Clockwork Boys

This book and its sequel [b:The Wonder Engine 38352077 The Wonder Engine (Clocktaur War #2) T. Kingfisher https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1517810851l/38352077.SY75.jpg 58381662] go together, so I'll review them together. After only one reading I'm unsure whether to give 3 or 4 stars, so I'll give 3 to one and 4 to the other. I reread books, so I may revise this later.I grew up on science fiction, and I like any weird stuff in a story to have an explanation. Some fantasy stories have magic with rules and limitations, and if the magic follows the rules I accept that as an explanation. This story is what I call wild fantasy: there are no rules, no limitations, and no explanation beyond “Well, magic”. So, not really my kind of fiction.But I read the whole two-volume story because I found it readable, it's fluently written and I liked the characters.There's a definite plot to it, the characters are on a very dangerous mission, and they go through various kinds of suffering. But their personal interactions seem to be the most important thing here. The fictional dangers and suffering in some stories make me uncomfortable, but here I managed to read on through all that without taking it too seriously. Is this good or bad? Some people seem to like feeling uncomfortable in that way, but I don't.The characters are diverse and engaging, and their interactions are amusing. Some reviewers have mentioned Terry Pratchett. Most of the time I wasn't particularly reminded of him, but there are some similarities to his work, and the gnoles do remind me of him.