Book Review Discussion: Mysteries of Cove: Fires of Invention by J. Scott Savage

Book: Mysteries of Cove: Fires of Invention by J. Scott Savage
Genre: MG steampunk dsytopian
Rating★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
 For: Review and supporting local authors
From: Received for free from Netgalley. All opinions are my own. Released September 29, 2015.

Short Synopsis: Trenton lives in a society that's hidden themselves from the world by creating an underground city. They fear creativity and invention. They blame all the bad stuff that's happened to them on progress and forward thinking. This makes life for Trenton especially hard since he is a thinker and a creator. And he keeps getting in trouble for it. As the book opens, he is assigned to work on the farms instead of the machines, and he's so unhappy. But he's pretty distracted as he deals with this because he meets a girl who just happens to be the daughter of the most notorious inventor of the city. And when he (Trenton) finds an interesting gadget, this girl, Kallista, thinks it's been left by her father (who is no longer with them). This leads the two of them on a sort of crazy treasure hunt with a prize at the end they did not at all expect.

My Response: This is one of those stories that has lots of fun and games such as building stuff, puzzles, riddles, mystery and adventure, mixed with some pretty thought provoking ideas like is creativity good or bad, do you trust history, should you blindly follow... just to name a few. I was surprised at some of the deep issues this society and these kids are dealing with. The ending was awesome and had me glued. The twist was great and quite unexpected and I am totally left wondering what happens next.

Bottom Line: The writing was fun, the characters were fun, the story was fun! It was all fun!! Fun, but mixed with lots to think about and lots of awesome stuff smart kids will eat up.

Let's Talk About: So, what do you think about creativity? Good or bad? LOL! JK!! You know, I am so into creativity that it felt almost sacrilegious for the people in this story to suggest otherwise. It makes you want to stand up and say... WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?? Which, I suppose, is the whole point and the hope that kids reading it will feel the same way. Don't you think? Are you a champion for creativity?

Other Reviews:

What I myself liked best about the book is that it celebrates creativity and the questioning of received wisdom, without being didactic about it. From Charlotte's Library

It’s an ideal middle grade read that should appeal to a wide range of readers, and likely introduce them to some genre concepts they haven’t encountered before. From Views from the Tesseract

There is just so much to love in Fires of Invention, with its blend of science, nature, physics, a mechanical dragon and a story that was both interesting and fun for me and my kiddo to read. From Log Cabin Library

The adventure is fast paced and you will be visualizing this new society as the levels inside the mountain come alive. From Always in the Middle

Also, here's the trailer which I saw played several times on the huge Jumbo-tron at Comic Con this past weekend in front of thousands of people. Great marketing!