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Cato, Beth

(1980-    ) US poet and author who began to publish work of genre interest with "Brains for Breakfast" in Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Presents Flush Fiction: 88 Short-Short Stories You Can Read in a Single Sitting (anth 2009) edited by the Editors of the Bathroom Readers' Institute. Her first series, the Clockwork Dagger sequence beginning with The Clockwork Dagger (2014), follows its young female protagonist through a Young Adult rendering of a Steampunk land dominated by Airships and other appurtenances of the genre; Magic complicates (modestly) the mix, though the protagonist's use of something like magic and something like lore as part of her armamentarium as a healer is enriching. She is soon a fugitive searching for a cure to the world's ills.

Cato's second series, the Breath of Earth sequence comprising Breath of Earth (2016) and Call of Fire (2017), is an Alternate History sequence set in early twentieth-century America, Equipoisally featuring Magic and a Jonbar Point seemingly being the establishment of a coalition between America and Japan. After the San Francisco earthquake (see California), a non-president Theodore Roosevelt dashes into the second volume. [JC]

further awards or honours: Rhysling Award.

Beth Louise Cato

born Hanford, California: 13 January 1980

works

series

Clockwork Dagger

• The Clockwork Dagger (New York: Harper Voyager, 2014) [Clockwork Dagger: pb/Gene Mollica]
• The Clockwork Crown (New York: Harper Voyager, 2015) [Clockwork Dagger: pb/Gene Mollica]
• The Deepest Poison (New York: Harper Voyager Impulse, 2015) [novella: ebook: Clockwork Dagger: na/]
• Wings of Sorrow and Bone: A Clockwork Dagger Novella (New York: Harper Voyager Impulse, 2015) [novella: ebook: Clockwork Dagger: na/]
• Final Flight (New York: Harper Voyager Impulse, 2016) [novella: ebook: Clockwork Dagger: na/]
  • Deep Roots (New York: Harper Voyager, 2016) [omni of the above three: Clockwork Dagger: pb/]

Breath of Earth

• Breath of Earth (New York: Harper Voyager, 2016) [Breath of Earth: pb/Gene Mollica]
• Call of Fire (New York: Harper Voyager, 2017) [Breath of Earth: pb/Gene Mollica]
• Roar of Sky (New York: Harper Voyager, 2018) [Breath of Earth: pb/Gene Mollica]

Chefs of the Five Gods

• A Thousand Recipes for Revenge (Seattle, Washington: 47North, 2023) [Chefs of the Five Gods: pb/]
• A Feast for Starving Stone (Seattle, Washington: 47North, 2024) [Chefs of the Five Gods: pb/]

individual titles

collections and stories

• Red Dust and Dancing Horses and other Stories (Bonney Lake, Washington: Fairwood Press, 2017) [coll: pb/Kazuhiko Nakamura]

links

• Beth Cato
• Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Picture Gallery

Entry from The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (2011-current) edited by John Clute and David Langford.
Accessed 13:11 pm on 16 July 2026.
<https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/cato_beth>