Timepiece [Kindle Edition]

Heather Albano (Author)

Book Description

A steampunk time travel adventure about a girl, a pocket watch, Frankenstein's monster, the Battle of Waterloo, and giant clockwork robots taking over London.

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Elizabeth Barton longs to escape the endless round of social ritual that defines life in the village of Hartwich during the Regency of Prince George. Her neighbor William Carrington has lost the use of his arm in the Napoleonic Wars, and now must watch from the sidelines as the final act of that conflict unfolds without him. Both go through the motions of their lives, dutiful but dissatisfied, as the Battle of Waterloo looms on the horizon. When an anonymous benefactor sends Elizabeth a pocket watch that is more than what it seems, they are swept seventy years into the future.

The London of 1885 is a steampunk dystopia where the streets are patrolled by Gatling-gun-wielding robots and the clockwork of the British Empire is slick with its subjects' blood. This future has its roots on the field of Waterloo--in the secret weapon Wellington employed there--and it will come true in seventy years' time unless Elizabeth and William find a way to stop it.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Heather Albano is the author of the steampunk alternate history Timepiece and its sequel Timekeeper, as well as assorted short fiction and poetry. She also writes works of interactive fiction for Choice of Games, so far co-authoring Choice of Broadsides, Choice of Zombies, and the Affairs of the Court trilogy (part three forthcoming in early 2013). Find out more about Heather's projects at heatheralbano.com.

Product Details

• File Size: 504 KB
• Print Length: 307 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B005QD0TGG
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #30,064 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #27 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Science Fiction > Steampunk
  • #40 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Science Fiction > Time Travel
  • #65 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Fantasy > Alternative History

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A fun ride through time and space October 14, 2011

By Shauna S. Roberts

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I don't normally care for steampunk, but the advertised time travel and monsters drew me to set aside other books in my to-read pile to start this one first. I was glad I did. This story goes way beyond the ordinary trappings of steampunk with its imagination and close attention to historical and cultural detail and its many literary references.

Don't worry if you don't know anything about 19th-century England. The characters are rich and the description is excellent, so you'll understand and enjoy the book anyway. But if you are familiar with English culture and history, you'll enjoy the references.

Albano has accomplished the seeming impossible by having the main characters be both true to their times AND relevant to today's readers. The heroine is a woman who is smothered by her family's disapproval, and the hero is a war veteran trying to adjust to normal life again and to his crippling injury. Both want to chart their own future but aren't sure how; their adventures in this book give them a step in the right direction.

The time travel and the characters' attempts to change history was also well handled. Each seeming "fix" of the future either failed or led to another bad future. The author is clearly well aware of the "butterfly effect" and also of the way multiple people create the same invention or come up with the same revolutionary idea at the same time, so there are no easy solutions for the characters and the friends they make in their adventures.

This was a book I found hard to put down, even to go to bed. I stayed up far later than I wanted to last night to finish it.

I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fantasy or who enjoys seeing genres successfully mixed and mashed (in this case, the genres are romance, horror, steampunk, and historical fiction, with a touch of mystery).

Note: Although the book has some resolution at the end, it is not a stand-alone story. The next installment, I found out at the end, won't come out until Summer 2012. I will be impatiently awaiting that book to find out what happens next.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Frankensteins vs. Robots April 5, 2012

By Grady Hendrix

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

.99 cent ebooks, right? But still, if regular books are cocaine, then .99 cent ebooks like this one are crack. They're fast, they're cheap, and they deliver all the same thrills only with a lot more intensity. TIMEPIECE is pretty much straight-up pulp fiction: a sweet 19th century girl winds up with a steampunky pocket watch that flips her back and forth through time like a pancake. Every time she lands on the griddle she has to deal with Frankenstein soldiers, or clockwork cops, or dirty orphans. Then, to make it all worse, French people show up speaking their snobby language. Truly blood-chilling.

This is the kind of "close your eyes, grab the wheel, press the accelerator" science fiction that used to be all over the place back when there were genre junkies haunting the aisles of bookstores looking for their next hit of big ideas and wild setpieces. The history is tight and the story hits like a steam-powered fist punching you in the face. I spent a buck, had a hell of a lot of fun, and learned to hate Napoleon. Is there anything more you want from a book?

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Its awesome! October 3, 2011

By K. Metz

Format:Kindle Edition

So, I have to confess that my usual reading is science fiction. Or military fiction. How-ever I happen to know the author and thus far have been rather intrigued with her writing. And this one is no different. I can't give any steampunk references, or anything of that nature. But what I can say is that its well written and very captivating. If you enjoy the steampunk genre, or good intelligent writing then do yourself a favor. Download this and check it out.

More About the Author

Hello! I'm Heather. I write for a living. Which is the only thing I've ever wanted to do for a living, actually, so that's...pretty awesome, when you stop to think about it.

My first novel, TIMEPIECE, is a steampunk time travel adventure - the story of a girl, a pocket watch, Frankenstein's monster, the Battle of Waterloo, and giant clockwork robots taking over London. Its sequel TIMEKEEPER continues the story where TIMEPIECE leaves off.

You can find my short fiction (all of it speculative or historical or both) in the MORE SCARY KISSES anthology from Ticonderoga Publications, in Electric Velocipede, in Aoife's Kiss, in Midnight Times, and in the sadly-defunct Spectra Magazine.

When not writing fiction, I work as a game designer for Choice of Games, producers of award-winning text-based multiple-choice games for the Kindle (as well as the iPhone/iPad, Android, Palm, and web. Come on over to www.choiceofgames.com to learn more about us!)

For more information about me, come on over to www.heatheralbano.com(less)