Ten Minutes Past Teatime – a review

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This is the first
post written with my new ‘one-handed’ keyboard – well, smaller than my
UK-bought one so easier to use when my left-hand cramps and claws. Just need to
adapt to its idiosyncrasies.

On to my review of a
short story that a writer I follow sent her subscribers.

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Ten Minutes Past
Teatime

by

Elizabeth
Chatsworth (Goodreads Author)

Please note, this is
a short story/novelette.



A Victorian spinster-scientist and a Viking shield-maiden find passion and
danger in dark-age Ireland.



1896: Forty-three-year-old scientist Miss Minerva Minett is determined to
become the first female member of an exclusive inventor’s club. To win their
annual membership competition, she invents a time-traveling submersible, and
launches her vessel into the Irish sea for a quick trip to the dark ages. But
when she sinks a Viking longship, accidentally joins a monastery raid, and
falls into the arms of a grizzled shield-maiden, she discovers that time may
not be on her side.

Review 4.3 stars

This entertaining steampunk short story had me amused and entertained
as forty-three-year-old Victorian scientist Miss Minerva Minett attempted to
become the first female member of an exclusive inventor’s club, by launching
her time-traveling submersible into the Irish sea for a quick trip to the dark
ages.

From the amusing opening through her encounter with the
grizzled shield-maiden, Alfhild to the twist at the end, I chuckled at the
inventive mind of Minerva and her creator.

The experiments and inventions were as memorable as the
characters, including the one that delivered the twist at the end. Being
steampunk, I expected alternative history, so I won’t over-judge the
authenticity beyond wondering about some oddities such as a misplaced dragon-head.
  

The romance between Alfhild and Minerva is a bonus with neat
contrasts across cultures and time. And with a name like Minerva, there had to
be goddess references.

Alfhild was the true goddess, not she. Or maybe they both were?

It was a thesis she would have to explore in more detail. For the sake of science.

But the humour is always there.

Minerva cocked her head. Surely, she didn’t hear the word goldfish in the chorus? “ . . . Minerva’s Magic Goldfish. Answers every sailor’s wish . . .” Oh, dear.

A fun read, although short.

Story – five stars

Setting/World-building
– four stars

Characters – five stars

Authenticity – three
stars

Structure – four
stars

Readability – five
stars

Editing – four
stars