Book Cover
Title Waking
Author Emily Thompson
Cover Art ---
Publisher CreateSpace - 2013
First Printing CreateSpace - 2013
Book Cover
Title Trick
Author Emily Thompson
Cover Art ---
Publisher CreateSpace - 2013
First Printing CreateSpace - 2013
Book Cover
Title Dreamer
Author Emily Thompson
Cover Art ---
Publisher 2014
First Printing 2014
Book Cover
Title Missing
Author Emily Thompson
Cover Art Emily Thompson
Publisher CWTwist - 2015
First Printing CWTwist - 2015
Book Cover
Title Inquest
Author Emily Thompson
Cover Art Emily Thompson
Publisher CWTwist - 2016
First Printing CWTwist - 2016
Book Cover
Title Blood
Author Emily Thompson
Cover Art Emily Thompson
Publisher CWTwist - 2017
First Printing CWTwist - 2017
Book Cover
Title Family
Author Emily Thompson
Cover Art Emily Thompson
Publisher CWTwist - 2018
First Printing CWTwist - 2018
Book Cover
Title Depth
Author Emily Thompson
Cover Art Emily Thompson
Publisher CWTwist - 2018
First Printing CWTwist - 2018
Book Cover
Title Home
Author Emily Thompson
Cover Art ---
Publisher ---
First Printing ---
Book Cover
Title Time
Author Emily Thompson
Cover Art ---
Publisher ---
First Printing ---
Book Cover
Title Faith
Author Emily Thompson
Cover Art ---
Publisher ---
First Printing ---
Book Cover
Title Closure
Author Emily Thompson
Cover Art ---
Publisher ---
First Printing ---
Category Steampunk
Warnings None
Main Characters Twist, Jonas, Myra, Arabel, Storm, Skye, Kima
Main Elements Steampunk
Website clockworktwist.com




Click to read the summaryWaking

Click to read the summaryTrick

Click to read the summaryDreamer

Click to read the summaryMissing

Click to read the summaryInquest

Click to read the summaryBlood

Click to read the summaryFamily

Click to read the summaryDepth




I immediately fell in love with Twist. He's such a sweet, quirky character who was dragged out of his comfortable home in London into an worldwide adventure on airship, in a submarine, through jungles and caves. And quite the cast of characters, you have vampires, djinns, kitsunes and of course it wouldn't be steampunk without a clockwork damsel in distress!

In fact I would be hardpressed to find something I didn't like about this story. It was a pleasure to read, and while I couldn't envision the faces of the various characters (something I can rarely do at the best of times) the author was able to create a very vivid world in my head. A little bit of steam, a little bit of magic, Victorian dress and swashbuckling pirates (with jetpacks no less). And the villains weren't two-dimensional evil privateers whose only purpose was to provide conflict for the main character, they had their own back stories, quirks and they kind of grew on you as much as the protagonists did. I'm hoping we'll be seeing them again in subsequent books.

It was magical and wonderful, it was fun and uplifting. It was hard to believe that such a short book could have so many elements that I enjoyed crammed together but somehow still working like well tuned clockwork.

I absolutely adored the second book in the series too. Twist is so cute and sweet and clueless, and Jonas so gruff on the outside but so caring on the inside. In this one they they have to fight to keep Myra safe from a group of people that collect odities, on the surface to "keep the world" safe but in what way Myra could hurt anyone is questionable. I found a few bits of the premise to be a bit hard to accept, but you could throw Twist and Jonas into any plot and I would love it as long as they were together. Hope they figure out they were meant for each other! There's nothing explicit, they are just friends, but they could be so much more if they realized it. And a great pleasure to read, just like the first. It made me look forward to going to work so I could open up my eReader during the commute to spend some time in this wonderful world.

Now though the first two books were free, I'll have to pay to get my hands on the third...but I'm completely willing to pay for the priviledge of spending more time with Twist, Jonas and Myra. Now to decide if it should be in electronic or physical form...

