Ticker

By: Lisa Mantchev

Narrated by: Fiona Hardingham

Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

A girl with a clockwork heart makes every second count.

When Penny Farthing nearly died, the brilliant surgeon Calvin Warwick managed to implant a brass "Ticker," transforming her into "the first of the Augmented!" But soon it was discovered that Warwick kidnapped and killed dozens of people striving to perfect another Ticker for Penny.

The last day of Warwick's trial, the Farthing factory is bombed, Warwick disappears, and Penny and her brother, Nic, receive a ransom demand for all of their Augmentation notes if they want to see their parents again. Who is trying to stop their work? Or to control it? Or is the motive more sinister?

Determined to solve the mystery and reunite their family, the Farthings recruit their closest friends: fiery baker Violet Nesselrode and gentleman-about-town Sebastian Stirling. Unexpectedly leading the charge is Marcus Kingsley, the young army general who has his own reasons for wanting to lift the veil between this world and the next. Wagers are placed, friends are lost, romance stages an ambush, and time is running out for the girl with the clockwork heart.

©2014 Lisa Mantchev (P)2014 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Straightforward

I kept expecting to encounter a full out twist. Didn't get one. Imaginative ride, though.

Penny

Loved it! It definitely needs a sequel, I want to know what happens with Penny

Too many characters, all underdeveloped

The problem with listening to this book is that there is a LOT of characters that all appear to have multiple names or titles, and none of them are explained very well, which is why I made them all obvious in my summary. I think I would have been better able to follow along had I had a better understanding of who was who. The author spent too much time describing clothes and nonsense devices that she failed to develop any of the characters. It seemed forced and poorly thought through and I had a hard time cheering for our main character. Overall, I wasn’t thrilled with this story.

This book is trying soooooo hard to be steampunk that the author is jamming all the mechanical nonsense down your throat, and a lot of it doesn’t even make sense.
Example: Penny has a personal communication device (RiPA – “Ripley’s Personal Aethergraph”) that attaches to her garter, under her bustle skirt, but she can still send messages using it while steering her “Vitesse motorized high-wheeled bicycle”.



This quick guide below should help when listening to this book!

Short Summary & Characters:
*Penny (Penelope) Farthing – Main character, heroine, has a hereditary heart condition that will stop her heart and kill her, like her sisters’, Dimitria and Cygna.
*Nic (Copernicus Emery) Farthing – Twin brother of Penny
*Dr. Calvin Warwick – the man who augmented Penny’s heart; to save her life, Dr. Calvin Warwick replaced her failing heart with an augmented heart. In order to perfect the augmented heart, Dr. Warwick kidnapped and killed dozens of people, a crime for which he is on trial.
*Sebastian Stirling – Wealthy childhood friend of Penny and Nic, always seems to be around, with parents who are never around.
*Violet Nesselrode – Best friend and youngest baker at Sugarwerks Fully Automated Bakery, which is owned by Violet’s family
*Marcus Kingsley – Proprietor and Legatus legionus of the Ferrum Viriae, (also addressed by his title: Legatus)

Less important characters…
*Dimitria Beryl Farthing – Older sister to Penny and Nic, deceased
*Cygna Garnet Farthing – younger sister to Penny and Nic, deceased
*Frederick Carmichael – Soldier
*Dreadnaught – Some type of housekeeper at Glasshouse, cooks, cleans, sews
*Philomena de Mesmer – Professional Clairaudience and Trance

Good things to know:
*Farthing Cogs & Rivets Factory – Owned by Penny and Nic’s family
*Glasshouse – The home of Penny and Nic
*Ferrum Viriae – Industria’s privatized military, in charge of police, fire, and emergency
*Bazalgate – the main city, located inside “Industria”

awesome!!!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would definitely recommend this book because it is very interesting to listen to.

Who was your favorite character and why?

marcus because he is such a complex person.

Which scene was your favorite?

the spiders coming out of peoples ears

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

the very end

Loved it

Loved it. I listen to a lot of books. This one was entertaining and provided the kind of easy listen that I look for.

Entertaining Steampunkish

Very gifted writer. I look forward to seeing how she develops. I am hoping she will stick with this genre as her imagination for this style is really enjoyable.

Meh! Okay for YA fiction!

Lots of inconsistencies and definitely young adult fiction! I'm sure I would have enjoyed this more at the age of 10 or 12.

I was so drawn in!

I loved the story when i read it, but Fiona does an amazing job bring the story and characters to life! wonderful!

Great for a 14 yr old girl who loves science

For me it was meh, but if my daughter loved science, this would be her favorite. Great high quality narration.

Superb Narration, intriguing but unsatisfying plot

The narration was out of this world. Excellent ear candy.

The story - was interesting, intriguing - but the idea of a 16 year old girl, her twin, and two similarly aged mates and a very slightly older "commander in chief" being the agents of the story was just a bit hard to swallow. Then again I have lived with teenagers far more recently than I've been one myself, so if I were 13 or so, I'd naturally think it was totally natural that these characters were barely out of the childhood yet have the suave sophistication of the 1960s era James Bond Riviera set. I couldn't personally relate to the people in the story, but other than that it was good, and was enjoyable. I would give the overall rating at 3 stars *personally* but it would be unfair I think to the general impression of the quality overall if I did that.

So 4 generous overall stars, and 5 stingy stars for the performance quality. Think of it as 5 stars + a few more for the performance. Fiona Hardingham turned an otherwise not-quite-satisfying book into a fantastic listen.

I do have the ebook, and read a few pages in print in the middle of the story, however my take is that this is a book far better as an Audible experience than as a quiet read curled up in a sunny window somewhere. Go straight to the Audio book if you have any interest. Its really a great listen even if the ability to 'believe' in the characters was impaired for me. It was very tightly written, lovely word play and moved at a fast pace.