Danny meets the spirit and literally five pages later they kiss. There's no slow flirtation and chemistry, just instant sparks flying. LGBT steampunk romance makes for a shiny selling point, but it is marred by instalove and lack of development. Worst of all, the romance was so disappointing. Mechanics/machines themselves are a key feature of the steampunk genre, so this in itself is not interesting and/or different enough.

This is a steampunk Victorian London FFS, how is there no atmosphere? I think perhaps its because the author opts for a generic portrait of Victorian London with the addition of clock mechanics, instead of developing details to make this world one which is truly unique and memorable. The citizens seem to be unaware of this, but the 'they wouldn't understand' excuse seems like a shitty reason to keep them in the dark. what? The 'monopolization of time'? As Danny points out, the towers and mechanics are crucial to keep the world functioning. The protesters regularly cause trouble throughout the novel, but their reasons for protesting are. But the whole thing seemed like an ill-conceived plot point used to throw some drama into the mix. What the book does focus on is a lot of protests from the general public against clock towers and clock mechanics. The manipulation and fracturing of time is interesting, and yet the book actually spent very little time on that. As I said, mechanics are not really my thing.

The prose is forgettable and the plot wanders aimlessly for a lot of the book, making it really hard to keep turning pages. The world is creative, for sure, but I just couldn't find interest in it. Danny soon finds himself falling for the spirit of the tower in a whirlwind LGBT romance. Suffering from anxiety and haunted by the memory of his father who was trapped in a time-Stopped city, Danny tries to fulfill his job at Colton Tower. It's a Victorian steampunk universe where the ties between physical clock towers and actual time are inextricable - when two o'clock goes missing from Colton Tower, time itself is disrupted.ĭanny Hart is a clock mechanic, a timekeeper, someone with the ability to feel and manipulate time. I am obviously just not that interested in clocks and mechanics.

Timekeeper by Tara Sim