Tales told in thread and ink
I would have liked to have been able to give this book 4 stars and had it been half the size it certainly would have got that. The storyline was really clever mixing the science fiction with an everyday, normal family existence. The characters were likeable and believable and I loved the baby Adam, the author wrote his part extremely well. I got the sense that I knew most of them quite well during this story. However, the pacing for my liking was too slow, i think we were taken too much through the mundane part of a family’s life and for me it felt that it dragged and slowed the story down so that I struggled. I think the story would be much tighter if some of the repetition were removed. At times I nearly gave up reading it but I wanted to find out what happened which is a credit to the author’s ability and I am glad I finished it.
The clock chimed the hour with a loud, bombastic boom before the hands stopped and the pendulum ground to a halt. Silence descended on the room. Everyone turned to look at the old clock that dominated the tiny, cluttered room before flickering to the gnarled figure wrapped in a plaid, scratchy wool blanket. A bony leg encased in shabby trousers pushed out from the cover followed by the rest of the old man’s body. The rubber from his slippers slapped against the wooden floorboards as he trudged to the clock.
The collective intake of breath suspended in the frigid air as they waited for this irascible pensioner to explode.
Fingers gnarled from arthritis opened the front of the clock and fiddled, but to no avail. A rare, beatific smile lit up the wizened face as he turned to face them.
“I thought the bleeding thing would never shut up!”
by Maria Gibbs
Mia's Novel Creations 