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Cogheart by Peter Bunzl
Oct. 27th, 2016 11:06 pmThe Blurb On The Back:
Some secrets change the world in a heartbeat.
Lily’s life is in mortal peril. Her father is missing and now silver-eyed men stalk her through the shadows. What could they want from her?
With her friends – Robert, the clockmaker’s son, and Malkin, her mechanical fox – Lily is plunged into a murky and menacing world. Too soon Lily realises that those she holds dear may be the very ones to break her heart …
Murder, mayhem and mystery meet in this gripping Victorian adventure.
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
Peter Bunzl’s debut fantasy novel for children aged 12+ is a solid steampunk adventure with a strong main character, some great world building and genuinely creepy scenes but it’s hampered by two-dimensional antagonists and guessable twists. Lily is a great main character – courageous, resilient and smart - I liked her obsession with crime stories and believed her reactions to discoveries about her father and her own past. Robert is a decent sidekick but I would have liked more scenes with his father to flesh out his background as his emotional development comes through a cheap device. Malkin is easily my favourite character – prickly but loyal he’s got a lot of potential – in fact all the mechs are well drawn and I enjoyed their dialogue, which is warm but emphasises their artificial nature. The big issue with the book is that the central twists are easy to get and while the silver-eyed Roach and Mould are sinister henchmen, the main antagonist is two-dimensional and the climactic scenes are a little predictable. That said the world building here is done well – I enjoyed the mix of airships, mechs, cyborgs and other steampunk technology and there’s a lot of potential in the set-up for an interesting and exciting sequel, which I will definitely check out.
Lily’s life is in mortal peril. Her father is missing and now silver-eyed men stalk her through the shadows. What could they want from her?
With her friends – Robert, the clockmaker’s son, and Malkin, her mechanical fox – Lily is plunged into a murky and menacing world. Too soon Lily realises that those she holds dear may be the very ones to break her heart …
Murder, mayhem and mystery meet in this gripping Victorian adventure.
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): ) The Verdict:
Peter Bunzl’s debut fantasy novel for children aged 12+ is a solid steampunk adventure with a strong main character, some great world building and genuinely creepy scenes but it’s hampered by two-dimensional antagonists and guessable twists. Lily is a great main character – courageous, resilient and smart - I liked her obsession with crime stories and believed her reactions to discoveries about her father and her own past. Robert is a decent sidekick but I would have liked more scenes with his father to flesh out his background as his emotional development comes through a cheap device. Malkin is easily my favourite character – prickly but loyal he’s got a lot of potential – in fact all the mechs are well drawn and I enjoyed their dialogue, which is warm but emphasises their artificial nature. The big issue with the book is that the central twists are easy to get and while the silver-eyed Roach and Mould are sinister henchmen, the main antagonist is two-dimensional and the climactic scenes are a little predictable. That said the world building here is done well – I enjoyed the mix of airships, mechs, cyborgs and other steampunk technology and there’s a lot of potential in the set-up for an interesting and exciting sequel, which I will definitely check out.
