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The Wonder Engine by T. Kingfisher

1.89k reviews for:

The Wonder Engine

T. Kingfisher

4.16 AVERAGE

ceallaighsbooks's profile picture

ceallaighsbooks's review against another edition

4.5
adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
‘Which likely meant, assuming that the guards didn’t kill her outright, yet another daring rescue by the Paladin and Assassin Traveling Road Show.

That would be awkward. Caliban would rescue anyone from anything, of course, but Brenner was bound to get sarcastic about it if it kept happening.’ 
 
book one: The Clockwork Boys 
book two: The Wonder Engine 
world: The World of the White Rat [of which The Saint of Steel—“four books out of seven planned...”—& Swordheart—“one book…so far”—are also a part] “They might also be called ‘paladin romances,’ since most of the books feature the angsty and the armored. I have far too much fun writing them…” - TK 
author: T Kingfisher 
published: 2017 & 2018 
publisher: Red Wombat Tea Company (self-published) 
 
genre/subgenre: adult fantasy 
setting: the World of the White Rat 
main themes/subjects: criminals & outlaws, the underworld, warring kingdoms, invincible clockwork soldiers, espionage & investigation, death, high/medium magic, demons & possession, journey on horseback, secrets, guilt, redemption, religious lore & scholarship, talking animal characters, friendship, trust & betrayal, politics, military industrial complex 
representation: n/a 
tropes: criminal suicide squad on a mission for the crown, so quest trope, found family trope, lovable outcasts trope… opposites attract, kinda? (an unbeautiful criminal forger/thief & a hot ex knight of a religious order? that feels pretty opposite…), love triangle (between aforesaid pair plus the thief’s dark & sarcastic assassin ex who is still in love with her…), dark secrets /secret pasts 
 
‘Brenner looked up from rolling a cigarette. “My dear paladin, you won’t find anyone who cares more about a country than its underworld. If the wolves eat all our sheep, where are we going to get mutton?”’ 
 
my thoughts: 
I have it on good authority (no less than the author herself, in fact) that the best way to read The World of the White Rat books is by starting with The Clocktaur War duology so that is what I did. I do own Swordheart but have gotten the other six books that are out (“so far”) from my library while I wait to see if I can score some nice editions that are starting to come out for Kingfisher’s previously self-published books. (I am still SO so bummed I missed out on the Broken Binding set of The Saint of Steel. 😭) 
 
premise: “Really fun, and strangely difficult to describe.” – Tor.com 
Kingfisher herself describes the inspiration for these books in her Acknowledgments section to Clockwork: “In a burning rage about how paladins were being written wrong, I hammered out forty or fifty thousand words that would later form the bones of Clockwork Boys. …what became known in my head as ‘the thing with the paladin and the ninja accountant.’ [I sent it to my editor saying], ‘I think this is a light swashbuckling love story?’ and she sent back a lot of words about how apparently those don’t include carnivorous tattoos and dead nuns and rotting demons in one’s head and no amount of banter was going to get past that. Great thanks go, therefore, to K.B. Spangler, for editing it anyway…” 
 
What we have is a sort of medieval steampunk fantasy series with a found-family, outcast/outlaw suicide-squad-on-a-quest storyline. 
 
execution: This was such a satisfying little adult fantasy series featuring a lovable cast of criminals (thieves, forgers, assassins), scholars, knights, demons, & talking animal peoples. There is also plenty of magic, mechanical monsters, dangerous hijinks, adventures, heists, exorcisms, rival kingdoms, magical landscapes, quests, witty banter, & even a little romance. 
 
I only would have liked the books, each of them, to be longer so that the incredibly complex & original world-building could have been explored more, I would have liked to get more of especially Brenner’s backstory but also Slate’s, & just to generally spend more time with all of the characters. I think with longer books we could have also seen some more like fleshed out sub-plotlines to explore all of these elements. 
 
writing style: Very good. Even for one of her earlier books, I would still rate the writing style as well above average for the genre; though you can still see her craft improve across her oeuvre. 
 
‘He had not actually been flipping a knife, because hardly anyone really did that, but he looked like the knife-flipping type.’ 
 
characters: Universally lovable, flawed, relatable, complex, & sympathetic in typical Kingfisher fashion. 
 
