Review: Diverting
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 11 3, 2013
Cat's Paw, second (and so far last) book of Heather Blackwood's Time Corps Chronicles, is a fun read, with a combination of steampunk, time travel, and outright fantasy-- this last far more evident here than in the first book in the series.  With an interesting combination of characters from at least three disparate-yet-connected timelines, Cat's Paw is clearly a continuation of The Clockwork Cathedral, rather than being merely another book 'tacked on'-- careful plotting of an arc that carries over between the books, ensuring that ideas apparently left hanging in the first volume are expanded upon and explained in this one, ensures the reader that plot devices left hanging in book two will be completed further on in the series.The book is not flawless, obviously-- she spells County Galway in Ireland with two 'l's, for instance, and there are a couple of annoying historical anachronisms for those readers of an historical bent (spaghetti wasn't introduced into the United States until the end of the 19th Century, and then primarily to the Northeast, and cars weren't as yet equipped with seat belts in 1961)-- and if they're anachronisms as plot devices, tell us so in the story!)-- but overall this is a well-told, well-edited story, and the series thus far is worth the read.Indeed, I'd encourage Miss Blackwood to stop reading these reviews in order to get back to work on book three!