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Clockworld: The Iron City
The Iron City has stood for thousands of years, but now, dark forces move within her metal walls to bring down her royal family and subjugate her people. Princess Aldreia, heir to the throne, must join with the peasant Tunnel-Runner Mouse to battle against the threats against her city and protect her birthright!
From the darkest cellars of the city Underworks to the skies around its tiers, the battle for the Iron City has begun!
From the darkest cellars of the city Underworks to the skies around its tiers, the battle for the Iron City has begun!
355 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 8, 2018
4 people are currently reading
17 people want to read
About the author
Ben Myatt
18 books48 followersBen Myatt is an English author, transplanted to Liverpool from the suburbs of Kent.
After studying Imaginative Writing at Liverpool John Moores University, Ben Married the love of his life, Rebecca, and set up home in the city. After a few years playing around with various concepts, he finally settled on one he liked and started writing the High Moon Rising Novellas, which span on into the Order of Britain books.
Whilst still working a day job, Ben is dilligently attempting to keep up with his writing, whilst being regularly distracted by video games, rugby, cricket, motorsports, anda pair of incredibly noisy cockatiels.
He currently still lives in Liverpool, near both famous football stadiums, with Rebecca and the aforementioned Birds of Doom, Numi and Odi.
After studying Imaginative Writing at Liverpool John Moores University, Ben Married the love of his life, Rebecca, and set up home in the city. After a few years playing around with various concepts, he finally settled on one he liked and started writing the High Moon Rising Novellas, which span on into the Order of Britain books.
Whilst still working a day job, Ben is dilligently attempting to keep up with his writing, whilst being regularly distracted by video games, rugby, cricket, motorsports, anda pair of incredibly noisy cockatiels.
He currently still lives in Liverpool, near both famous football stadiums, with Rebecca and the aforementioned Birds of Doom, Numi and Odi.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 14, 2018
3.5 stars
Life as a tunnel-runner isn't easy, but Mouse has gained a reputation as someone that can fix things with his knowledge of the inner workings of the Underworks.
Tiers above, Princess Aldreia tires of her lessons, even as she understands the importance of learning how to rule.
In the Iron City, built around a giant clock, where it's citizens live by the tick, a dark plot of the Church of the Cog will bring these two together in an effort to save the people they love.
I enjoyed this one quite a bit, from the setting to the characters. The unfolding mystery of the clock, its purpose and what powered it was an intriguing backdrop to the politics and scheming within the city.
I liked most of the characters, from Mouse and Reia to their companions; Marius, a visiting son of a local Baron, Keri, daughter of an Underworks crimelord and Helice, the spirit of the airship.
The pacing of the story worked for me, pulling me along at a rapid pace at times, from the Church's initial interest in Mouse up to a thrilling aerial assault near the end of the book.
My only real issue with the book is several editing issues throughout. In one instance, another character's name was used instead of Mouse's. A seemingly random capitalization error occurred more than once, all involving the word city (simpliCity, dupliCity, electriCity, capaCity). There were also several instances where it felt like a word or two was missing. Not enough to completely derail the story for me, but it was annoying at times.
Issues aside, I enjoyed my time in the world the author has created and would recommend it to those with an interest in steampunk and adventures in general.
Life as a tunnel-runner isn't easy, but Mouse has gained a reputation as someone that can fix things with his knowledge of the inner workings of the Underworks.
Tiers above, Princess Aldreia tires of her lessons, even as she understands the importance of learning how to rule.
In the Iron City, built around a giant clock, where it's citizens live by the tick, a dark plot of the Church of the Cog will bring these two together in an effort to save the people they love.
I enjoyed this one quite a bit, from the setting to the characters. The unfolding mystery of the clock, its purpose and what powered it was an intriguing backdrop to the politics and scheming within the city.
I liked most of the characters, from Mouse and Reia to their companions; Marius, a visiting son of a local Baron, Keri, daughter of an Underworks crimelord and Helice, the spirit of the airship.
