Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
Ticker  By  cover art

Ticker

By: Lisa Mantchev
Narrated by: Fiona Hardingham
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $10.49

Buy for $10.49

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

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.

What listeners say about Ticker

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    169
  • 4 Stars
    173
  • 3 Stars
    108
  • 2 Stars
    39
  • 1 Stars
    16
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    238
  • 4 Stars
    136
  • 3 Stars
    62
  • 2 Stars
    10
  • 1 Stars
    11
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    158
  • 4 Stars
    143
  • 3 Stars
    101
  • 2 Stars
    38
  • 1 Stars
    16

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Good. Not great.

Worth the listen. Interesting, original story. A fair amount of action my biggest issue was following the story properly. There are quite a few characters and it moves fast. The reader did an excellent job though.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

19 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

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.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

17 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good listen

I enjoyed the narrators voice and intonation of the story. she was a good pick for the read. the book was very interesting more of a fantasy than a Scifi but I liked the blend of magic and clockwork together.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

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.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

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.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Defective book, won't play past first chapter.

What would have made Ticker better?

Being able to play past first chapter.

Has Ticker turned you off from other books in this genre?

Don't know.

Would you be willing to try another one of Fiona Hardingham’s performances?

Don't know.

What character would you cut from Ticker?

Don't know.

Any additional comments?

This book is defective, it won't play past the first chapter and Audible will not allow me to return it, thus I must give it a one star review. I have more than two hundred audio books and this is the first time this has happened.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

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”

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Better as audio than as hardcopy!

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

Definitely. I had previously purchased the book and for some odd reason, couldn't ever finish it! When I noticed the audio version, I thought I'd give that a try. The subject intrigued me, and it is a rather steampunk-esque novel, which I love. For me, reading this book was like reading Shakespeare; laborious to get through, but when you hear the performance, everything falls into place. So glad I got the audio and didn't give up entirely. Plus, the narrator was amazing. Perfect accent, perfect tone, hypnotic quality to her voice. Didn't want to stop listening!

What was one of the most memorable moments of Ticker?

So as not to provide spoilers, I will just say:

Evil Laboratory. Oh. Em. Gee.

Which scene was your favorite?

Again...just say no to spoilers!

But I will say that I really enjoyed the technical aspects of the book, especially the detail surrounding how her heart actually worked/failed to work properly.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes. Curse you, Needingtomakealiving! You spoil everything.

I did 'forget' to make dinner so I could curl up in my chair with this book and my yarn. No one starved. I might do it again.

Any additional comments?

I so dearly hope she writes a follow up to this book and that this narrator is available to do the job. And that I'm not dead before it happens. (Insert hopeful sigh)

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

good story but the narrator made it an excellent experience

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

I would strongly recommend this audio book.

What did you like best about this story?

Good story but the narration made it great

Have you listened to any of Fiona Hardingham’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

This is my first experience with the reader and I plan to look for more of her performances

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I really wanted to listen in one sitting but life always has a different plan

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A Most Enjoyable Story!

This is my first steampunk novel.
I believe it's written for a younger audience, however if you still have your love of adventure stories, you will enjoy this. It reminds me of the Narnia books.
The author & narrator were a good combination!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful