Pinion

Starred review from February 22, 2010
Political conflicts and philosophical arguments find closure at last in this splendidly baroque whirl of geomancy and Victorian clockwork. Young Paolina Barthes, the gear-minded prodigy who became a target for the empire-building ambitions of rival governments in 2009's Escapement
, is on the run, heading south over the Wall that God built to divide the hemispheres and keep the Earth's gear turning through the heavens. As spies and ancient secret societies scramble to find her, Paolina struggles to learn how to control her world-shaking abilities, while her heart pulls her toward Boaz, a golemlike man of brass. Lake wields big themes—magic and religion versus science, free will, colonialism, and a bit of romance—with surprising elegance, and readers will enjoy cherishing the characters and pondering the concepts of this “clockpunk” world.

March 15, 2010
Fleeing the wizards of England who want to use her power, Paolina Barthes makes a perilous journey across the Equatorial Wall. Aboard a Chinese submarine, Emily Childress and her devoted companions attempt to escape the grasp of the Silent Order and the White Birds. In Southern Earth, another force attempts to guard its mysticism from the greedy predators to the north. The third volume in Lake's Clockwork Earth series ("Mainspring; Escapement") follows the adventures of a small group of disparate individuals as they travel toward a great destiny. VERDICT Lake's blending of steampunk and the mechanical "magic" of a giant clockwork mechanism provides an ever-startling backdrop for his remarkable tale of adventure and derring-do. Highly recommended for fans of steampunk fantasies.

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2010
Lake returns to the clockwork Earth of Mainspring (2007) and Escapement (2008) to resume the intertwining stories of Paolina Barthes, the Mask Childress, the Chinese clerk Wang, and Mr. Kitchens. Paolina is traveling south of the Wall into mysterious lands populated by sorcerers, where she hopes to escape the grasping power of the men of the north and learn to use the power of her gleam more wisely. Childress travels aboard a renegade Chinese submarine. Kitchens is on a mission to discover what has transpired with mad Dr. Ottweills attempt to drill through the Wall. At the whim of his master, Wang, aboard a ship of condemned men, chases Childress through hostile waters, occasionally aided by a female monk capable of moving invisibly on the ship at sea as well as in great cities. She and Wang are navigating the complex machinations of the secret societies the White Birds and the Silent Order and preventing the worst of a Sino-English war. As before, Lakes world is multifaceted, fascinating, quite filled with satisfying adventure and intrigue.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)