The pacing of the story worked for me, pulling me along at a rapid pace at times, from the Church's initial interest in Mouse up to a thrilling aerial assault near the end of the book.
My only real issue with the book is several editing issues throughout. In one instance, another character's name was used instead of Mouse's. A seemingly random capitalization error occurred more than once, all involving the word city (simpliCity, dupliCity, electriCity, capaCity). There were also several instances where it felt like a word or two was missing. Not enough to completely derail the story for me, but it was annoying at times.
Issues aside, I enjoyed my time in the world the author has created and would recommend it to those with an interest in steampunk and adventures in general.
August 9, 2019
Tick. Tock. The machine never sleeps, even when its inhabitants do. Yeah, this story takes place in a giant clock city. With such a title, who would have thought?
The Church of the Cog, full of men who augment themselves with machinery, are planning to overthrow the royal family and take the city for themselves. Cue Mouse, the story's protagonist orphan. He'll save the royals!
The cast is a quirky group that work well together. The setting and world building was really well done.
I enjoyed the story, on a whole, but it took me a while to get through. The dialogue beats grow tedious, lots of following where people look, return looks, glances, and we can't forget the many glowers.
The Church of the Cog, full of men who augment themselves with machinery, are planning to overthrow the royal family and take the city for themselves. Cue Mouse, the story's protagonist orphan. He'll save the royals!
The cast is a quirky group that work well together. The setting and world building was really well done.
I enjoyed the story, on a whole, but it took me a while to get through. The dialogue beats grow tedious, lots of following where people look, return looks, glances, and we can't forget the many glowers.
August 9, 2019
I got the audiobook of Clockworld: The Iron City in a r/fantasy giveaway. I enjoyed parts of it, I thought the world building was really interesting, and the worldbuilding related mystery and the general plot were good, felt meh about some characters and the narration, but I hated one particular plot point.
I felt like the narration made the main characters sound younger than they’re supposed to be, which was pretty annoying. Some of the voices are just off, a few of the side characters blend together, and one character with a lisp sounds plain bad. I’m also reasonably sure it’s detritus not detrius, which was used a few times, and there was a mix up with character names at some point. I noticed a reviewer mentioned some errors in the ebook too.
The worldbuilding was great. There’s a huge Iron City built around a giant mechanical clock. There’s a lot of mystery and mystique around the clock, and even a plotting church. I do love evil churches in fantasy, no reason. There’s also a good amount of doing research to figure out the mystery, which I love, and the reveal towards the end is really good too.
The characters
Marius would be great if not for the annoying lisp, he’s mysterious and smart, that one. Mouse sounds 12 when he’s actually late teens, makes it a lot harder to take him seriously as this super competent mechanical prodigy that everyone respects. The queen is great, clever, puts her people first, knows how to use her authority and not afraid to get her hands greasy. The benevolent crime lord is cool and fun. The queen’s pawns blurred together a bit for me, couldn’t really care about them and couldn’t remember who’d been important earlier on. The villain turns into a bit of a caricature, I was not a fan.
The pacing was pretty quick, there’s lots going on and the plot keeps getting thicker and thicker. There’s some airship combat which is always fun for me.
The thing that pissed me off, of course a pretty major spoiler that I can’t explain subtly, . It’s a trope I generally dislike and that would probably make me hypercritical of any book.
I felt like the narration made the main characters sound younger than they’re supposed to be, which was pretty annoying. Some of the voices are just off, a few of the side characters blend together, and one character with a lisp sounds plain bad. I’m also reasonably sure it’s detritus not detrius, which was used a few times, and there was a mix up with character names at some point. I noticed a reviewer mentioned some errors in the ebook too.
The worldbuilding was great. There’s a huge Iron City built around a giant mechanical clock. There’s a lot of mystery and mystique around the clock, and even a plotting church. I do love evil churches in fantasy, no reason. There’s also a good amount of doing research to figure out the mystery, which I love, and the reveal towards the end is really good too.