One of my favorite things about this book was the dynamic between Slate’s & Caliban’s senses of ethics. Slate has developed hers from a lifetime of surviving in the underworld. She trusts fellow thieves because they understand each other AND because they know how the system works. Caliban is basically a trained soldier of a hierarchical church system whose ethics are entirely theoretical & largely out of touch with the real world. This is then explored on an even deeper level with Slate’s readable face & honest display of emotions & thoughts versus Caliban’s more stoic, closed-book demeanor. 
 
And then when Learned Edmund is added into the picture we get another angle from a sheltered, (mis-)educated person’s first experiences with the real world & how he handles that & I absolutely loved T Kingfisher’s thoughtful treatment of his character arc. 
 
I also really liked how the gnoles are a sophisticated people with a whole culture & complex language & how Grimehug isn't just some animal sidekick but an ally and an agencied person whose loyalties lie first and foremost with his autonomous people. I also love Learned Edmund's dynamic with the gnoles except that it reminds me a tiny bit of 1970s anthropologists in Micronesia… but the additional element of Edmund’s growing political & sociocultural awareness to his character arc addresses this bit quite well, imo. 
 
story/plot: Engaging, well-paced, & clever, if maybe a little bit predictable. Really I think you’re here for the characters. 
 
worldbuilding: Phenomenal & utterly original. Honestly you’d think medieval steampunk fantasy with knights, scholars, & thieves would be a bigger subgenre…? 
 
philosophy: I loved the themes of loyalty & compassion, & the anti-establishment vibes were excellent. 
 
notable elements: I… definitely need to get into more opposites-attract romances featuring knights. 🫦 
 
i would recommend this book to readers who love a good, cozy, but also a little dark, original adult fantasy series. this series is best read as a single book because book one is really just half the story not a story in and of itself. 
 
‘“To make horrible monsters?”

“…They were made to be an army… ‘The souls of fallen warriors seek a last chance to serve. This the ancients knew. Give the dying to the engine and they will be reborn into ivory and glory.’”’ 
 
final note: Up next: Swordheart! 
CW // violence & death 
spice level: 🌶️🌶️ 
season: late summer, early fall 
music pairing: the soundtrack to A Knight’s Tale - 
 
further reading: 
The World of the White Rat books by T Kingfisher: 
The Clocktaur War 
Swordheart
The Saint of Steel
Other Works by T Kingfisher:
Adjacent Reads & Recs:

Click on the star ratings beside the titles I’ve read to read my reviews/thoughts about the book.

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‘Did the scales balance out? Did anything ever balance out?’
 
Check out my review on StopAndSmellTheBooks.com for more of my favorite quotes, notes, & annotations.

ascalo's review against another edition

3.5
adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

christineb75's review against another edition

5.0
adventurous emotional funny fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
glass_carousel's profile picture

glass_carousel's review against another edition

4.25
adventurous emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

djflippers's review against another edition

5.0
adventurous dark reflective
whats_worth_reading's profile picture

whats_worth_reading's review against another edition

5.0
adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
Slate, Brenner, Caliban and Learned Edmund have reached their destination, now the only problem is they have no idea what they’re looking for. After a little bit of recon they discover a strange warehouse by the river where bodies seem to go in and Clockwork Boys come out. The plan is simple, get in and destroy the machine, then get out again and run like hell. 

Of course nothing goes quite to plan and when Slate’s past catches up to her they have to deal with an angry mob boss before they can finally deal with their mission and get back home!

As this is the final part of the story I don’t want to give away too many details but all I can say is that these books need to be on your tbr. They are just amazing books and T. Kingfisher is 100% an autobuy author for me now!
annettewolf's profile picture

annettewolf's review against another edition

4.0
A good follow to the first book, and this one had better pacing and stakes and I enjoyed getting to know the characters more.

I only had one real disappointment and that was that the “two assassins” that had been sent after Slate was never addressed to tell us definitively who the second one was. I have my suspicions.

Overall a satisfying narrative though, and a good conclusion.

snnelson's review against another edition

4.25
adventurous emotional funny hopeful tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
athena612's profile picture

athena612's review

4.5
adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

emilytheninth's review against another edition

5.0
adventurous emotional funny medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No