Tinker

Move Over, Buffy! Tinker Not Only Kicks
Supernatural Butt—
She's a Techie Genius, Too!

Inventor, girl genius Tinker lives in a near-future Pittsburgh which now exists mostly in the land of the elves. She runs her salvage business, pays her taxes, and tries to keep the local ambient level of magic down with gadgets of her own design. When a pack of wargs chase an Elven noble into her scrap yard, life as she knows it takes a serious detour. Tinker finds herself taking on the Elven court, the NSA, the Elven Interdimensional Agency, technology smugglers and a college-minded Xenobiologist as she tries to stay focused on what's really important – her first date. Armed with an intelligence the size of a planet, steel toed boots, and a junk yard dog attitude, Tinker is ready to kick butt to get her first kiss.

Wen Spencer

"Each and every character is fascinating, extraordinarily well-developed, and gets right under your skin. . . . A terrific, memorable story." —Julie E. Czerneda, author of In the Company of Others

"Spencer takes her readers on a fast-paced journey into disbelief. [Her] timing is impeccable and the denouement stunning." —Romantic Times (four-star review)

"This novel [Alien Taste] is keeper-shelf material." —BookBrowser

"Wonderfully inventive . . . a fun protagonist." —Locus

Cover art by Bob Eggleton
Map by Avram Grumer
 

Hardcover

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

First printing, November 2003

Distributed by Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN: 0-7434-7165-2

Copyright 2003 by Wen Spencer

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.

A Baen Books Original
Baen Publishing Enterprises
P.O. Box 1403
Riverdale, NY 10471
http://www.baen.com

Production by Windhaven Press
Auburn, NH

Electronic version by WebWrights
http://www.webwrights.com

Instant Message conversation dated
February 24, 2003, 7:00 p.m.

WS: To Don, who always helped me grow.

DK: Wow! Thanks. But that's kind of lame. How about: To Don, cute, but prickly like a hedgehog.

WS: ...*

DK: Um, don't use that....

WS: To Don, who will someday get his hedgehog. To Don, the hedgehog is just for you.

DK: To Don Kosak, King of hedgehogs.

WS: To Don, I will never look at hedgehogs the same way again? To Don, Champion of the hedgehogs! To Don, "What, no, it's not a hedgehog, it's his head!" To Don, it's hedgehogs the whole way down. To Don, who is forever seeing hedgehogs.

DK: To Don, How do you know that Don doesn't know that the hedgehogs are enjoying themselves in the spring.

WS: To zen Don, who may or may not be there.

DK: Hee hee. Okay.

* footnote: ... is the Japanese way to indicate stunned or annoyed silence.

Many thanks for the people who have helped me with this novel: Sherry Briggs, George Corcoran, Kevin Hayes, Deanna Hoak, W. Randy Hoffman, Kendall Jung, Don Kosak, Linn Prentis, Dr. Hope Erica Ring, June Drexler Robertson, John Schmid, Diane Turnshek, Aaron Wollerton, and all the Baen Barflies.

Special thanks to: Ann Cecil