The characters
Marius would be great if not for the annoying lisp, he’s mysterious and smart, that one. Mouse sounds 12 when he’s actually late teens, makes it a lot harder to take him seriously as this super competent mechanical prodigy that everyone respects. The queen is great, clever, puts her people first, knows how to use her authority and not afraid to get her hands greasy. The benevolent crime lord is cool and fun. The queen’s pawns blurred together a bit for me, couldn’t really care about them and couldn’t remember who’d been important earlier on. The villain turns into a bit of a caricature, I was not a fan.
The pacing was pretty quick, there’s lots going on and the plot keeps getting thicker and thicker. There’s some airship combat which is always fun for me.
The thing that pissed me off, of course a pretty major spoiler that I can’t explain subtly, . It’s a trope I generally dislike and that would probably make me hypercritical of any book.
February 26, 2020
This could have been a terrific book.It was just good.The atory was good.People living in a world of Steam run things that are running down.There have been wars and Mouse,a rugrat may be connected to the builders of shiips.The Queen has a daughter and she is looking for Mouse. While Luke Hannafin was not a terrible narrator,he was just ok.In todays audio world we can tell.
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.'
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.'
July 24, 2019
I didn't particularly enjoy this book and I think the vast majority of my dislike was down to the audio and narrator. I am a big fan of fantasy and steampunk is a great sub-genre when done well, and the concept of this book is good, but honestly, I was not pulled into this world as much as I would have liked, which is a shame as I was looking forward to this.
The storyline/plot is decent but feels like it needs a good edit. I enjoyed the aspect of the city being centred round a giant clock and the mystery of its origins, and there was a fair amount of action.
The main things that really irked me however comes down to the dialogue and tha narration. Firstly, the narration. Hannafin is appalling at doing different voices and accents. Reading the prose generally he is fine but the attempts at dialogue are incredibly off-putting. Mouse sounds like the narrator actually pictured Mickey Mouse and puts on a squeaky type voice. One of the characters sounds like a caricuture of a 40s-era style gangster. Not in a cool James Cagney way either.
Also, one character has a lisp - that was a mistake as far too difficult to listen to. It's been done successfully in other (audio)books before, but in this one it was not done well at all. Also seems like the author has purposely chosen as many ess sounding or ess heavy words on purpose which makes the narration of this character all the more infuriating and really grates. No one wants incessant hissing in their ear.
Secondly, the dialogue. There are far too many adverbs used to describe how people speak that it starts to grate. More so as the adverb used is not how it has been acted/voiced out by the narrator. For example, ..."he said sourly"; ..."she said acidly"; ..."[he] said mildly"; ..."he said flatly", etc.
I started to write down each one I came across as the book wore on: "bluntly", "critically", "courteously", "wryly", "darkly", "sweetly", "sourly", "hotly", "calmly", cagely", "tiredly", "softly", "grimly", "angrily". There were others, and these were all repeated extensively to the point that they lost any meaning to me., particularly "acidly".
Decent concept, but I did not enjoy the narration of this book. I think if I were to read it in physical format however I would have enjoyed it more, even with all the 'acid' like speech.
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request via Audioboom and have voluntarily left this review.
The storyline/plot is decent but feels like it needs a good edit. I enjoyed the aspect of the city being centred round a giant clock and the mystery of its origins, and there was a fair amount of action.
The main things that really irked me however comes down to the dialogue and tha narration. Firstly, the narration. Hannafin is appalling at doing different voices and accents. Reading the prose generally he is fine but the attempts at dialogue are incredibly off-putting. Mouse sounds like the narrator actually pictured Mickey Mouse and puts on a squeaky type voice. One of the characters sounds like a caricuture of a 40s-era style gangster. Not in a cool James Cagney way either.
