Time Flies [Time Travel Airship Piracy LitRPG lite]

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Is it child labor if they're in charge?

Twila loves theHourglass, but hates that its captain keeps letting it fall apart. When the run-down airship finds itself ownerless, she jumps at the chance to steal it.

On board, she finds a fancy pocket watch and a mysterious map to a legendary pirate’s treasure.It’s hers for the taking if she can brave horrifying monsters, a powerful trading company, and a hostile sky full of fierce pirates.

- - - - - What to Expect - - - - -

- Child Labor. Obviously.

- Slow Burn Time Travel. It'll get more and more important as the story goes.

- Item-Based LitRPG with crafting and combining.

- Kids acting like kids.

- Kids getting in dangerous situations where they could get hurt.

- 1 update/week. I'm going to finish this story for sure.

Information

Status: Completed
Year: 2023
Author: Aest Belequa

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.6/ 5.0
Followers: 1,019
Views: 224,205

Chapters(74 total)

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(10)

Aaron Sofaer (aka Pastafarian)Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The logline of this story might as well be "and then they dug themselves deeper as we all cheered".
Seriously, these kids are the essence of shenanigans. The greatest of bad decisions that cascade into even better bad decisions, and enablers all around, by which I mean they rapidly recruit a crew intent on upselling them on escalating.
It's great.
AdAstridPerAsperaRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
If you want to read about some irresponsible children on the treasure hunt of a lifetime, this is your story.
Twila Tighe, future [Teenage Terror of the Skies] dreamed from the start of taking over her asshole Skipper’s ship. When, amidst a tragedy, she gets the chance to do it…well, a little piracy never hurt anybody!
Well, except for the kid she accidentally kidnapped and Shanghaied onto her crew.
Stealing from a trading company willing to openly defy the governing royals of a certain archipelago, recruiting child criminals, and taking on a old (to her) lady of questionable motives but unquestionable means, messing with buttons on a machine she doesn’t understand… well, Twila’s thirteen. Even the mysterious myst-based magic of the world that governs its system agrees. For her?
[Head - Empty]
Overall, it’s wonderful story. Steampunk piracy, treasure hunts, and dumb teenage shenanigans. A fairly unique world with mysterious monsters and magic harnessed to make flying ships and to twist time itself.
The narrative, insofar, is rather linear – with plenty of space and dangling mysteries to grow into. There’s nothing wrong with the grammar, and it flows well from one point to the next. The characters haven’t had much time on their own to shine, yet, but now that Twila has a ship, a crew, and a goal I fully expect them to blossom out into fully fledged, albeit idiotic and childish, pirates!
Chaos JesterRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Sky or not, I'm not the biggest fan of pirate/seafaring/airfaring etc. content, but this story hits in a way that goes beyond that. I know I'm not too terribly far in it, but the concept of the kids and them actually acting like kids gives a nice, airy (buhdumtss) feel to this story that makes it incredibly enjoyable to read.
EndersGamerRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Great little bit of a pirate tale. Good world building, kind of like steampunk meets magic and leveling but without the blue boxes. I kinda thought we would see her skills grow and level a bit more but it's still a fun tale about treasure and freedom and discovering who you are and what ends you will go to in order to achieve your dreams.
FooBarTrixieBellRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The world building in Time Flies is great, it has an awesome steampunk vibe with a magitech system that is novel enough to not be copying others and simple enough to understand easily.
There is a Riddick like monster that hunts in the dark which keeps a constant tension, a novel world where the entire world appears to be ocean with humans living in towering natural spires jutting out from the sea and travelling between these to trade using magical airships.
It has a varied cast of misfits as the main characters, most of whom are children and so make understandable child like mistakes, most of the adults among them are pirates and scum so don't do a lot to reign in the mayhem. Everyone in the book is well written and come across with their own personality.
Overall the writing is great with very few mistakes and a well flowing prose. The plot appears to be progressing at a good pace and there is a solid goal in sight, at least for this particular adventure. I do see potential for sequels though.
There is a litrpg element to the book, something I myself would prefer not to have but it is fairly well hidden and I know RR has a fanatical litrpg following so it likely helps draw a reader base.
tutpuppyRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Having only read the very first episode, I can say that I was immediately engaged in the story, I knew who it was about, and I was interested in reading more. I didn't notice any grammar or punctuation errors. So, kind readers, I would say that this one is definitely worthy of your time.
ZenkarnRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Fair warning: I did get to read the first few chapters of this while it was still a WIP.
What can I say about this story? It's great for one thing, but coming from this author that shouldn't be a surprise.
Let's break it down:
Characters - Twila, our small ship rat is someone easy to root for and understand. Enough personality to get attached too with plenty of places to grow. Side characters are much the same, most are well fleshed out with easily identifiable traits. Those that aren't are going to be soon, each having a place without being obvious about it.
Personally, I'm excited to see where it all goes.
Story: So far, so good! Hard to say without spoilers, but there is enough to keep your imagination active and ticking. This is the type of plot that isn't going to rush down the hill towards you, but if you keep going you'll find yourself somewhere new and exciting regardless.
Spelling/Grammar: Nothing I noticed.
Magic system: The magic system using something called Myst to operate. A source that seemed to make all the steampunk-esq machines in the world go. One of the things I like most about it, is that it’s not over done. We never get bombarded with lectures about how, or even, why it works. It simply does the thing.
This allows tension as it is finite in batteries, and also gives a good explanation for why airships. The magic system as a whole works great and shows signs of depth already. Can’t wait to see it played with more.
All in all, I would recommend it. It's a lot of fun.
emily_mccoshRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This story reminds me so much of both Stardust and Treasure Planet in the best ways possible! Now that I think about it, I'm getting some Final Fantasy from it as well, which is an immediate yes, of course. The steampunk/space pirates vibes are amazing, and I love that the child MC actually feels like a kid in her dialogue and decisions!
Style: Excellent. The tone is fantastic and really paints a good picture of the setting and atmosphere of the tale.
Story: I'm still pretty early in, but our MC Twila has just made some questionable choices, showed some bravery, and is taking initiative to get her favorite ship, the Hourglass (great name) back in working condition and away from a captain who isn't doing her justice. It's such a cool start to what's going to be a great story!
Grammar: Perfect, didn't notice a thing.
Character: Twila is the type of MC where you can only shake your head and laugh a little and she and her friends get in over their head. You can just see it's all gonna go wrong and you're looking forward to seeing what they do and how they get out of it. (As an author myself, the "and then something worse happened" plotline is my fav.) All the side characters have some great personalities as well, and I'm looking forward to learning more about them as the crew assembles!
noctRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
What's not to love? Steampunk, skypirates, a fun steam-magic system and litrpg foundations... An excellent combination, executed perfectly. If you're like me and desperate for some skypirate fun ever since you encountered Balthier and Fran in FFXII, this is the book for you! Strongly reminds me of Monster Blood Tattoo, in all the best ways. A unique world, deeply thought out and well-built mechanics, vibrant characters and interesting intrigue. Imagine MBT, but also pirates. A match made in heaven.
Style can be a bit sparse, but doesn't bog down. Very clean and straight-forward, easy to read. The words just fly by! The litRPG elements might be a bit light for those who are big on LitRPG, but that's personally a bonus for me.
As for the story, well, I'm still pretty early on, but it looks to be the classic treasure-hunter pirate story with all the fun of steampunk, magic, and a system. Again, can't go wrong. It looks like we're going to have some intrigue what with Auntie Charlie showing up, which is always a plus for me. And the characters...
Characters are fun, engaging, and each have their own unique personalities. You get to know them immediately. They have really adorable interactions that all feel realistic for their age/personalities. The adults, too, feel reasonable and realistic.
Steampunk at its best, and who doesn't love sky pirates? Give it a shot!
KnetramRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
Twilia wants to be the captain of her own ship one day. When fate convenes to make this a reality, our plucky protagonist sets out on an adventure of her own making long before she has any of the emotional maturity to ensure this goes smoothly. Thievery, kidnapping, murder, and other glorious mayhem ensues, with the pursuit of legendary treasure providing a necessary MacGuffin.
The author of this story was clearly somewhat half hearted about the LITRPG aspect of this world, and more or less abandons it half way through, but other than that unfortunately hanging thread, the world they built is entertaining and dangerous, and allows the author to have a place where a bunch of kids can indeed find themselves loose upon the world with no adult supervision without it seeming like too much of a stretch. The ending of the story also felt a bit rushed, but all relevant plot threads are given a conclusion, and little bits of mystery and drama throughout the story keep it from getting stale
The characters are reasonably realistic, each having their own wants and motives for their actions and, for those characters that are children, they do indeed have the gloriously flawed decision making processes of children, with perhaps the exception of Twilia’s first mate, who I have no idea why puts up with her nonsense, and does seem somewhat too mature for her age on occasion.
The writing and style of the story is perfectly fine, with some typos, but overall it is grammatically correct, and easy to read. In some parts it does seem to read a little like a kids book, but it is about kids, and apparently was originally meant to be for a younger audience than it was for as the end result.
Overall I enjoyed the tale of Twilia T., Timeskipper, and her growth into a true pirate captain.