Tinker

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Synopsis

Eighteen-year-old Tinker is a techie genius who lives in a near-future Pittsburgh that, thanks to inter-dimensional space travel, now mostly exists in the land of the elves, which is on another planet. She runs a local scrapyard and creates inventions of her own making on the side. One night, an Elven noble who she recognizes as a clan leader named Windwolf is chased into her scrapyard by a pack of wargs intent on killing him. Tinker immediately jumps into action to help him and manages to kill the wargs, but Windwolf is gravely wounded. Without an Elven hospital, she knows he won't survive the night, and it just happens to be the one night each month when Pittsburgh returns to Earth. Through her own ingenuity, Tinker works hard to keep Windwolf alive and once the danger has passed, he expresses his gratitude in a very unconventional way. Soon Tinker finds herself wooed by the handsome elf and discovers that she's also the subject of an Elven prophecy. Before long, though, she's kidnapped by the evil oni who want her to build another inter-dimensional portal for them and believe that, as the daughter of the scientist who build the first one, she's the only person who can. Tinker must use her wits to survive and find a way out before it's too late.

Review

Tinker is the first book in Wen Spencer's Elfhome series that I would say is most aptly categorized as science fantasy. It takes place in a near future where the city of Pittsburgh has been interdimensionally transported to the planet of Elfhome via a gate that seems to operate based in some type of quantum physics, hence the science fiction aspect. However, Elfhome is, as its name suggests, home to the elves, who in this mythology are aliens. Otherwise, though, they and their civilization are very much like any other elves you may have read about that populate many fantasy worlds. In this realm, we have Tinker, a teenager who runs her own scrapyard and who is a literal genius when it comes to anything of a technical nature. She's content with her life until, one night, an Elven noble is chased into her scrapyard by a pack of wargs. She manages to kill the wargs, but the elf, who she recognizes as a clan leader named Windwolf, is badly wounded. Without the magic of an Elven hospital, she knows he won't survive and it's the one night each month when Pittsburgh goes back to Earth for twenty-four hours. It's up to Tinker to use her ingenuity to keep Windwolf alive until they return to Elfhome. In doing so, she sets in motion a series of events that will change her life forever as Windwolf expresses his gratitude in a wholly unexpected way and she discovers that she's the subject of an Elven prophecy. It also puts her on the radar of both the NSA, who say she's in grave danger as the daughter of the scientist who created the gate, and the EIA (Elven Interdimensional Agency), who want her help with finding technology smugglers. In the end, she finds herself kidnapped by evil oni who want her to build another gate for them and must use her wits to find a way out of her predicament.

Conceived in a very unconventional way, Tinker was born in the Pittsburgh of Elfhome and has never visited Earth even on the one day each month that it returns to its home planet. She was raised by her grandfather in Pittsburgh, which of course, is primarily populated by humans, but having been around them all her life, she's very familiar with the elves as well. When she was thirteen, she saved Windwolf's life, after which he marked her, tying their life forces to one another. At first, he doesn't remember her, though, when she once again save his life five years later. Tinker is a kind, compassionate person, so I believe she would have tried everything in her power to save Windwolf, no matter what, but she works that much harder, because she has no idea how the spell connecting them works and fears if he dies, she might die as well. Luckily that doesn't happen, but the event sets a lot of wheels in motion that make it all but impossible for Tinker to go back to her ordinary life in the scrapyard. Up to that point, Tinker was content with her life, and making good money with her business. She has her cousin, Oilcan, and friends in the city who are more like family. She's also been looking forward to her first date and her first kiss, both of which she gets from one of those friends, but neither turns out the way she might have hoped. Instead, she finds herself intensely attracted to Windwolf who brings a transformation to her life in more ways than one that she never would've expected. But with these new changes and realizations comes a great deal of danger.

I love smart heroines and Tinker is definitely that. She's clearly the most intelligent person in any room and I like that that part of her persona is brought out so well. She bears a certain humility, though, that I think keeps her from seeing what a gem she really is and it takes the elves, mainly Windwolf, to help her realize her full potential. She also cares a lot about her human friends and family and ends up finding new friends amongst the elves to which her kindness extends. If I had any complaint about her at all, it would probably be that she sometimes doesn't seem to know her own mind, especially who she wants to be with romantically, but I admit that could just be a product of her callow youth and inexperience and her not seeing herself the way others do.

While Tinker has multiple men that she's attracted to, and to some extent, tests the waters with, throughout, I had a special fondness for Windwolf from the moment we meet him. He's a kind and honorable elf, and although he does a couple of very significant things to Tinker without her full knowledge or consent, I understood that it wasn't done in a malicious or manipulative way. It was merely a misunderstanding based in cultural differences and a language barrier, so it was forgivable to me. Not to mention, even though Tinker has mixed feelings about these changes in her life that take her some time to work through, she ultimately keeps coming back to Windwolf as the one who seems to hold the most allure for her, and whenever she's with him, she's wholeheartedly into him.

Overall, Tinker was a fun, imaginative, and adventurous read. The melding of the science fiction and fantasy elements was done seamlessly and somehow they worked together wonderfully. Tinker is a great character and it was fun going on this journey with her. The story also has a touch of romance in it that I enjoyed, although since it's mostly secondary to other events, I wouldn't call the book a romance novel. There were times I wished we could have had Windwolf's perspective, as I kind of wanted to know what was going through his mind, but it wasn't a deal-breaker. Since the next book of the series, Wolf Who Rules, appears to be all about him and hopefully from his POV, I'm willing to wait to see if it gives me more insights into his character. There were some loose threads left hanging in this story, but again, since there's more still to come, I'm giving the author a pass in hopes that we'll see them wrapped up better in the subsequent books. That being the case, the only thing that was a little bothersome is the extent of the technical passages. I love when we get to see smart, geeky characters in their element, because it makes their characterization more authentic, but I prefer if those elements are seamlessly woven into the narrative. However, Tinker goes into technical descriptions of what she's doing rather often, which usually made me zone out a little. I also couldn't tell for sure if it was rooted in actual science or was simply technobabble, but either way it was perhaps a little much and one of the main reasons, I dropped a half star. Otherwise, Tinker was an enjoyable read that has me looking forward to picking up the second book soon to see what happens next.

Note: This book contains a scene of attempted sexual assault of a main character, as well as a scene involving the rape and forced impregnation of a supporting character, which could distress sensitive readers.

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Wen Spencer