Flights and Chimes and Mysterious Times

May 19, 2014
In her first middle-grade novel, Trevayne (Coda and Chorus) introduces Jack Foster, a discontented boy who finds an otherworldly London populated by creatures mechanical and magical. To live in smoggy, brassy Londinium is to be damagedâeither injured by the mechanics of industry or corroded by pollutionâand rebuilt. To be complete and healthy ("pink," as a native observes of Jack) is the exception. This "Empire of the Clouds" is ruled by the mercurial Lady who sends Lorcan, her general and once her son, to fetch her a new human boy to love. Disguising himself as a spiritualist, Lorcan ingratiates himself with Jack's séance-obsessed mother, but Jack finds the doorway into Londinium on his own, where he befriends a windup girl, her physician-mechanic creator, and a trader in souls before he's forced to join the Lady's court. Trevayne's well-wrought prose and characters like Dr. Snailwater, who fixes those his city wounds, and Lorcan, whose villainy is tempered with a sad desperation to be loved, will keep readers invested. Ages 8â12. Author's agent: Brooks Sherman, the Bent Agency.

March 1, 2014

Gr 3-6-In this steampunk fantasy, Jack Foster, the oft-ignored son of affluent socialites in Victorian England, finds himself trapped in the land of Londonium after following an evil magician named Lorcan through a door at the base of Big Ben. Londonium, a land of metal automatons, sooty skies, and humanoid citizens with gear-augmented bodies, is run by a temperamental, ageless Lady who is desperate for a "perfect" (human) son. The story is alternately told from Jack and Lorcan's perspective, allowing readers to see London and Londonium through two very different pairs of eyes, one curious and vivacious, one warped by years of loyalty to the Lady. In Londonium, a thick layer of soot lays over the city and citizens, and there is a palpable air of hopelessness to life when Jack arrives. Jack has innate goodness and caring but is not without flaws, and his companions in this new world have their own quirks and motivations, making for a satisfying, multi-dimensional story. No one character is all good or all bad, and Trevayne explores their motivations and machinations thoroughly. The richly drawn world and inventive steampunk elements help this novel stand out from the pack of middle-grade fantasy.-Elisabeth Gattullo Marrocolla, Darien Library, CT

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