TimeKeeper Audiobook Blog Tour, Review, & Giveaway!

Author: Tara Sim

Narrator: Gary Furlong

Length: 8h 50m

Publisher: Forever Young Audiobooks

Genre: YA Fantasy

Release date: Feb. 14, 2017

Two o’clock was missing.

In an alternate Victorian world controlled by clock towers, a damaged clock can fracture time—and a destroyed one can stop it completely.

It’s a truth that seventeen-year-old clock mechanic Danny Hart knows all too well; his father has been trapped in a Stopped town east of London for three years. Though Danny is a prodigy who can repair not only clockwork, but the very fabric of time, his fixation with staging a rescue is quickly becoming a concern to his superiors.

And so they assign him to Enfield, a town where the tower seems to be forever plagued with problems. Danny’s new apprentice both annoys and intrigues him, and though the boy is eager to work, he maintains a secretive distance. Danny soon discovers why: he is the tower’s clock spirit, a mythical being that oversees Enfield’s time. Though the boys are drawn together by their loneliness, Danny knows falling in love with a clock spirit is forbidden, and means risking everything he’s fought to achieve.

But when a series of bombings at nearby towers threaten to Stop more cities, Danny must race to prevent Enfield from becoming the next target or he’ll not only lose his father, but the boy he loves, forever.

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HALL WAYS REVIEW: In Timekeeper, author Tara Sim has come up with numerous fascinating premises surrounding time: that time is malleable, that clock towers control time, that clock towers have spirits, and that any clock mechanism issues will manifest on the bodies of the spirits. Main character Danny's dad (and everyone else in the town where their clock tower failed) is stuck in time, and this is one of the book's driving storylines.

The setting is a dingy, Victorian era with steampunk aspects including automatons, airships, and dirigibles. London, of course, is the perfect setting for a dingy, steampunk world. There is even a noxious fog that would float in and blanket the town! The steampunk vibe is just a subtle background to what's going on in the story, but the setting perfectly complements the mechanics of Danny’s world. As the story moves forward, parallel mythological stories are included to explain the mythology behind time bending and control. These add an interesting element, and I suspect the stories are based on actual mythology. (I recognized Kronos/Cronus as one of the gods, but my listening recall skills aren’t sharp enough to remember more.)

Sim creates an excellent cast of characters, who are each deftly voiced by narrator Gary Furlong. With many of the characters, typical gender roles are tossed-up in the air: Cassie fixes cars, Daphney is a motorcycle riding engineer, and Colton is demisexual. There are both lovable and loathsome characters (and some you love to loathe! And vice-versa!), and readers will never be bored with the goings-on in the clock engineer world.

Despite the story being a world away from reality, there are also things that strike a modern note.  There are protestors, and the protestors have protestors, and it’s interesting that protestors want time to run free (Down with the clock towers!) even though all signs would point to that having disastrous results for everyone. There are bullies, there’s teen angst, and there are, of course, the very real emotions associated with life, death, and love. 

Speaking of love, there are several levels of loving relationships happening in Timekeeper; they are all well-done and believable and not all sexual. (And since the book is YA, readers should know that there is only one or two vaguely sexual scenes but other than that, it’s mostly kissing and hand holding. There may have been some very mild swearing, but it didn’t catch my ear.) This book is about much more than the romance; pay attention because Sim makes plenty of statements about politics and society.

What I really love about the story is Sim’s wonderful imagery in her descriptions. Here are two sentences I managed to write down: 

“The tower smelled of moths and age, 

the scent of a forgotten memory.”

“He'd been lost in a chamber of his heart 

that bore no windows--blind to the outside world.”

Sim’s wonderful writing is only enhanced by Furlong’s wonderful narration, which is perfect at regular speed for the audio book. (I almost always increase the speed and didn’t on this book). Truly, no two characters sound alike, and even the female voices sound legit. I am going to look for other books narrated by Gary Furlong – he’s that good. . . and I’m a sucker for that accent. I highly recommend it as an audio book, but I think it would be awesome to read with my eyes, too.

There is a lot of action and it really kicked-in to high gear the last third of the story.  What a SWEET discovery for Danny in the last thirty minutes of the book, and what an excellent conclusion. It wrapped up nicely and definitely works as a stand alone, but I am happy to report that it’s just the first book of the series. Chainbreaker, book two, is slated for November, 2017! I'll be there!

Tara Sim is the author of Timekeeper (Sky Pony Press) and can typically be found wandering the wilds of the Bay Area, California. When she’s not chasing cats or lurking in bookstores, she writes books about magic, clocks, and explosives. Follow her on Twitter at @EachStarAWorld, and check out her website at tarasim.com.

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Gary Furlong grew up in Wexford, Ireland. Throughout his life he has worn many a hat: He has worked as a teacher in Niigata, Japan; a puppeteer in Prague; an improv artist in Memphis, Tennessee; and as a singer and actor all over Ireland. He started narrating audiobooks in late 2015 and hasn't looked back.

Gary made his acting debut in the musical Godspell as a student. Since then he has pursued acting both on the amateur and professional circuits. Notable roles include Tom Collins in Bare Cheek's production of Rent in 2010.

Over the course of his five years in Japan, he was an actor, director, and audio producer. It was during this time that he discovered his interest in audiobooks and voice-over.

He now works full-time as an audiobook narrator and voice actor from his home in Ireland.

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TWO WINNERS: 1, $50 Amazon Gift Card; 1, Digital Audiobook Download Bundle including a copy of TimeKeeper!

Timekeeper Giveaway #1


Timekeeper Giveaway #2




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