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

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2014
Jack Foster, an ordinary boy in Victorian London, follows the mysterious Lorcan Havelock through a door beneath Big Ben and finds himself in an alternate London, a strange metropolis choked with smog and populated by people and creatures who are at least partly mechanical. Jack finds that he has been lured there intentionally: the Lady of Londinium needs a new boy to replace the aging Lorcan as her "son" (think the fairy queen in "Tam Lin"). Befriended by Beth (a clockwork girl) and her maker, Jack soon leaves them: the executions Lorcan stages to flush Jack out of hiding will only cease once Jack surrenders and comes to the palace to become the Lady's precious boy. But Lorcan, besides being ruthless, is also jealous, and Jack's position is a precarious one. Can Jack and his friends activate an ancient legend to renew the world and grant Jack one final wish -- to return to his own London? Though Trevayne's story starts slowly, once action passes through to Londinium the pace picks up and the steampunk narrative starts to hum. Jack's mechanical ability is put to good use, but it is the power of loyalty and friendship that gives the story its strength and drives it to a rousing conclusion. anita l. burkam

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

March 15, 2014
A bored lad experiences adventures that range from wonderful to horrific in a steampunk-y alternative London. Feeling underappreciated while home from boarding school, nearly-11-year-old Jack Foster eagerly rejects his upper-middle-class existence in late Victorian London, following the mysterious Mr. Lorcan Havelock through a magical doorway into the parallel world of Londinium. Initially, Jack is enthralled by his freedom and his new environment, a "land of brass and steel and clockwork, of steam and airships...." One of his first acquaintances is Dr. Snailwater, an inventor of mechanical human beings. Jack is disappointed that the doctor wants to return Jack to London, and he's surprised that Snailwater disapproves of Sir Lorcan. The fast-paced, escalating suspense reaches an unexpectedly dark pinnacle when Lorcan's disembodied voice convinces Jack that recent public hangings will continue until Jack agrees to assume the role of son to the Lady, ruler of Londinium. And that's just the beginning. It's packed with so much action, much of it violent, that readers may well feel that the conclusion is nothing but anticlimactic. The novel's strength lies in worldbuilding and vivid descriptions, and Anglophiles will likely enjoy the historical-cultural references. For all that the end feels a bit like a flattened Yorkshire pudding, getting there is a thrill a minute. (Fantasy. 8-11)

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May 15, 2014
Grades 5-7 Feeling bored and unloved in his stuffy, late-nineteenth-century London home, Jack follows an enigmatic magician through a portal into an alternate world. There he explores the eerily familiar, yet frighteningly different city of Londinium, where brass grills embedded in the inhabitants' nostrils enable them to breathe heavily polluted air. After being ensnared by the malevolent magician and adopted by the unstable Lady, who rules the land, Jack escapes and works with his few friends to free an ancient creature that can set things right in this damaged world. Clockwork creatures, metal fairies, and industrial pollution give the fantasy a steampunk twist. Like the story's setting, its tone is bleakuncommonly so for a novel apparently aimed at middle-graders. The dramatic plot twists, more than involvement with the mostly adult characters, will draw readers to finish the story, as will the vividly described settings and smooth pacing. The black-and-white illustrations were not available for comment, though the jacket art is intriguing. An unusual take on the alternate-worlds theme.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2014
In Victorian London, Jack enters a door beneath Big Ben and finds himself in an alternate city, populated by people and creatures who are at least partly mechanical. Jack has been lured there intentionally: the Lady of Londinium needs a new "son" (think the fairy queen in "Tam Lin"). The power of loyalty and friendship drives the story to a rousing conclusion.

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)