May 2020

It's been a while, too long a while, since I read a Twist book, but I've been collecting them in physical form as they come out. This year I decided it would be a good time to start up the series again but I'll only read one a year, to make sure I'll have plenty of Twist to look forward to! Now at some point I had already read Dreamer but I guess didn't update this review, and now I've also read Missing. The plot was a little absurd in this one, but then this is a world where the absurb is fairly commonplace, especially when you start hanging out with space pirates with magical powers, a vampire and the occassional kitsune, so why shouldn't space dragons exist too? Where science may fail, magic can always fill in the gaps. But for me, these stories aren't just about the plot and the adventures poor Twist is dragged into (though I suspect he's starting to look forward to them now, he might find his old life a little boring, much as he complains otherwise), but it's about Twist and Jonas. They are such an interesting pair and I'm really interested to see where Thompson takes their relationship. And it seems with some hints dropped in this book, that there might be some interesting directions to go indeed. I'm glad there are still 8 more books to go, because so far I've enjoyed each one immensely. They are well worth the investment in physical copies of the book. The ebooks are of course cheaper but I don't like Amazon's proprietary format so I never buy mobi's and these cannot be found on Kobo epub. BTW, I love the consistency in the covers, each one representative of the specific story but at the same time using a familiar template.

May 2021

I've made it my yearly tradition now to read a Clockwork Twist book. It's lovely to return to this lighthearted series where all the characters are somehow just adorable. Now it was hard to believe, given I've been reading this books for six years, that only a few months have passed for Twist. Having a personality very similar to his, I don't know how he surived everything he did, but it is nice to have a protagonist to relate to, one who would rather read a book than save the world. And as we keep learning more about the characters, we learn that there is more to them that meets the eye, though in a bit of an annoying way, where everyone seems to know the "secret" but the protagonists and the reader. I won't say much to avoid spoilers, as I get deeper into the series they really build on each other, but I look forward to reading another next year. And why do you ask do I not read them all at once if I enjoy them so much? Well, I don't want them to run out, and there are only 12 after all! To keep it going longer, I'm taking my time :)

May 2022

Here we learn about Aazzi's family, a vampire conclave in Africa. I thought we might learn even more, but we only get to Africa after about halfway through the book, since at the start the gang taking a break in Hawaii and then need to take trip halfway around the world to come to Aazzi's aid. But you know what, I don't necessarily read these books for the plots (not that it was that bad, but more on the vampire and less floating about in airships might have been good), but it's for the relationship between Twist and Jonas. It's the kind of thing people enjoyed about Aziraphale and Crowley in Good Omens. It's somehow blatantly obvious that they are lovers, but they aren't and may never be, physical about it. Maybe soulmates is a better word, something that goes beyond even love itself. Two broken people making each other whole. Can't wait till next year when I can read the next one!

May 2023

In this one, which is not a surprise given the title, we start to learn about Twist's family. Brought up as an orphan he never knew his parents, but that didn't mean nobody else knew who they were. Also the nature of Sights is explained, and also why Jonas and Twist have such powerful ones that also make them suffer as well as why their Sights don't work on each other but rather give them comfort. A lot gets explained but there is plenty for other books to continue to fill in.

May 2024

We find out Twist's real name! I suppose that was bound to happen when you fill a submarine with pretty much everyone who has a sight and at least one of them would be able to see people's names. Mind, I have no idea what purpose this person would serve in exploring Atlantis, the people there are long gone, so that really didn't make any sense at all. In fact the whole research trip to Atlantis was a bit of a let down since they never really get to explore it much and I felt it could have been interesting. It does however explore more about Twist and Jonas' pasts and we finally get to see what the villains look like, but I didn't feel it added a lot to the story, other than to find out that all the Sighted people already knew the story and conveniently Jonas never heard about it, not in all his travels and interactions, given he seems to hear about all kinds of other things. While this isn't my favorite of all the books I'm definitely still very much looking forward to the remaining four.




Posted: May 2015

HOME BACK EMAIL

Background, images and content (unless otherwise noted) are © SunBlind
Do not use without permission.