The Clockwork Dagger

July 7, 2014
This rousing tale of airborne intrigue and romance keeps itself grounded with a story as disarming and forthright as its appealingly capable heroine. Debut author Cato swiftly and adeptly introduces the barbaric, desperately impoverished kingdom of Caskentia, with its shabbily handsome steampunk veneer laced with mysticism and magic. Octavia Leander, who has preternatural healing skills, takes a ramshackle airship to her new post as a medician. An attack on her delightfully starchy roommate, Mrs. Stout, is followed in short order by an attempt on her own life. Aided by Mrs. Stout and Alonzo Garrett, a gallant steward who is much more than he appears, Octavia soon realizes that she is a pawn in the conflict between Caskentia and the rebellious province of the Dallows. As she rescues an endearing clockwork gremlin, fends off a suspiciously ardent suitor, and survives being shot at, kidnapped, and defenestrated, Octavia displays charming Victorian sensibilities, staunch determination, courage, and outspoken independence. Ample action and a delectably delayed romance propel the story toward a riveting finale, marking Cato as an author to watch. Agent: Rebecca Strauss, DeFiore and Company.

October 1, 2014
In a debut that promises to be the first of two novels set in this world, Cato introduces a likable heroine and a serviceably imagined steampunk fantasy painted with broad strokes of magic and political intrigue. Octavia Leander is a young healer, a "medician," whose magical ability to heal is extraordinary even in a world flush with airships, chimeras, and the expected steampunk trappings of clockwork science and unusual magic systems. Her journey to a new life as the resident healer of a small country town takes her onto the airship Argus, where unlikely plots and assassination attempts pull her deep into the troubles of a country suffering from the effects of war. The companions she collects in her travels are, unsurprisingly, not what they seem, and Cato employs many conventions of fantasy adventure to set the story in motion: a kidnapped princess, elite spies, a patchwork religion and an enthusiastic embrace of simple romance. The characters Octavia meets are appealing in an exaggerated way; the plot is often graceless but has the undeniable ability to encourage the dogged turning of pages. While the narration is sometimes tripped up by awkward shifts into Octavia's interior monologue and swathes of absurd description-like the comparison of a woman's bosom to "planets of flesh that hovered above an unblemished satin sky"-it gains a prickly insistence from a depiction of magic that depends on sacrifice as well as power. The magic in this world does not always arrive without a price, and that gives it a depth that would otherwise be missing.A light read that suffers from heavy-handed prose but may offer an interesting new world to readers who enjoy the flavor of steampunk fantasy and soap-opera intrigue.

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Starred review from August 1, 2014

Having left the school for medicians at which she trained, Octavia Leander is traveling on the airship Argus when attempts are made on her life. Octavia is a highly principled young woman who can channel the powers of the Lady to enact miraculous cures on the sick and injured, but her abilities should make her valuable, not expendable. As agents of the crown and spies from the Wastes come out of the woodwork, Octavia must rely on her few allies: middle-aged Mrs. Stout, who has a deadly secret of her own, and the alluring airship steward Alonzo Garret, who seems always to be in the right place to help Octavia. VERDICT The action is pretty much nonstop in this debut steampunk fantasy. The attraction between Octavia and Alonzo is sparked right away, but it's hard for the former to know whom to trust as her talents have made her a pawn between two political powers. Although readers will enjoy the satisfying climax of this adventure, there is plenty to the plot for a sequel from promising novelist Cato.

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