The Clockwork Dynasty
Year: 2017
Author: Daniel H. Wilson
Length: 650 minutes / 10.83 hours
If there’s anything Daniel H. Wilson is good at, it’s writing about robots. In his latest book, The Clockwork Dynasty, he takes a steampunk approach by setting the book, not in the future, but in the present and distant past. Returning to the origins of robots via the automatons created for the entertainment of the wealthy and royal, Wilson has crafted another workable piece of fiction centered on robots. Unfortunately, as is the case with some of this other writing, I didn’t like a few of his stylistic choices.
The Clockwork Dynasty jumps back and forth between flashbacks and “present era” actions, which can sometimes be distracting, especially if one of the storylines is particularly interesting at the time. I almost wonder if there could have been a better way to focus on the action in the present and to reveal the details of the past in more of a “show” instead of the “tell” provided via flashbacks. Additionally, I get why some of the violence was present in this book, but it (along with the few moments of obscenity or sex) seemed a little unnecessary.
One of my other qualms with this book was with the audiobook itself. Since the individuals reading each of the sections were different between the past and the present, it did help to know where I was in the story. However, the male voice of the past was a little quieter than the female voice of the present. This meant I turned up the volume each time the story was in a flashback, only to scramble to turn it down when the timeframe switched. Some volume leveling would have made this book a little less difficult to listen to, is all I’m saying.
A steampunk story by the modern master of robot stories, I give The Clockwork Dynasty 3.0 stars out of 5.