The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley

Firstly, this book is not badly written. The prose is competently put together, but it just was not for me. I failed to engage with the characters, found the plot meandered in ways that just did not work for me and ultimately it all fell a bit flat.

Chess playing automatons in the 18th century seem to have been a bit of a theme in recent historical fantasy stories. I am not sure what to make of this - I presume it is related to an increase in interest in chess recently as it is a somewhat esoteric trend. Anyway, I digress a bit. The main theme of the story follows the story of a clockmaker somewhat beset by tragedy. The earnestness is a bit overbearing and exhausting. The familial relationships are all a bit strained in weird ways, which jarred me somewhat. Ultimately the characters were not ones that I could relate to, their eccentricities very much on the extreme end of the scale. YMMV, but this one was not for me.

Found this a bit strange and did feel like I was dragging myself though second half/once Zachary was grown up. It was a shame other characters weren't given much time as felt they were interesting! More so than Abel and most of the Constantinople bits . It felt at times like things were a little too quick and easy (such as the end bit) but the author's descriptions were fantastic.

Lovely cover and the note showed how much research was in there - I feel it almost could have been two books!