{
    "id": 406690,
    "slug": "a-clockwork-river",
    "nstc": null,
    "title": "A Clockwork River",
    "subtitle": null,
    "collection_title": null,
    "collection_part_number": null,
    "annotation": null,
    "description": "<p><strong>A sister searches for her missing brother as a new power rises amid the splendour and the squalor of a once great city.</strong><br /><br />Time is running out for the Clockwork River.<br /><br />Lower Rhumbsford is a city far removed from its glory days. On the banks of the great river Rhumb, its founding fathers channelled the river's mighty flow into a subterranean labyrinth of pipes, valves and sluices, a feat of hydraulic prowess that would come to power an empire. But a thousand years have passed since then, and something is wrong: the pipes are leaking, the valves stuck, the sluices silted and the once torrential Rhumb has been reduced to a sluggish trickle.<br /><br />The fortunes of the Locke family, descendants of the city's most celebrated engineer, are similarly reduced. In a once fashionable quarter of the once great city, siblings Samuel and Briony Locke distract themselves: Sam tends to his vast lock collection instead of finishing his engineering thesis; facing the prospect of a disagreeable marriage, Briony occupies herself with alchemical experiments.<br /><br />One night Samuel leaves the house carrying five of his most precious locks and doesn't come back. As she searches for her brother, Briony will be drawn into a web of ancestral secrets and imperial intrigues as a ruthless new power arises. If brother and sister are to be reunited, they will need the help of a tight-lipped house spirit, a convict gang, a tribe of troglodytes, an association of antiques enthusiasts, a travelling theatrical troupe, the Ladies Whist Club, the Deep State, and a lovesick mouse.<br /><br />Epic, rollicking and in love with language, Jacob and Sara Emery's sprawling debut novel of humble kitchen magics and awe-inspiring civil engineering is a rare and delicious commodity &ndash; the world's first hydropunk novel.</p>",
    "imprint": null,
    "language_code": "eng",
    "original_language_code": null,
    "page_count": 608,
    "duration_seconds": null,
    "publication_date_first": "2021-10-07",
    "publication_date_latest": "2021-10-07",
    "cover_url": null,
    "editions": [
        {
            "isbn": "9781800249936",
            "product_form": "BC"
        }
    ],
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        "2": 0,
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        "5": 0
    },
    "created_at": "2025-09-19T13:41:33+00:00",
    "updated_at": "2025-10-29T00:33:25+00:00",
    "publisher": {
        "id": 4294,
        "slug": "head-of-zeus",
        "name": "Head of Zeus",
        "created_at": "2025-09-19T13:09:37+00:00",
        "updated_at": "2025-09-19T15:11:16+00:00"
    },
    "contributors": [
        {
            "id": 249645,
            "slug": "eleanor-ray",
            "key_names": "",
            "names_before_key": null,
            "prefix_to_key": null,
            "contributor_role": "A01",
            "readable_contributor_role": "Author"
        }
    ],
    "genres": [],
    "subjects": [
        {
            "scheme_identifier": "32",
            "scheme_version": null,
            "main_subject": false,
            "subject_code": "334",
            "created_at": "2025-09-19T13:41:33+00:00",
            "updated_at": "2025-09-19T13:41:33+00:00"
        }
    ]
}