Inventor, girl genius Tinker lives in a near-future Pittsburgh which now exists mostly in the land of the elves. She runs her salvage business, pay...
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reviews
Jun 05, 2009
Seth
rated it: 
This one's fun. A nice take on the cross-world SF/Fantasy hybrid with good politicking on both sides of the divide and some fabulous surprises along the way.
In particular, I like the way the main character's specialness is worked into the plot without breaking suspension of disbelief and the way her flaws and youth are handled.
Basic setup: the Chinese government steals some not-quite-done research on making a star drive and builds it, not-quite-understanding how it work More...
In particular, I like the way the main character's specialness is worked into the plot without breaking suspension of disbelief and the way her flaws and youth are handled.
Basic setup: the Chinese government steals some not-quite-done research on making a star drive and builds it, not-quite-understanding how it work More...
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Nov 25, 2010
Jessica
rated it: 
Tinker was an absolute delightful melding of science fiction and fantasy. Within the first few pages I found myself immediately drawn into the world, and loving every second of it.
A quarter way through the book I realized what was so entrancing about the story, it seriously reminded me of reading a manga (japanese style comic). There is a type of genre of manga that melds high fantasy with sci/fi which I have never before seen actually expressed in just writing, and I must say I was d More...
A quarter way through the book I realized what was so entrancing about the story, it seriously reminded me of reading a manga (japanese style comic). There is a type of genre of manga that melds high fantasy with sci/fi which I have never before seen actually expressed in just writing, and I must say I was d More...
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Jan 07, 2012
Genevieve
rated it: 
I'm of two minds about Tinker. On the one hand, the concept and story are so unique, and fun, it made this book a page-turner. It's well thought out, and the world-building is amazing. As a result, I find myself picking this book up again and again. Tinker as a heroine is also a great character--unique both in personality and physical attributes, a brainy but petite offspring of a brilliant scientist who chooses to work in a junk yard with her brother.
There are two reasons I deduc More...
There are two reasons I deduc More...
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Jan 03, 2012
Chrissi
rated it:
I don’t know how many times I stumbled upon this book before I actually read it. The cover was so weird and lurid that I put it back on the shelf each time, only to stumble upon it again. A close friend caught me one day and told me I absolutely MUST read it. And it was the best decision I made!
The book is named after the spunky female lead Tinker, an 18-year-old mechanical genius with a dangerous family history. The story is set on a more futuristic earth than ours, where scientists have f More...
The book is named after the spunky female lead Tinker, an 18-year-old mechanical genius with a dangerous family history. The story is set on a more futuristic earth than ours, where scientists have f More...
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Jan 11, 2011
Ithlilian
rated it:
Lets get the things I didn't enjoy out of the way. First, Tinker, our main character, is only 18. Being 18 she isn't very mature or level headed, she is more concerned about getting a boyfriend than understanding the consequences of her actions. I realize now that I should have read the jacket of this book a little more carefully. A genius girl that can build just about anything gets into some trouble and has to kick some butt, but the most important thing is getting a boyfriend. I glanced over
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May 22, 2010
Emily
rated it:
Tinker is one of those books that makes my heart go pitter-pat. So many genres are fused together seamlessly to create a story that's fun, adventurous, unique and exciting all at the same time.
The setting of the story is definitely unique, and the worldbuilding is top shelf. The author succeeds in packing the story with lots of detailed descriptions, right down to the physics of why things actually work or why a certain set of circumstances is plausible, without ever bogging down the More...
The setting of the story is definitely unique, and the worldbuilding is top shelf. The author succeeds in packing the story with lots of detailed descriptions, right down to the physics of why things actually work or why a certain set of circumstances is plausible, without ever bogging down the More...
Dec 15, 2009
Brownbetty
rated it:
This book is about a girl whose grandfather creates her from her dead father's frozen sperm, and then names her "Alexander Graham Bell." Amazingly enough, it is not about her quest to track him down and exact revenge, or about her traumatic youth; she considers her childhood to have been excellent, and only goes by 'Tinker' because she follows the elven custom of not giving away her name lightly (and because, really, she's a Tinker.)
The world of Tinker (both the book, and More...
The world of Tinker (both the book, and More...
Jun 05, 2009
Lady Danielle "The Book Huntress"
rated it:
This was a relatively quick read for a non-romance (since they are my favorite I usually zip through them). I guess I finished it in about 10 days but I also read a few books at the same time. I guess romantic books get read quicker because of the pull of the romantic relationship. Having said that, maybe that is why I finished this quickly. Tinker is a great heroine, smart, likeable, human, and interesting. The world is an interesting one: Pittsburgh with a twist. In this book, Pittsburgh goes
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Mar 17, 2009
Anita
rated it:
Wow - what a great book! This book is a mash-up of contemporary/urban fantasy, traditional fantasy, science fiction, and paranormal romance. The protagonist is just barely 18 years old, so at first I worried that this book would be young adult literature, but it wasn't.
