What would you do if you discovered that everything you had been taught about your community was a lie - it wasn’t as it seemed? BUT, exposing that lie would threaten your life and the lives of your loved ones?
That is exactly what happens in Fires of Invention the first book in the Cove series by J. Scott Savage. The community lives in the steam powered, protected town of Cove which has been built inside a mountain because the air quality outside became too dangerous. It is cut off from the outside world with filtered air ducts for fresh oxygen. In Cove, everything about you is decided by a council of elders. It reminds me of The Giver in that regard. The main character is Trenton, an awkward, honest, and intelligent 13 year old. Trenton loves tools and machinery. He can figure out how anything works, and can often see ways to make improvements. But in Cove "invention" is a dirty word. Even stringing together a number of approved machinery to make a swing is enough to land him in trouble with the chancellors and get him recommended for retraining. Luckily, there is a problem in the mines that requires a small person with mechanical training to fix, so Trenton manages to escape retraining by squeezing in and fixing the problem. What he can't escape is his appointment to the Food Production level of Cove after his graduation from school. On the one hand, he gets to be near Simoni, a beautiful red head he really likes, but on the other, there is no equipment for him to fix. When a strange gadget he has found leads him to the Kallista, the daughter of infamous inventor and criminal Leo Babbage, he finally has an outlet for his mechanical leanings. Kallista is a socially backward girl with short spiky hair. She works as a repair technician and lives alone since her father was killed in an explosion. Kallista thinks the gadget, found in the mine, is a message from her father, and the two follow clues that were left-- clues that lead to instructions and parts of a huge mechanical machine that the two build. It is like nothing they’ve ever seen before. Throughout the process they discover deeply hidden secrets about the founding and workings of Cove itself. Trenton and Kallista learn that their world is not what it seems, and have to decide how to proceed. This book was recommended to me by a student a couple of weeks ago. And I am so happy he did! It is amazing. I love the epic scavenger hunt that propels the plot forward as they solve it step by step. Although it didn’t feel like the fantasy genre until the end, I loved the dystopian feel of the book. If you like Wings of Fire, The Unwanteds, The Giver, or Railhead - grab a copy of this book. You won’t regret it.
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Mrs. Wallace1st year librarian Archives
May 2021
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