Fires of Invention

Starred review from June 22, 2015
Savage’s Mysteries of Cove series starts with a bang, as 13-year-old Trenton Coleman’s illegal invention is accused of causing a massive power outage in the sealed, steam-powered city of Cove. His discovery of the true cause, another unapproved device, leads him to Kallista Babbage, the creative daughter of a deceased (and disgraced) inventor, and a set of clues that her father left behind. As Trenton and Kallista evade the city government in search of her father’s legacy, Trenton balances school, friends, and his parents’ expectations with his need to discover the truth. Savage (the Case File 13 series) has created an ingenious steampunk world; features like coal chutes and hydroponics bays prove essential at key moments, but it’s the characters that make the world stand out, including Trenton’s anti-technology mother, whose legs were crushed in a mining accident, and his friend Clyde, an artist punished for his creativity. Trenton will be a firm friend to any readers who long to use their talents to make their world better. Ages 10–up. Agent: Michael Bourret, Dystel & Goderich Literary Management.

August 1, 2015

Gr 4-8-Young lovers of dystopian steampunk may be intrigued by Savage's latest offering to the genre. Mysteries take readers underground to the cryptic Cove, a subterranean, multilevel city not unlike District 13 in Suzanne Collins's "The Hunger Games" (Scholastic) books or the "community" in Lois Lowry's The Giver (HMH, 1993), with a dash of "here be dragons" flavor for good measure. Trenton Coleman, the story's middle school-age protagonist, finds his chances of becoming one of the city's mechanics jeopardized after breaking the strictest law: that no "inventions" shall be made by anyone. The creative Trenton breaks the law, making an unapproved "device." His penance leads him to a startling discovery, and with the help of the contradictory, rule-thwarting Katrina, Trenton searches for the reason the Cove has banned all invention. As his quest deepens, he unearths more than he bargains for. While Savage's premise is interesting, heavy use of mechanical jargon and feeble character development distract from an otherwise intriguing plot. Lengthy and detailed descriptions of gears, bolts, nuts, and levers will dizzy unaccustomed readers. The compelling story arc fails to compensate for the flat, inaccessible Trenton and the fuzzily defined Katrina. Their flinty relationship, meant to be mutually sharpening, is a tiresome exercise in a youthful scuffle of wills. VERDICT Only the most avid steampunk devotees will be able to overlook the flaws in this otherwise additional purchase for middle grade collections.-Chelsea Woods, New Brunswick Free Public Library

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2015
Grades 5-8 Trenton understands how things work, and he intuitively knows how to make them better. But that is a problem in the Cove, where creativity and invention are against the law. When Trenton finds a metal tube made of an unknown alloy inside a coal chute, he simply must discover what it is, and his investigation leads to Kallista, daughter of the infamous inventor Leo Babbage. The two young teens begin piecing together the cluesand mechanical partsthat Leo left behind, and what they learn about Leo's plans and about the Cove itself will change their lives forever. Savage's novel is clearly the first in a series and includes likable characters, themes of friendship and self-discovery, and enough mechanical parts to thrill the nerdiest science readers. Though the characters' penchants for lying and rule breaking incur virtually no penalty, middle-schoolers won't likely be bothered by this. Readers who like their dystopias flavored with steam engines will like what they find.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)