Tinker is the 18 year old scientific genius of a heroine, and her father was the one who created a portal machine that allows a chunk of earth (Pittsburg) to travel through dimensions and trade places with a chunk of More...
Tinker is the 18 year old scientific genius of a heroine, and her father was the one who created a portal machine that allows a chunk of earth (Pittsburg) to travel through dimensions and trade places with a chunk of More...
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Aug 27, 2011
Sandy
rated it:
Tinker is a fantasy novel about an alternative future where elves from another dimension interact with humans in modern day Pittsburgh. Due to some technological breakthrough by Tinker (the main character)'s father, a chunk of Pittsburgh is in "Elfhome" most of the time.
This started out in a very promising way....but got a bit too complicated towards the end, with the author going on about the technological stuff a bit too much. The characters got a bit simpler then, too, a More...
This started out in a very promising way....but got a bit too complicated towards the end, with the author going on about the technological stuff a bit too much. The characters got a bit simpler then, too, a More...
Nov 28, 2008
Inventor, girl genius Tinker lives in a near-future Pittsburgh which now exists mostly in the land of the elves. She runs her salvage business, pays her taxes, and tries to keep the local ambient level of magic down with gadgets of her own design.
When a pack of wargs chase an Elven noble into her scrap yard, life as she knows it takes a serious detour. Tinker finds herself taking on the Elfin court, the NSA, the Elfin Interdimensional Agency, technology smugglers and a college-minde More...
When a pack of wargs chase an Elven noble into her scrap yard, life as she knows it takes a serious detour. Tinker finds herself taking on the Elfin court, the NSA, the Elfin Interdimensional Agency, technology smugglers and a college-minde More...
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Jun 08, 2009
MB
rated it: 
Interesting in spite of the main character being a Mary Sue and her love interest being what some would consider 'every woman's elf fantasy'. (Not mine, btw.) This novel would have benefitted from better world-building and setting the scene in the first several chapters as I was still confused by the middle of the book.
The villain was too evil for words, there is some pretty obvious racism in the 'evil' characters, and several parts were just too disturbingly weird for me. This book More...
The villain was too evil for words, there is some pretty obvious racism in the 'evil' characters, and several parts were just too disturbingly weird for me. This book More...
Sep 01, 2010
Alexandria
rated it:
I read this book about a year ago and thought that it was pretty good. It is the story if tinker who is an 18 year old genious. An elf falls in love with her and because he doesnt want her to die he turns her into an elf too - without her knowing it. She lives in pitsburgh but due to some dimetional gibberish pitsburgh isnt on earth but part of the planet/land of elfhome. Tinker is kidnapped by the 'badguys' because they want her to build a machine. Pretty good and I'll be reading the next one j
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Feb 05, 2009
Sarah
rated it:
Picked this up at a used book store and was highly, highly entertained by both the narrator's voice and the science-tech twist on how our world came to overlap Faerie... in Pittsburgh. Why the hell not Pittsburgh?
I enjoyed the narrator far more than expected, given her tendency towards Mary Sue perfection, but it was the worldbuilding and the minor characters that made the book for me. If Spencer had continued on as it started out, I'd've given it four stars, but I found the romantic More...
I enjoyed the narrator far more than expected, given her tendency towards Mary Sue perfection, but it was the worldbuilding and the minor characters that made the book for me. If Spencer had continued on as it started out, I'd've given it four stars, but I found the romantic More...
Dec 27, 2008
Lightreads
rated it: 
Sci-Fi/fantasy. Due to unexpected consequences of building a transdimensional gate in orbit over Earth, our Pittsburgh spends all but one day of each month on Elfhome. Our intrepid heroin runs a junkyard, builds things, and tangles with elves and other interdimensional troubles. Good God, this is vile. The pseudoscientific set-up is actually sort of interesting, and there was potential in the interdimensional relations aspects of having a piece of the United States on foreign soil, but these thi
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Aug 12, 2008
Ruka
rated it:
Mashing two kindred yet disparate genres together (sci-fi and fantasy) is always a crapshoot, but Wen Spencer manages to wed the two passably by putting her titular character into a unique bind and infusing the whole mess with smart-ass intelligence and humor.
In the near future, a hyperphase gate experiment goes south and transects the city of Pittsburgh (Spencer's hometown, BTW) with an equivalently-sized chunk on the planet Elfhome. Every thirty days, Pittsburgh flips over to Earth More...
In the near future, a hyperphase gate experiment goes south and transects the city of Pittsburgh (Spencer's hometown, BTW) with an equivalently-sized chunk on the planet Elfhome. Every thirty days, Pittsburgh flips over to Earth More...
Jan 28, 2011
mlady_rebecca
rated it:
I've had this book since 2004. I have no idea why it took so long for me to pick it up. After all, I loved Wen Spencer's "Ukiah Oregon" series, so why not this one? Maybe because of the weird cover art. No idea. But I'm happy to say my only complaint is the time I have to wait for the next book to be delivered.
