I’ve been in kind of a rut this week. Not doing much reading. But one of the books I started (and I’m going back and forth between this one and Still Life With Tornado [its 56]) is Timekeeper by Tara Sim.

So I’m linking up with Freda’s Voice today for The Friday 56 and Rose City Reader for Book Beginnings.

The Beginning

Enfield, England
September, 1875

Two o’clock was missing.

Danny wanted it to be a joke. Hours didn’t just disappear. But the clock tower before him and the silver timepiece in his hand read 3:06 in the afternoon, when not fifteen minutes before they had read 1:51.

From 56% in the eBook

For the record, this was not the line I wanted, but the line I wanted contained a massive spoiler. So here we are.

The floors creaked under his boots, and he felt as if just by looking at him people would know what he was up to. But he went largely ignored, the staff far too busy with their own concerns.

Brief Thoughts

Before I started I knew this was Victorian Steampunk, so the setting was no surprise. Nor was the opening, since the novels is entitled Timekeeper. There’s a part of me that wants to say that time and steampunk are a little obvious, but at the same time, the marriage of time and steampunk really makes sense to me.

Part of the reason I was drawn to this novel was the setting. When I did my student teaching, the big unit that I taught my two sections of British Literature B was on the Victorian Era. So what I’m really interested to see in this novel, is whether or not commentary on the Victorian Values is integrated into the narrative.

I can’t help but wonder, since manipulating clocks manipulates time, if there will be time travel integrated into the story. I don’t know if that would be too much. I suppose time will tell (Sorry. The word choice in the sentence wasn’t intended to produce an eye roll. Not revising, however, was).

What’s on page 56 of what you’re reading?