Also, one character has a lisp - that was a mistake as far too difficult to listen to. It's been done successfully in other (audio)books before, but in this one it was not done well at all. Also seems like the author has purposely chosen as many ess sounding or ess heavy words on purpose which makes the narration of this character all the more infuriating and really grates. No one wants incessant hissing in their ear.
Secondly, the dialogue. There are far too many adverbs used to describe how people speak that it starts to grate. More so as the adverb used is not how it has been acted/voiced out by the narrator. For example, ..."he said sourly"; ..."she said acidly"; ..."[he] said mildly"; ..."he said flatly", etc.
I started to write down each one I came across as the book wore on: "bluntly", "critically", "courteously", "wryly", "darkly", "sweetly", "sourly", "hotly", "calmly", cagely", "tiredly", "softly", "grimly", "angrily". There were others, and these were all repeated extensively to the point that they lost any meaning to me., particularly "acidly".
Decent concept, but I did not enjoy the narration of this book. I think if I were to read it in physical format however I would have enjoyed it more, even with all the 'acid' like speech.
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request via Audioboom and have voluntarily left this review.
August 5, 2019
This is my review of the audio version as posted on Audible:
It's my first meeting with Ben Myatt and it's a good one:) "The Iron City"is a fast-paced fantasy with a very well built world, quite unique when it comes to the mechanics of it; I like the idea of the whole city being really a giant clock and the descriptions are detailed enough for me to imagine every nook and cranny vividly... The main characters feel real; they have strong personalities, they show real emotions and react naturally to whatever comes their way. And although it's the first part of a longer series, it has a satisfactory ending and can be read as a complete novel, with an opening for a continuation:)
Narration by Luke Hannafin is generally OK; I liked the speed of his reading and some voices were really well-done, others, however, were a bit irritating. The one that I didn't like at all was Mouse's voice - it jarred with this particular character's personality so much... Mouse is a courageous, no-nonsense, sensible character, but he sounded like a squeaking, weak, cowardly brat... And also, I got confused more than once while listening; there are no indications in the narration when the action moves from one place to another - sometimes miles away. We just "jump" from a talk between one set of characters in the palace to a description of what is happening in the tunnels in one smooth sentence, with the narrator not even taking a break for a comma or a full stop. Each time that happened I needed a second or two to realize who was talking to whom and where they were... I think a short pause in the narration would have helped a lot to "unconfuse" me :)
But as I said, generally it's an OK interpretation of the book and I wouldn't mind listening to another book read by Mr Hannafin.
DISCLAIMER: I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review
It's my first meeting with Ben Myatt and it's a good one:) "The Iron City"is a fast-paced fantasy with a very well built world, quite unique when it comes to the mechanics of it; I like the idea of the whole city being really a giant clock and the descriptions are detailed enough for me to imagine every nook and cranny vividly... The main characters feel real; they have strong personalities, they show real emotions and react naturally to whatever comes their way. And although it's the first part of a longer series, it has a satisfactory ending and can be read as a complete novel, with an opening for a continuation:)
Narration by Luke Hannafin is generally OK; I liked the speed of his reading and some voices were really well-done, others, however, were a bit irritating. The one that I didn't like at all was Mouse's voice - it jarred with this particular character's personality so much... Mouse is a courageous, no-nonsense, sensible character, but he sounded like a squeaking, weak, cowardly brat... And also, I got confused more than once while listening; there are no indications in the narration when the action moves from one place to another - sometimes miles away. We just "jump" from a talk between one set of characters in the palace to a description of what is happening in the tunnels in one smooth sentence, with the narrator not even taking a break for a comma or a full stop. Each time that happened I needed a second or two to realize who was talking to whom and where they were... I think a short pause in the narration would have helped a lot to "unconfuse" me :)
But as I said, generally it's an OK interpretation of the book and I wouldn't mind listening to another book read by Mr Hannafin.
DISCLAIMER: I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews