The Clockwork Dagger
By Beth Cato
Beth Cato was born, Beth Louise Davis, on January 13, 1980, in Hartford, California. She started writing at 4 years old, mostly about unicorns and horses, stapling the book spines to make them more professional. She graduated high school at 16 and started attending college, it was there that she encountered pressure not to write or even read fantasy. This includes a creative writing professor sneering at her for reading a fantasy novel. She wouldn't even have been 19 from what piece together, and this isn't isolated behavior folks. This should help y'all realize why I hold a deep and lasting disdain for a number of creative writing instructors (No joke! I had some really bad professors while getting my degree. Megalomaniacs who would fail students that didn’t kiss their ass, a case of flat-out sexual harassment, and a huge mess of nepotism that stunted the entire biology department. Yet the single most USELESS teacher I ever had was my creative writing teacher, who’s only criticism of a short story I turned in was “That’s really not what is selling right now”. Well, you would know you half-witted useless potato you don’t inspire a class by telling them on the first day “I’m only doing this till my novel sells”. SORRY bad educators get under my skin worse than bad writing) This was also backed up by relatives, at least some of whom were concerned for her soul, something that I, the son of a science fiction and fantasy-loving pastor, have always found deeply confusing.
At age 20, Mrs. Cato would marry her husband Jason who was enlisted in the navy. They would spend at least the next several years in South Carolina and Washington. She currently lives in Phoenix, Arizona (I don’t know her but I have family that has interacted with her at writing and author things). I assume because, after a whole lifetime of living next to oceans, she looked at our heat-blasted oven of a valley and celebrated escaping the tyranny of water and cool breezes. She remains in Phoenix living with her husband, son, and several cats. Mrs. Cato would publish poetry and short stories and advanced to her first novel in 2014, the subject of our review actually, The Clockwork Dagger. It was published by Harper Voyager, who I have discussed recently enough in the past that I don't feel we need to go over them again.
The Clockwork Dagger takes place in the kingdom of Caskentia, a nation that frankly seems rather cursed. It's ruled by a Queen that huddles in her palace kept in power by an organization of secret police and assassins, the Clockwork Daggers of the title. Among the commoners and lower nobility, she seems a rather university loathed and with good reason. Caskentia has been locked into a war for decades with a nation across the mountains that they call the Waste. Now the war was in a sense unavoidable, it started with a Waster assassin team killing the King and all the immediate royal family in a botched attempt to kidnap the princess of Caskentia for a forced marriage, leaving only a niece of the Queen to inherit the Throne(Oof decades? Yeah I can see why folks are pissed, getting locked in the war seems rough maybe some strategic assassinations would have been better?).
However, the war has been a total waste of men and resources(MAN I am trying so hard to not go for low hanging fruit and topical references because we are better than that here). While a Peace of sorts has been reached after decades, the Caskentia male population has been decimated and many of the survivors are amputees with various levels of steampunk cybernetics. Meanwhile, the civilians are suffering famine and plague with entire villages being burned to ash to prevent artificially created diseases from spreading and the price of everything is skyrocketing. It's no surprise that no one in Caskentia feels any sense of triumph here and is looking for someone to blame. A Queen who huddles in her palace, who isn't even supposed to be wearing that crown? Makes for a hell of a scapegoat.
None of this is the concern of Octavia Leander, even though the war shaped her entire life. She was orphaned by a Wastelander terrorist attack. However, she was gifted with powerful healing magic and was found and raised by a school devoted to teaching such ladies how to use their talents. Ms. Leander has also found solace in the worship of the Lady, a human woman who achieved divinity and is believed to be the source of her powers. This is honestly hard to argue with as Ms. Leander does no crap magic here, with pinches of herbs and prayers she can heal even disastrous injuries, cure diseases and bring back people from the very brink of death even when they're suffering massive traumatic injuries(Yeah I would give that independent confirmation).
Despite being one of the strongest healers in a generation, Ms. Leander isn't looking for fortune or fame here. She just wants to get to a small village that's suffering from a plague and get to work healing people so they can get to work farming. However, even if you're not interested in politics, politics can be interested in you(OH man someone is about to become a political pawn). Because Ms. Leander finds herself a target in a web of intrigue and skulduggery while trapped on an airship heading south. As she and the people around her are subjected to increasingly lethal attacks and kidnapping attempts. Her only allies seem to be the overly cultured Alzano Garrett, a steward on the rather run-down ship despite being overqualified. There's also her cabin mate, an old friend of her teacher and foster mother, Violet Stout.
However, her allies aren't everything they seem to be. Ms. Leander has to figure out their secrets as well as the secrets of the people targeting her if she's gonna make it to safety. For that matter, she is gonna have to figure where safety is. In the small village that hired her? Among the government-run safe houses and armed guards of the overcrowded and polluted city of Mercia. For that matter is safety worth it if she cannot use her gifts and must live in a place she loathes? What other options does she have however and can she bring herself to use them? How does this tie into her faith in the Lady and why is she receiving cryptic messages from her goddess through messages from her patients (Yeesh can you imagine this in a modern Dr’s office, medical billing and coding would have kittens trying to handle prophecy. “Claim denied because you coded for prophecy involving locust, these were biting flies”), omens, and more? You'll have to read the book for answers.
