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The Watchmaker of Filigree Street Natasha Pulley 9781620408339 Books

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The Watchmaker of Filigree Street Natasha Pulley 9781620408339 Books

I really wanted to like this a lot more, but it took me a while to get really interested in it. That being said, the characters in the book are interesting and well thought out. The merging of British and Japanese cultures was very good. The book takes place in the late 1880's where the police are trying to figure out who is bombing buildings around London. Telegraphist Thaniel Steepelton misses the blast in Scotland yard because of a watch placed in his apartment six months prior. Who left it there and why? He looks to watchmaker Keita Mori for answers. Their lives intertwine with a woman named Grace who longs to be an independent and educated, in a time where she is expected to be a doting wife and mother.

Fans of steampunk (multicultural or otherwise) will enjoy this book and get the octopus reference. Even though it seemed slow paced to me at first, I still really liked all of the main characters and I loved the ending as well.


Tags : The Watchmaker of Filigree Street [Natasha Pulley] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. 1883. Thaniel Steepleton returns home to his tiny London apartment to find a gold pocket watch on his pillow. Six months later,Natasha Pulley,The Watchmaker of Filigree Street,Bloomsbury USA,1620408333,Clock and watch makers,Clocks and watches;Fiction.,Fantasy fiction,Fantasy fiction.,Historical fiction,London (England) - History - 19th century,Steampunk fiction,Steampunk fiction.,Telegraphers,Women immigrants - Great Britain,Women physicists,ENGLISH HISTORICAL FICTION,ENGLISH SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY,FICTION Fantasy Historical,Fantasy,Fantasy - Historical,Fantasy Historical,Fiction,Fiction - Fantasy,Fiction Literary,Fiction-Historical,GENERAL,General Adult,Great BritainBritish Isles,United States

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street Natasha Pulley 9781620408339 Books Reviews

Natasha Pulley has written a first novel of real distinction. Although it is set in the heart of the Victorian era, it is not a "steam punk" novel as some have mistakenly characterized it. The Watchmaker of Filigree Street can best be described as a mixture of urban fantasy, magical realism and Wellsian science fiction involving strange, subjective time travel into all possible futures and their manipulation by a very mysterious watchmaker. Pulley writes graceful and elegant prose that is relentlessly descriptive and carefully crafted. What she leaves unsaid is often as important as what she explicitly describes, though her ironic detachment may confuse some readers who depend upon prose whose meaning is more clearly defined as the story unfolds. Pulley suggests multiple points of view in the novel by using simple declarative sentences and a slightly oblique suggestiveness her writing style couples Jane Austen's irony with Virginia Woolf's elusiveness and it is very effective.

Because the events on Filigree Street are so mysterious and strange, and because we are not meant to experience time with its normal linearity, this elusiveness is absolutely necessary if Pulley is to succeed. The fact that she succeeds so well is a tribute to the choices she makes as the novel unfolds. If you are to enjoy The Watchmaker of Filigree Street to its fullest, allow Pulley's prose a certain leeway and freedom as it works on your imagination. Don't worry about arriving at the final destination, it's the journey that's most important. One of the characters in the novel is a student of physics at Oxford University evocatively named Grace. Scientifically inclined readers will recognize her on-going project as the famous Michelson–Morley experiment that was performed in the Spring and Summer of 1887 at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio comparing the speed of light in perpendicular directions. This epochal experiment's negative results are generally considered to be the first strong evidence against the then-prevalent luminiferous ether theory and led almost directly to Einstein's even more epochal Relativity Theory.

It is the famous ether in combination with a primitive form of quantum indeterminacy that Pulley uses as the mechanism for the strange watchmaker Mr. Keita Mori's ability to remember the future and then to control it. That magical ability is suggested by Pulley's nebulous use of time in the novel and it is that technique that gives The Watchmaker of Filigree Street much of its elusive beauty. There are several other themes that assert themselves these include political terrorism, the first halting steps in the nascent feminist movement, class and racial differences during the apex of Britain's empire, the essential elusiveness of memory and personal identity, technology as an integral expression of creativity and the overarching theme of the ineffable nature of time. These are all weighty themes that are expressed in a remarkably lighter-than-air manner. As a first novel, The Watchmaker of Filigree Street is quite an achievement. I strongly recommend it to readers eager to let go of the usual narrative signposts as they immerse themselves in this fascinating fantasy.
I loved the way Natasha Pulley writes. She is descriptive without being boring, and has a hint of wry humor that reminds me a little of J.K. Rowling. So many things about the world she created for this book are interesting and unexpected, and the plot starts off with a compelling mystery. So far, so good.

The final quarter of the book, however, doesn't fit the rest. (mild spoilers ahead) While you spend most of the story thinking the characters are embroiled in some nefarious international plot, the whole thing fizzles at the end and becomes a big nothing. One character makes a despicable choice that destroys property and nearly kills people, and no one says boo about it, not to mention it's a decision totally out of line with the character to that point. I'm really disappointed because I loved the set up so much and the ending just didn't carry it off.
Natasha Pulley’s remarkable first novel is an addictive delight— I read it straight through, forgoing sleep in favor of her London of the 1880s. Her meticulous research of not only London of the time but also of Japan, newly opened (at gunpoint) to the West, underpins a book that remains character driven. The three main characters have impossible dreams Thaniel, a government clerk, had to give up the piano to support his widowed sister and her children; Grace wants to be a scientist, a physicist in a world where women are wives and mothers; Mori, the Japanese diplomat turned magical watchmaker, wants... well, mostly to be left alone to work on his clockwork creations.

The book is gently paced, written almost as in a minor key. Often, as much is said by what is not said— Pulley demands the reader’s involvement, and gets it. It is little wonder this novel received the attention it did, including the prestigious Betty Trask Award.

Highly recommended.
I'm not sure how to characterize this book. It is not science fiction or fantasy. Perhaps I am best off by saying that it is a very enjoyable novel tinged with an element of unreality.

The story takes place in Japan and London and is set in the period after Admiral Perry opened Japan in 1853 and Ito Hirobumi became the first prime minister in 1868. The Japanese reference provides the time reference, but most of the story takes place in London.

I really do not want to give away a lot of the story details because one of the joys about reading this book is watching it unfold. I can say that I was supposed to work today and spent the entire day engrossed in the book. Very bad for productivity but no regrets; I have a smile on my face.

This is neither the most complex or weighty novel you can read. It is a long way from Tolstoy but if you have a day to kill you can spend it well with this book
I really wanted to like this a lot more, but it took me a while to get really interested in it. That being said, the characters in the book are interesting and well thought out. The merging of British and Japanese cultures was very good. The book takes place in the late 1880's where the police are trying to figure out who is bombing buildings around London. Telegraphist Thaniel Steepelton misses the blast in Scotland yard because of a watch placed in his apartment six months prior. Who left it there and why? He looks to watchmaker Keita Mori for answers. Their lives intertwine with a woman named Grace who longs to be an independent and educated, in a time where she is expected to be a doting wife and mother.

Fans of steampunk (multicultural or otherwise) will enjoy this book and get the octopus reference. Even though it seemed slow paced to me at first, I still really liked all of the main characters and I loved the ending as well.