Entertaining journeyman chapter in an ongoing epic.
A YA dystopian sci-fi/fantasy adventure, the second volume in Lingane’s Tesla series, which mashes up the cyberpunk and steampunk subgenres.
Humanity has been forced into one last city, swamped by refugees and besieged by an endless army of cyborgs and dragons. The city and its Steam Academy are being rebuilt from previous battles, but the influx of new people, new buildings and new ideas has created a rapidly changing landscape for these final battles of survival. Young Sebastian and Melanie are Teslas—humans with paranormal abilities attuned to electrical fields—who have fought to protect humanity while searching for Sebastian’s lost mother. Now they prepare to go on a mission to fight the deadly cyborgs on their home turf while old and new friends prove to be unreliable and things grow murky and complicated. Seb and Melanie also find new feelings in their friendship, even as the struggle intensifies and the enemy launches its new weapons, the sullivans: “They’re over fifteen feet tall, with arms to their knees, muscles upon muscles, and they’re covered in some special armor that makes them impervious to EM attack.” While assuming readers are familiar with the setting from the first book, this volume proceeds straight into action. That’s only a minor issue in this entertaining, fairly well-written story that will have readers eager to turn the page to find out what happens next. Dialogue is crisp, pacing is strong, and despite its generally grim tone and flashes of violence, the story is dotted with touches of humor. Seb and Melanie are fun, personable teens whom readers can identify with and enjoy. The cyborg enemy is somewhat reminiscent of TV’s Cybermen and Borg species—a hive of human beings merged with machines and controlled by a central computer—which embody fears of zombielike conformity and personal oblivion. However, there’s more going on here than a revamp of fan favorites, and the story closes on a cliffhanger, preparing readers for the next novel, Faraday.
Entertaining journeyman chapter in an ongoing epic.Pub Date: April 19, 2014
ISBN: 978-0992377984
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Insync Holdings
Review Posted Online: Nov. 20, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
What if the market was closed when you wanted to bake a pie? You could embark for Europe, learn Italian en route, and pick up some semolina wheat in Italy, an egg in France, kurundu bark for cinnamon in Sri Lanka, and an entire cow in England (butter) before coming home via Jamaica (sugar) and Vermont (apples). The expertly designed illustrations in which a dark-haired lass journeys by various means to these interesting places to get her groceries are lovely and lively, and the narrative, too, travels at a spritely pace. The journey is neither quite logical enough to be truly informative nor quite bizarre enough to be satisfyingly silly, while the rich, sweet recipe that's appended will take some adult assistance. Still, fun. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: May 2, 1994
ISBN: 0-679-83705-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1994
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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