First of all, I have to say Mrs. Cato displays a real talent for establishing characters and their characteristics quickly and solidly. She was able to convey the important parts of Octavia Leander to me in under 5 pages. Considering that some writers can't do that for their main characters across an entire book that's honestly something to treasure. She also does this quickly and efficiently for Alanzo Garret, Viola Stout, and the various other characters. For example, Mr. Drury is quickly established as detestable, being a handsy, entitled man, who simply won't take no for answer. Of course, this is also a double edge sword as it undercuts the surprise of the plot and robs it of any twist (I had not thought of characterization like that being a double-edged sword but that make sense, and on some level, I’d almost prefer that over the tired twist of it turns out the good person is actually a monster.{Sure, but if we’re dealing with spies and covert agents, shouldn’t being able to control and hide their bad personality traits be a basic job qualification?}Oh for sure, What I mean is the “Hanz in Frozen” guy you really like is actually pure evil twist is overdone, hell I’d take a guy who is totally milk toast and boring turns out to be the bad guy over that.). When Mr. Drury's role in the plot is fully revealed I'm not shocked, I'm just nodding along saying of course because what else could he be?
Mrs. Cato is also pretty good at writing character relationships, as the relationship between Garrett and Leander is incredibly well done. By the time I reached the end of the book, I fully believed that these were two people who not only enjoyed each other's company but liked and respected each other(that’s hard to do without it feeling like “these two are together because the literary gods demand it). There's even chemistry there, which is damn hard to write as a lot of writers will focus on one character feeling lust or waffling about not being able to make their minds. Mrs. Cato doesn't seem to go for that here and I am very grateful for that as there's only so much mooning about I can take in a book. For that matter so is the relationship between Leander and Mrs. Stout, although I'll talk more about that in a moment. It's not just the positive relationships however, the relationship between Mr. Drury and Leander is also well done and I'll be honest. I took outright glee in Ms. Leander making Mr. Drury pay for his behavior. The antagonism between Mr. Garrett and Mr. Drury while subtle and often played out in the back is fairly well done and fun as well. I mean come on boys, if the Marine can figure out that it's only polite to keep your hands to yourself...
That said, I'm not so fond of some of the characters like Mrs. Stout, who feel like they should be in another book entirely. The problem here is that Mrs. Stout has her own story that's honestly a pretty different one from Ms. Leander's. While Mrs. Cato makes it clear she's focusing on Ms. Leander's story, Mrs. Stout's story is different enough in tone and style that it's fighting the rest of the book. Maybe it was just me but I could feel Mrs. Stout and her backstory trying to creep into the novel and seize control of the plot and I didn't care for it. Plus there were often times when I was asking, why is Mrs. Stout even here? I just feel like she simply doesn't mesh well with the other characters and the tone of the plot and it's not in a fun or interesting way. While the relationship between Ms. Leander and Mrs. Stout is well done, there's practically no attention paid to her relationship with the other characters. Other than her disapproving of Mr. Garrett for daring to work for a living and because I suppose someone in authority is required to disapprove of the romantic interest in these kinds of novels.
Balancing it out I thought the world-building was done well and was mostly done through character interaction and scene description. This leaves a lot for the reader to infer but that's something I encourage. Don't get me wrong budding writers, I love a nice, juicy appendix at the back of the book but sometimes it's best to world-build with a teaspoon instead of a trowel. I know that sounds like heresy, you can focus too much on world-building is all I'm going to say there. Mrs. Cato keeps all the world-building in service to the plot, although that does leave me wondering just what the hell is going on with the wastelanders?
This leads me to another complaint. How is it that the wastelanders are struggling and fighting just to survive in a hostile and heavily damaged environment but at the same time can wage a war of mass aggression against a more industrialized, wealthier, and more populated state? Quite frankly the war makes no sense because it wasn't a guerrilla war(it started with assassination why not have it continue with that, I mean I could see why the populace is angry if all of the upper nobility is hiding behind thick walls while common folk are randomly murdered or crops are burned in the middle of the night. {Expect there’s also massive trench warfare going on where large armies are battling it out on defined battlefields!}), there was a front line, heavily implied to be a mass of trench work with Caskentia on the defensive most of the time. Meanwhile, the wastelanders can also use mass germ warfare (despite such things as germs only barely discovered (blood magic?)), hijack airships to use in mass terrorist strikes, and even send assassins into the Royal Palace. They can do that all but still can't win the war and are constantly said to be a sparsely settled, half untamed wilderness that is barely fit for human habitation. It comes across as rather nonsensical and I'm left with the idea that either everyone in Caskentia believes in a set of wild lies about the wastelands(that would be interesting if it was an even footing but the population was sold on the idea of wastelanders being backwoods savages) or Caskentians just unable to fight their way out of a wet paper bag even while holding scissors as a group. In short, either the wastelanders make no sense or the war makes no sense.
So while there are issues with the book and the world it's set in. It's still a fun story with very believable characters and relationships. So if you're way more interested in reading a tense mystery with a practical but human heroine and humane but capable hero then you'll enjoy this book. You'll also enjoy it if you're here for a slow-burn romance built on mutual respect and interest. Which honest does give this book a bit of a bonus given the sea of toxic and near toxic relationships that beset fiction. If however, you're enthralled by world-building and focused on wider plots and themes you'll be frustrated at the conflicting information you're getting as the characters tell you one thing but the very plot and setting tell you a completely different thing. Since I'm kinda midway between these two poles I give Beth Cato's The Clockwork Dagger a B-. Great character work and relationships, good instincts on world-building but there are elements of the execution that need work. Additionally, the plot and the pacing are professionally done making the book easy and fun to read. Given that this is her first novel I wouldn't be shocked to see Mrs. Cato improving wildly over time.
I hope you enjoyed this review, this book was chosen in a poll by our ever-wise patrons. If you’ve like to have a vote on upcoming reviews, theme months, or just show support for the reviews considers joining us at https://www.patreon.com/frigidreads for as little as a dollar a month. Next week we’ll be looking at another book chosen by the patrons, A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent by Marie Brennan. Until then stay safe and Keep Reading!
Blue text is your guest editor Mr. Davis
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