This book takes place a modern Pittsburgh which has (though a technological gate) become displaced to Elfhome, the Elvin home-world, an alternate universe. Tinker, th More...
This book takes place a modern Pittsburgh which has (though a technological gate) become displaced to Elfhome, the Elvin home-world, an alternate universe. Tinker, th More...
Aug 23, 2008
Janice (Janicu)
rated it:
Great combination of sci-fi and fantasy. Wen (short for Wendy) Spencer explains elves and other mythical creatures in a very original manner: they are from a different dimension. In "Tinker", an interdimensional gate transports the whole city of Pittsburg to Earth once a month for supplies (a day called Shutdown), while the rest of the time it is in Elfland. Unfortunately the designer of this gate is long dead and no one else really understands how it works. Tinker is a girl genius rai
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Jan 29, 2011
Meg
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Apr 23, 2010
Natasha
rated it:
A stupidly cheesy book. The premise is a little ridculous to begin with. Tinker seemed like a person in her late twenties, early thirties, not a person that just turned eighteen. Someone described Tinker as a Mary sue and another that this book reads like a fanfiction. Tinker is pretty Mary sueish. She doesn't realize how attractive she is and all of a sudden two people fall for her, noble elf included. Tinker didn't seem that smart either. This book took too long to read. Events happened out of
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Jan 04, 2009
Shelley
rated it:
This is a book I feel I can recommend to just about anyone that likes Fantasy. It's set in an alternate reality Pittsburgh where a part of Elfhome has become stuck thanks to the Chinese (yeah, that doesn't make sense now but just wait until you read the book!). The characters are interesting and I really like the details Wen Spencer gives through this book and the one that follows (Wolf that Rules).
Aug 23, 2011
Maddy
rated it:
As usual, Ms. Spencer's writing is engaging, her characters fully three-dimensional and the plot solid. I have a terrible time trying to decide which of her books is my favorite, partly becasue they are all so well written and partly because they are all so different. I tend to like some romance in my stories, and Tinker delivers that. Excellent, excellent book!
Dec 04, 2009
Cryselle
rated it:
My rating is a combination of the 5 for the first two thirds of the book and the negative twenty-five for the last third; sorry for you math purists out there, this is the closest the software allows. It was great good fun with a spunky, smart heroine and then then it turned into the vilest sort of fan fiction. I finished it for the train wreck effect.
Nov 30, 2008
Joni
rated it:
Wen Spencer sure knows how to weave a yarn. Is this a romance or a technological/magical thriller? And she leaves us hanging at the end, so be sure to have the next book to hand when you start Tinker.
It's well written and fast paced. Tinker is not who she seems to be, but neither is just about anyone else in the book either.
It's well written and fast paced. Tinker is not who she seems to be, but neither is just about anyone else in the book either.
Dec 08, 2008
Julia
rated it:
Tinker, is 18, female, an inventor and scientist who lives, like Ukiah Oregon, in Pittsburgh, only her Pittsburgh shares a border with Elfhome. Neither magic nor science work predictably in Pittsburgh/ Elfhome, but Tinker works at it. And she tries to stay out of the way of the Elven Interdimensional Agency, the NSA, elves, cops, technology smugglers, until wargs chase an Elven noble into her scrap yard – while she tries to stay focused on what’s really important—her first date. Only Windwolf
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Jun 28, 2009
Maggie
rated it:
Ridiculous pandering to adolescent male demographic.
But apparently I was in the rare mood for trashy fantasy, and so I thought it was fun.
It had some neat ideas and creatures. Better rendering of unrealistic people than realistic ones.
But apparently I was in the rare mood for trashy fantasy, and so I thought it was fun.
It had some neat ideas and creatures. Better rendering of unrealistic people than realistic ones.
Feb 18, 2012
LaserWraith
rated it:
A bit too much romance for my tastes. Plus, you would think a "genius" like Tinker would have invented some sort of protection devices for herself or something, instead of an alarm system to call overworked police...
Feb 04, 2012
Tricia
rated it:
Love, love, love this book. The protagonist Tinker is ideal (for me): nerdy and tough and sweet, a renegade teen supergenius in combat boots. The writing is excellent, the world is part current-day, part fantasy, and there's lots of real and pseudo science. But most of all it's fun.
Nov 13, 2011
Amanda
rated it:
The initial concept and setup was interesting, which is why I ended up reading more than I should have.
*Gag/twitch*
Don't read this book. Just don't.
*Gag/twitch*
Don't read this book. Just don't.
May 23, 2010
Bryan457
rated it:
Absolutely loved the first 2/3 of the book.
I am a bit afraid to read the next one; I am afraid it will disappoint, and end up in relationship purgatory.
I am a bit afraid to read the next one; I am afraid it will disappoint, and end up in relationship purgatory.
