Clementine isn’t the first Clockwork Century novel I’ve reviewed. I’ve been a fan of Cherie Priest since Boneshaker in 2009, and Dreadnought from 2010. I was browsing Amazon’s recommendations recently, and discovered that the Kindle edition of Clementine was under $3. It’s also available for Kobo.

Dust jacket for Clementine, illustrated by Jon Foster

Clementine is a novella. It’s shorter than your average novel, and has a relatively straightforward plot.
There are two main characters, Croggon Hainey, an airship pirate, and Maria “Belle” Boyd, a former Confederate spy turned Pinkerton agent.

Both plots converge rapidly, as they focus on the safety and recovery of a stolen airship, the Free Crow from Boneshaker, renamed Clementine, and its cargo.
While Clementine, unlike Boneshaker and Dreadnought, doesn’t have any zombies, there are other fantastical elements at play, including a super weapon with the power to destroy a city and end the decades long civil war. While the technology at play is different from the nuclear bombs which devastated Japan to end World War II, the intent is clearly the same.

The novella is fast paced, with large portions of the book occurring in airships. We get a strong sense of style in Clementine. It’s a fast paced world, with America in a long Civil War. In term of the Clockwork Century books, Clementine is not as isolated as Boneshaker, nor is it as integrated as Dreadnought. Clementine attempts to navigate in a mostly apolitical sphere. While Belle is a former Confederate spy, she works for the Pinkertons, under contract to the Union. It’s a grey area, just as her sympathies remain Confederate grey. We don’t really get to see much of the world in this book; we instead see snapshots of cities as the characters pass through. The world building depth is strongly hinted at, but not extensively explored in this novella.

As for Hainey? His motivation in the story is to reclaim the Free Crow, a symbol of his escape from slavery in the South. While his narrative isn’t quite as intriguing as is Belle’s, it complements her plot quite nicely. The two plots and viewpoint characters are well balanced. It’s dynamic, and enhances the fast plot progression. This addresses the problems with Boneshaker’s unbalanced viewpoint characters, while adding more complexity than the single protagonist in Dreadnought.

Perhaps the greatest weakness in the story is the shorter length. Clementine is half as long as either Boneshaker or Dreadnought. Cherie Priest’s writing is fast paced, leading me to read her books quickly. Sadly, this means that the book is over far too soon. This is balanced by the price of the ebook. Clementine is good value. There are also other novels released in the Clockwork Century series, which means that the story isn’t necessarily over yet.