Books with title The Clockwork Twin

Jack discovers new abilities, travels to exciting lands, and thwarts a conspiracy brewing deep within the ministries in this epic addition to the action-packed Section 13 series.Jack Buckles is on trial for his life. The Ministries of Secrets and Guilds, led by Ignatius Gall, are conspiring to put the Ministry of Trackers down for good—starting with Jack’s very existence as a Section 13. His only hope is to prove that Gall is the real danger, not him, and it leads Jack and Gwen from the back streets of London, through the Austrian Alps, to the great reaches of central China. Joined by their new friend Liu Fai, Jack and Gwen set out to stop Gall before he can uncover ancient Chinese artifacts, said to grant immortality. But a clockwork monster threatens them at every turn, and its ticking gears only serve as a reminder that Jack’s judgment day is fast approaching—and that he’s running out of time.

First published in 1923, The Clockwork Man is widely considered the original cyborg novel.Several thousand years from now, advanced humanoids known as the Makers will implant clockwork devices into our heads. At the cost of a certain amount of agency, these devices will permit us to move unhindered through time and space, and to live complacent, well-regulated lives. However, when one of these devices goes awry, a “clockwork man” appears accidentally in the 1920s, at a cricket match in a small English village. Comical yet mind-blowing hijinks ensue.There are rumors floating about that E. V. Odle is the science-fiction pen name of Virginia Woolf. But true or not, true fans of science fiction and early cyborg stories like Isaac Azimov's Robot series will no doubt deem this novel a great find.Excerpt:It was just as Doctor Allingham had congratulated himself upon the fact that the bowling was broken, and that he had only to hit now and save the trouble of running, just as he was scanning the boundaries with one eye and with the other following Tanner's short, crooked arm raised high above the white sheet at the back of the opposite wicket, that he noticed the strange figure. Its abrupt appearance, at first sight like a scare-crow dumped suddenly on the horizon, caused him to lessen his grip upon the bat in his hand. His mind wandered for just that fatal moment, and his vision of the on-coming bowler was swept away and its place taken by that arresting figure of a man coming over the path at the top of the hill, a man whose attitude, on closer examination, seemed extraordinarily like another man in the act of bowling.That was why its effect was so distracting. It seemed to the doctor that the figure had popped up there on purpose to imitate the action of a bowler and so baulk him. During the fraction of a second in which the ball reached him, this secondary image had blotted out everything else. But the behaviour of the figure was certainly abnormal. Its movements were violently ataxic. Its arms revolved like the sails of a windmill. Its legs shot out in all directions, enveloped in dust.

To battle a menacing evil figure, a group of children team up with amazing mechanical machines built by genius clockmaker Karl Indergarten. Best friends Karlheinz Indergarten and Leopold Croak clash in an epic, imaginary battle waged in the branches of an enormous, ancient oak tree. But when lightning strikes young Leopold, he loses his imagination, and with it, his sense of right and wrong. The damaged boy grows to adulthood, treading a sinister path of industrial conquest. And Leopold’s thirst for power soon threatens the tree, the village, and worst of all, the children within. But humble Karl discovers a gift for clockwork—the magic of gears and cogs—and assembles a mechanical army to fight back. Joined by the children themselves, Karl endeavors to save the village, the ancient oak, and maybe—just maybe—something more besides.

Several thousand years from now, advanced humanoids known as the Makers will implant clockwork devices into our heads. At the cost of a certain amount of agency, these devices will permit us to move unhindered through time and space, and to live complacent, well-regulated lives. However, when one of these devices goes awry, a “clockwork man” appears accidentally in the 1920s, at a cricket match in a small English village. Comical yet mind-blowing hijinks ensue.The novel opens with the farcical setup of the Clockwork Man's abrupt appearance at an early-twentieth-century afternoon cricket match in the countryside, which he ultimately joins and wrecks. The novel soon changes tone, however, and views the threat and promise of the Clockwork Man from several perspectives, including that of a middle-aged doctor who has grown settled in his opinions and middling life and shame at his own lack of originality, and a young man who strains against convention and the predicament of his youth.Along the way, the story challenges modern assumptions about efficiency, the tyranny of fast-paced life (and small-town opinion), and the value of free will.

Rumors has it that “E.V. Odle” was a pen name for Virginia Woolf. However this is not true.(1890-1942) UK editor and author; in the former capacity he was the first editor 1926-circa1935 of the British Argosy Magazine (see The Argosy). As younger brother of the UK illustrator and artist Alan Odle (1888-1948), who was the husband of Dorothy M Richardson (1873-1957), Odle came into close contact with J D Beresford, who had been instrumental in publishing the first volume of Richardson's Pilgrimage in 1915. Odle's Scientific Romance, The Clockwork Man (1923), clearly shows the influence of Beresford, an author central to that form, and may also have been published with his help. In this graceful tale, a Cyborg – in this case a man into whose body a clock-like monitor-cum-Time Machine has been inserted – comes accidentally back through time from 8000 CE to the present (see Time Travel), where in his Mysterious Stranger role he plays cricket and disturbs his auditors by describing a world in which life regulated by Machines is accepted by most, though not all. God, it is hoped, has been taking note of the new, "improved" version of humanity. All the more moving for its air of calm, The Clockwork Man is a plea to the human beings of the twentieth-century world that they not continue losing the battle against the machine. Other work by Odle includes the short fantasy "The Curse upon Isaac Knockabout" (April 1923 Gaiety), featuring a magic ring, a curse-bestowing genie and two somewhat stereotyped Jewish tailors.The suggestion that "E V Odle" was a pseudonym used by Virginia Woolf to write sf is an elaborate spoof. [JC]

Tick. Tock. Time is running out for Wonderland.When Alice Liddell got married and became Alice Hargreaves, she received one last gift from the man who immortalized her in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass—a watercolor painting. To anyone else, it’s just a normal painting of Oxford.But to Alice, it’s a portal to another world. One that she doesn’t dare go through anymore—as a wife, a mother, and a well-brought-up upper-class English lady. On the other side of the portal, another, younger Alice is being dragged into the beginning of a war. A war between the Wonderlanders that we know—and the ones on the opposite side, clockwork creations that used to maintain the clocks that drove Wonderland but have now forced their counterparts to slave from dusk until dawn. A cruel treaty constrains everyone from the humblest rabbit to the highest queen.And now the fragile peace between the Wonderlanders is coming to an end: the great clock that runs Wonderland is almost unwound, despite the best efforts of both sides…and just to make things worse, a group of traitors has been working toward the Great Unwinding, sabotaging all efforts of salvation.Only the grown-up Alice’s curiosity can save them now…

The adventure continues in Clockwork Heart, Book 2 in the Of Magic series!Arion is gone, and Theresa has finally come out of hiding after sixteen years. Cyllorian doesn't know what to think any more, but there's one thing he knows for sure: Arion's not dead.Cy is determined to do whatever it takes to bring Arion back. Even if that means relying on the elusive Theresa, and she seems to have her own agenda.To make matters more complicated, Kaitlyn has been dragged into this dark world of magic after witnessing Arion's sacrifice, and she refuses to return to her mundane life.Cy and Kait must embark on a trek across Lontorra, all the while being lead around by Theresa's vague orders, to form a small army in the hopes of saving Arion.