Steampunk Dystopia

Fires of Invention (Mysteries of Cove)

By J. Scott Savage

Series: Mysteries of Cove (Book 1)

Hardcover: 288 pages

Publisher: Shadow Mountain Publishing (September 29, 2015)

ISBN-10: 1629720925

ISBN-13: 978-1629720920

Approximate Lexile: 730

 

Publisher’s Blurb:

Trenton Colman is a creative thirteen-year-old boy with a knack for all things mechanical. But his talents are viewed with suspicion in Cove, a steam-powered city built inside a mountain. In Cove, creativity is a crime and invention is a curse word.

Kallista Babbage is a repair technician and daughter of the notorious Leo Babbage, whose father died in an explosion an event the leaders of Cove point to as an example of the danger of creativity.

Working together, Trenton and Kallista learn that Leo Babbage was developing a secret project before he perished. Following clues he left behind, they begin to assemble a strange machine that is unlikely anything they’ve ever seen before. They soon discover that what they are building may threaten every truth their city is founded on and quite possibly their very lives.

 

My Thoughts:

            Oh, boy, another dystopian series! But this one has a male protagonist, and there’s no real love triangle. Okay, Trenton does have this girl that he’s had a crush on forever, and she does finally start paying attention to her, and he is working with Kallista.  But it’s NOT a love triangle. Well. Maybe a little bit.

            I enjoyed the thought-provoking aspect of a society that had stopped inventing new things, and which forbade the telling of stories. Nothing creative is allowed. Imagine how stifling that would be. I may be biased, because I am driven to create—sewing, knitting, writing, cooking—and I imagine I would be pretty miserable as a member of this society.

            Trenton definitely feels that urge to create, or at least to improve existing technology, but he also wants to be a good citizen, especially to please his mother, who survived a mine accident and seems to carry some pretty deep emotional scars.

            Kallista is a difficult character—very prickly and somewhat hard to like at first, but there are reasons for that. Eventually, Trenton overcomes that, and they work together.

            I struggled somewhat with how careless Trenton was about his lawbreaking as he worked with Kallista to solve the riddle that her father left her. Of course, he is 13 years old, no prefrontal cortex and all that, but he seems very casual about his activities.

            Naturally, the two teens solve the mystery just in time. I don’t think it’s giving too much away to say that they save the day, since this is the first in a planned series.

            Overall, this was an enjoyable read, and I will follow up with others in the series.

 

Possible Objectionable Material:

            Some violence, some intense scenes, particularly at the climax. Oppressive government. Teenage lawbreaking. Disagreements with parents. No swearing, no romance beyond teenaged puppy love.

Who Might Like this Book:

            Trenton and Kallista are both strong characters, and, while Trenton is the protagonist, Kallista’s journey is almost equally important, so this book doesn’t skew to one gender or the other. Anyone who likes creativity, invention, steampunk, and the fight against an oppressive society. Aimed at middle grades; I’d say age 10 and up. Older readers need to be able to enjoy YA/middle grade literature.

 

Thank you, NetGalley for the advance reader e-book.