Free shipping on orders over $99
The Watchmaker of Filigree Street

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street 1

by Natasha Pulley
Publication Date: 01/06/2015
4/5 Rating 1 Review

Share This Book:

 
$29.99
A ravishing new literary historical fantasy, The Watchmaker of Filigree Street plunges readers into a magical past, peopled with unforgettable characters that come to life on the page.
ISBN:
9781408854297
9781408854297
Category:
Fiction
Publication Date:
01-06-2015
Publisher:
Bloomsbury
Edition:
1st Edition
Pages:
336
Dimensions (mm):
234x153x26mm
Weight:
0.51kg
Natasha Pulley

Natasha Pulley studied English Literature at Oxford University.

After stints working at Waterstones as a bookseller, then at Cambridge University Press as a publishing assistant in the astronomy and maths departments, she did the Creative Writing MA at UEA.

She later studied in Tokyo, where she lived on a scholarship from the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, and she is now a visiting lecturer at City University.

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street is her first novel.

Click 'Notify Me' to get an email alert when this item becomes available

You can find this item in:

Show more Show less

Reviews

4.0

Based on 1 review

5 Star
(0)
4 Star
(1)
3 Star
(0)
2 Star
(0)
1 Star
(0)

1 Review

It is 1884. The Irish Republican movement Clan Na Gael has set off a clockwork bomb at the Home Office in London, but telegraph clerk Thaniel Steepleton has miraculously survived thanks to a strange pocket watch, left at his apartment a few weeks previously. The watch was made by “K. Mori”, a Japanese immigrant with a clockwork workshop at Knightsbridge, and it’s now Thaniel’s job to find out if Mori could be responsible for the bomb.

This is not really a traditional steampunk story – it’s not really an alternative history, more of a “gearpunk” clockwork with a touch of magic. If you’re looking for a fast-paced story, this is not for you. The gentle pacing put me off a little towards the start but it does give a mysterious, almost sinister feeling to the story as it unfolds. The setting in London – the upmarket Knightsbridge area, the Japanese show village and the smokey Underground really bring the era to life. At the same time, the elements of Japanese culture and the clashes with the English way of life (and bizarrely, Gilbert and Sullivan) make this an interesting look at the life of Asian immigrants to London at the time.

Mori and his clockwork is just delightful. Philippa suggested to me that she thought this book sounded like The Night Circus, and it often does have that dreamlike quality. There are clockwork fireflies in the garden, golden pears that grow up trees, and Katsu the Octopus is my absolute favourite and I want one. Even the way Mori interacts with those around him is very sweet and rather eccentric, and I loved that – when I wasn’t wondering whether he was actually a criminal mastermind.

The storyline itself does have quite a lot of complex science and timey-whimey possibilities with the clairvoyant “remembering forward” aspect of this story. At times it almost felt like there was too much complexity woven in. I did enjoy hearing about Grace and her work with the Ether, despite the complex explainations. Theoretical physics can’t have been an easy field to work in back then, especially as a young woman.

By the end I was still left with a slightly baffled feeling, although the actual ending itself is very satisfying. The Watchmaker is an amazing stand-alone debut and I’ll be looking forward to whatever Natasha Pulley creates next.

Contains Spoilers No
Report Abuse