the characters.

I'm a bit scattered again I think but the takeaway message is that it's well worth a read! It's a unique piece of work unlike any novel I've ever read and I look forward to reading more from this author.

[Olga Godim · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars
It is hard to pigeonhole this book. Literary? I’m not sure. Historical? Kind-of. It does deal with a historical period. Steampunk? Not really, even though the characters have some paranormal abilities, and the Victorian era adds credibility to such a label. The closest I can come up with is magic realism.
Magic shimmers on the pages of this book. It defines the story and the protagonists. And the attraction of this book for me was definitely magical, as I don’t usually like literary or historical or steampunk.
I won’t go into the plot rehashing here – it’s complicated, and I don’t want to spoil the fun of reading for the others. I’ll concentrate on the characters instead.
The hero of this book is Keita Mori, a Japanese watchmaker living in London in 1883. Or is he a Japanese nobleman? A spy? A philosopher? A magician? A mad genius? All of the above? Here is one of his short conversations that snapped my attention, demonstrating his sideway mode of thinking. He talks about one of his clockwork toys

‘It’s a steam engine toy,’ Mori said. ‘An old design. The Ancient Greeks had them.’
‘The Ancient Greeks? If they had steam engines, why didn’t they have trains?’
Mori twitched his shoulder. ‘They were philosophers. They put two and two together and got a goldfish.’

The reader is facing a multitude of questions about Mori, and none of them is easy to answer. Mori is as much an enigma as the book about him, even after the last page is turned. His extremely complex psyche enchants some players of the story, baffles the others, and invoke hatred in the third category. He is powerful but vulnerable, suffering but loving, kind to his friends and ruthless to his enemies. He is almost alive, despite his mysterious paranormal gift. Or is it a curse?
The author made Mori the protagonist of her book but she didn’t give him a voice. Nothing is told from his POV. Everything we know about him comes through the eyes and words of others, the ones pulled into his sphere by the strange events of the novel and the magnetism of his personality: his friend Thaniel; his former employer, a Japanese politician Ito; and a young woman Grace, a student of physics at Oxford and a daughter of a lord. Mori is a catalyst of their lives, almost an instigator of their fates, but he doesn’t benefit from his unusual talent himself.
Thaniel, another hero of the story, is a clerk in Whitehall. His encounter with Mori overturns his boring existence, reshapes his future, makes him ‘more,’ inspires him to grow. Thaniel could’ve been a hero of his own story, he has the potential, but he fades beside Mori, becomes a cog in the Watchmaker’s elaborate schemes, even though they make him more significant as a human being.
Grace, realizing what’s happening to Thaniel, tries to interfere, to put him on the path of his own choosing, but her actions take a cruel turn. In a way, she is as ingenious and ruthless as Mori himself, but unlike him, she is acting out of self-interest, not love, like Mori, and in the end, she becomes the villain of the book.
Besides multifaceted interpersonal dynamics, many other lines intertwine in this tale – politics and Irish nationalists, bombs and rabid racism, the arrogance of the upper classes and the sacrifices of poor people, music and mechanical inventions – making the narration as true as a kaleidoscope. Making the readers care. Making them want to understand.
Recommended to anyone.

[Choko · Rating 3 out of 5]

*** 3.33 ***

I am torn on this one... I actually really liked the writing style and storytelling, but I had issues with the characters and the way the author chose to go with the story itself. I try very hard not to judge how an author decides to write their story and characters, because it is their story. But despite how objective I try to be, I had a hard time liking any of the main characters... Of the main three I warmed up to Thaniel most, despite his questionable choices, and the side character I really loved was Katsu... If you have read the book I don't need to remind you how his story went... Six was adorable as well 😃

The story is set in London during the 1880's, and deals with the political tension between the Irish and the British, as well as the immigrants from Japan, some Japanese history in very small bites, and some issues arising with being gay or a woman in this period. All those come with their pros and cons, and how our three main characters, Thaniel, Mori and Grace deal with them. There were even some mystical elements, which brought the question of what is faith and what is chance and how can one manipulate either...

The reason I personally felt unsatisfied with the way N. Pulley chose to tell her story is that it seemed to me, since she had decided that the LGBT couple will be who we are rooting for, then the straight characters were all going to be lacking... I am part of that community and think that the author is good enough in her craft, that she could have written better female characters if she had chosen to, but I felt she didn't want to. I almost feel like the author showed quite a bit of disdain of the fairer sex and the straight male characters weren't much to write home about either. You can root for gay men and still like the rest of humanity, in my personal opinion...

There were some tender and sweet moments in the book as well. Having mentioned the LGBT component of the story, I have to say it was beautifully handled, it was mostly alluded to, with only a brief moment of confirmation, which would have also been perfect, if it hadn't come at a very inappropriate time... But I guess the character had to come to his truth in his own time, so I guess it's better late than never...

Overall, the story has a lot of potential and the author has plenty of talent, if only she could work on creating her characters with a bit less ambiguity. I don't think that it is inappropriate for any age group, so as long as the reader is not a child (just maturity to understand the story needed), then everyone could give it a try 🙂

[Richard Derus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Real Rating: 4.5* of five

Quite a lot that I missed first time round.

I was sure I recalled this read pretty accurately, and was mildly taken aback by the amount of information I glided past before...for example, the way Thaniel says things to Grace that, um, kind-of unhappen as the ending approaches...and now, on a years-later re-read seem *hugely*significant* and almost spoilery.

But that's because I really already knew them, and how they'd play out.

So what would I call this read, a re-read or a new read? It's kind of both. I've read The Kingdoms between that initial experience and this one, I'm hip to the author's tricks in a way I wasn't before; I was revisiting the story because I'm reviewing The Half Life of Valery K now, as well. It's clear as crystal that any author develops stylistic tropes, won't call them tics unless they irk me somehow, and Author Pulley's a one for hiding relationship signals in plain sight. It's a bit disappointing that Grace, after her *horrible* behavior, isn't made to suffer any consequences. Given that there's a second book with Thaniel and Mori at its center, which I haven't read, that could be possible.

I've got the best of both worlds, then, revisiting an older read that's altered in interesting ways in light of later reads by the same author. It made this meditation on the etheric reality of chance and destiny intertwining so much richer than it was at first.

[Maria Hill AKA MH Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

From my first read Autumn 2016:

There were problems with the plot in places, I think it suffered from “too many cooks/authors” syndrome, in that the author may have taken too much advice from too many people and that it shows? I don’t know why I think this, it’s just an impression I have.

However, most importantly this is a rollicking good story! I enjoyed it immensely, an almost magical clockwork pet octopus, foreseeing the probable future, clockwork bombs, is he a villain or a hero and if so can we be friends or more than friends? watches that find their owners again when they get lost – together all these elements make a really good enjoyable story.

That after all, in my opinion, is the primary purpose of fiction.

Thoughts on my second read early Summer 2020:

Once more on reading this I loved the elements of the story, I am once more charmed by Mori's remembering and forgetting of past events, clockwork pets, and the strange mix of magical realism and steampunk throughout the novel. However, there is definitely something wrong with the narrative flow. If this was one of Mori's watched it would have all of the pretty jewels but the clockwork would be misaligned.