A review by dragoneyes451
Fires of Invention, Volume 1 by J. Scott Savage
4.0
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
So I was at BEA, walking around, when I came upon the Shadow Mountain booth. I was instantly drawn to Steampunk! Dragons! and ended up coming back to meet the author, who is very nice by the way.
I knew Fires of Invention was middle grade. I knew it was going to contain steampunk elements. I knew there were going to be dragons involved, though. What surprised me is that it turned out to be more dystopian than anything. I think the taglines were a bit off on this one.
I really enjoyed Fires of Invention. I thought the dystopian elements were well done, and in such a way that made it appropriate for middle grade. I loved the idea that creativity and invention were illegal, it was a fresh take on the dystopian genre. I was also kind of kept guessing where it was all going - I obviously knew pretty early on what it was they were building, but I wasn't sure how it was going to come together and tie into the "mysteries of Cove".
I thought the worldbuilding of Cove was well done. Savage's descriptions really allow you to picture the city, and the background is fleshed out well. There's a lot of machinery talk without getting too technical, which was a good balance for a middle grade novel.
I both liked and disliked Trenton. I quickly became annoyed with his constant inner dialogue of "I shouldn't be doing this, but I'm going to anyway". The repetition of it was probably the biggest downfall of this book for me. On the other hand, I LOVED Kallista. She's this spunky girl who's just not going to accept things for what they are.
The feminist in me was kind of bothered by the relationship dynamic between Trenton, Simoni and Kallista. I thought the relationship between Simoni and Trention was age appropriate, but I was annoyed by the stereotypical actions of Simoni.
I liked the way Fires of Invention ended. It wasn't a cliffhanger, thank goodness! And yet, it left the story open for future books in the series in a way that made you excited for the next book.
Overall, I think Savage did a great job with this series starter, even if the book tagging was a bit off-base. I was bothered by the main characters repeated hypocritical tendencies and by the stereotypical female character, but the worldbuilding and plot development made up for it. I really look forward to the next book of The Mysteries of Cove series!
This review was originally posted on Books Are My Thing
So I was at BEA, walking around, when I came upon the Shadow Mountain booth. I was instantly drawn to Steampunk! Dragons! and ended up coming back to meet the author, who is very nice by the way.
I knew Fires of Invention was middle grade. I knew it was going to contain steampunk elements. I knew there were going to be dragons involved, though
Spoiler
I was surprised at just how long into the book I had to read before we even got to the dragonsI really enjoyed Fires of Invention. I thought the dystopian elements were well done, and in such a way that made it appropriate for middle grade. I loved the idea that creativity and invention were illegal, it was a fresh take on the dystopian genre. I was also kind of kept guessing where it was all going - I obviously knew pretty early on what it was they were building, but I wasn't sure how it was going to come together and tie into the "mysteries of Cove".
I thought the worldbuilding of Cove was well done. Savage's descriptions really allow you to picture the city, and the background is fleshed out well. There's a lot of machinery talk without getting too technical, which was a good balance for a middle grade novel.
I both liked and disliked Trenton. I quickly became annoyed with his constant inner dialogue of "I shouldn't be doing this, but I'm going to anyway". The repetition of it was probably the biggest downfall of this book for me. On the other hand, I LOVED Kallista. She's this spunky girl who's just not going to accept things for what they are.
The feminist in me was kind of bothered by the relationship dynamic between Trenton, Simoni and Kallista. I thought the relationship between Simoni and Trention was age appropriate, but I was annoyed by the stereotypical actions of Simoni.
I liked the way Fires of Invention ended. It wasn't a cliffhanger, thank goodness! And yet, it left the story open for future books in the series in a way that made you excited for the next book.
Overall, I think Savage did a great job with this series starter, even if the book tagging was a bit off-base. I was bothered by the main characters repeated hypocritical tendencies and by the stereotypical female character, but the worldbuilding and plot development made up for it. I really look forward to the next book of The Mysteries of Cove series!
This review was originally posted on Books Are My Thing