Tinker, by Wen Spencer ★★★½

[mithriltabby]

wen_spencer crafts an interesting science-meets-magic setting with her near-future Pittsburgh, which spends most of its time shifted from our world into a parallel, high-magic Earth called Elfhome as an unexpected side effect from a Chinese “hypergate” in orbit on the other side of the planet. Our heroine, Tinker, is a young genius running her business in a junkyard who gets dragged into Elven politics and interdimensional intrigue.

The pacing makes the book a page-turner, but Spencer has trouble packing all the exposition she needs into 438 pages, let alone taking time for character development, and the main character comes off as somewhat of a Mary Sue with victories coming too easily. I was disappointed, as I’ve seen Spencer do better with her Ukiah Oregon books.