Modo: Ember's End

by Arthur Slade

Illustrated by Christopher Steininger

978-0-9880139-0-2

88 pp.

Ages 12+

2014

(Available at http://www.hunchbackassignments.com/)

If you ever get to be part of an indiegogo or kickstarter campaign that aims to publish a book by authors or illustrators with whom you are familiar, do it.  It's a worthwhile endeavour that allows you to become part of an inner circle of benefactors, and provides you with great perks! OK, don't do it just for the perks; do it because it's a good thing to do (though the perks are great too!)

I was fortunate to get on board with Arthur Slade's graphic novel project that reintroduces characters from his ever-popular The Hunchback Assignments series:

• The Hunchback Assignments (HarperCollins Canada, 2009); 
• The Dark Deeps: The Hunchback Assignments II (HarperCollins Canada, 2010);
• Empire of Ruins: The Hunchback Assignments III (HarperCollins Canada, 2011); and 
• Island of Doom: The Hunchback Assignments IV (HarperCollins Canada, 2012).

Modo, the titular hunchback who can transform his deformed face at will, and his companion Octavia (Tavia) Milkweed are British agents who worked under Mr. Socrates to bring the Clockwork Guild to justice.  Last seen in 1874, the two have reappeared in 1885 Nevada, inquiring about jobs in the wild west town of Ember's End. Fortuitously (or maybe not) the town needs two deputies and Modo and Tavia accept, though their relentless squabbling suggests their different styles may clash.  This is especially evident after they are attacked by a ninja-like swordsman who demands they leave town and the "magnificent device" for him to possess, and they meet Miss Annette Ember, the daughter of the town's founder, inventor Ebenezer Ember.

Tucked away in her monstrous mansion, Miss Ember has had a deck of cards and a key stolen from her, with only a ninja star (shuriken) left behind, thus linking the theft to the swordsman Modo and Tavia encountered earlier.  In a dust storm of attacks by outlaws Ogden Bull, ninja Katashi and grass-chewing hick Slayne, Modo and Tavia must fulfill their deputy duties, help Miss Ember, and solve the mystery of the "magnificent device", while endearingly bickering with one another. 

[Tavia:] Now that's a rather curious name for a pub.
[Modo:] Yes. Very Curious. Philósophos is Greek for 'Lover of Wisdom.' You may feel out of place inside.
[Tavia:] Hmmph. Always showing off your fancy education.  How predictably boring. (pg. 6)

By embedding Modo and Tavia's adventure in graphica, Arthur Slade has opened up new opportunities to showcase the two at their best, and not so best, allowing the reader to see more into the characters and their relationship than always evident in text alone.  While this can be a positive aspect of the graphic novel format (all the more positive for Christopher Steininger's sharply detailed images), it can also restrict the text from delving deeper into their relationship, so magnificently embedded in affection and respect.  The addition of detailed illustrations often necessitates shorter and simpler text to prevent it from saying more than can be depicted graphically.  Perhaps it is because I was a fan of Modo and Tavia before they became graphic elements that I prefer the richer text of The Hunchback Assignments' novels.  But I know many readers who don't know the two steampunk agents and will only latch onto the series after reading Modo: Ember's End.  This book accommodates those readers' need for illustrations to support the text, even to help comprehension, with a more linear plot and minimal subplotting.

Modo: Ember's End has given The Hunchback Assignments a final (?) "Yippee!" by sharing Arthur Slade and Christopher Steininger's vision of two much-loved characters and providing another action-packed steampunk mystery that has them thwarting, with much aplomb, New World villains. Yeehaw!

The Boundless

by Kenneth Oppel

HarperCollins Canada

978-1-443410328 

336 pp.

Ages 10-16

April, 2014

"ALL ABOARD... The Boundless for a mesmerizing adventure of historical proportions, with death-defying leaps of faith, Sasquatch encounters, illusions of the fourth dimension and murderous employees looking for the gold after death.  Leaving now for its first journey. Get on board now to be one of the first to enjoy this newest series by award-winning author Kenneth Oppel."

Life changes for Will Everett and his family after Will helps in the hammering of the last spike of the CPR railway in British Columbia and his father saves the life of Cornelius Van Horne, president of the CPR, in an avalanche.  Three years later James Everett is in charge of the Boundless, the seven-mile long train of spectacular design created by Van Horne, who is now ensconced in a secured and guarded funeral car near the front of the train.  And, on its maiden voyage, Will is enjoying the amenities of first class and looking to reacquaint himself with a young wirewalker/escape artist, Maren, travelling with Zirkus Dante, the circus of Mr. Dorian, the man who'd captured a young sasquatch after that avalanche years earlier.

Beyond the incredible opportunity of travelling on the longest and most powerful train in the world, essentially pulling a city of nine hundred and eighty-seven cars, Will enjoys the opportunity to experience the towns of vendors that arise to service the train's passengers, the wilds of the Canadian landscape with its supernatural creatures including the muskeg hag, the Wendigo and the sasquatch, and convince his father that he should be allowed to attend art school in San Francisco.  But Will places himself in a dangerous position when, at a stop, he recovers a key dropped by the funeral car's guard moments before the man is stabbed by a man Will recognizes.  Barely catching the caboose at the end of the train, Will must use all his skills and wits and trust a few new friends if he is to stay alive and find his way back to his father in the locomotive.

The Boundless is an endless adventure of hopping train cars, outsmarting murderous fiends, marvelling at unforeseen inventions, surviving encounters with mythical creatures and trusting some and not others, including a first love.  Never does Kenneth Oppel make you believe that Will can easily survive this drama.  Readers will be holding their breaths wondering which fall will kill Will or leave him in the Boundless' wake. Or whether Mr. Dorian's plan will save him or put others in jeopardy.  Or whether every brakeman on the Boundless is a threat.  Or whether Will's father, miles away at the front of the train, knows anything of the goings-on in the funeral car and beyond.  And I'll be surprised if you don't start wondering which pieces of Canadian history are valid and accurate. Cornelius Van Horne, Sam Steele, Simon Fraser and Donald Smith and others make appearances in The Boundless, though they are legitimate characters who helped in the making of our nation.  But what of the golden spike?

Yep.  The Boundless has all that and more. And only reading Kenneth Oppel's newest steampunk will allow you some opportunity to answer those questions or at least make an attempt at it. So get on board with reading The Boundless, a phenomenon of engineering and text, courtesy of the imagination and pen of one of Canada's finest writers for young people. 

Lumière (The Illumination Paradox, Book One)

by Jacqueline E. Garlick

Amazemo Books

978-0-99216300-6

458 pp.

Ages 12+

December 2013

"How much do you trust me?"

When you have a secret that could lead to your hanging from the gallows, dipped in hot wax, or discarded with criminals and the Infirmed to a societal wasteland, you're very careful with whom you place your trust.  But at some time, everyone needs a little (or a lot!) of help and you need to trust someone.  

Fortunately for Eyelet Elsworth, her father, a famous inventor, who perished the Night of the Great Illumination, and her mother, who is put to death on the charge of being a shape-shifter and killing the royal baby, always looked for ways to protect her and even reverse her affliction.  Sadly, she lost her father when she was but eight years of age, and her mother nine years later.  Now at 17, Eyelet is running away from her home in Brethren, where she attends (attended!) the Academy of Scientific Delves and Discoveries, pursued by Professor Smrt and soldiers called Brigsmen.  Challenged as exhibiting madness but really hunted for her father's notebooks, Eyelet only has her mother's necklace with an hourglass-shaped vial containing an emerald light, and the location where her father's invention, The Illuminator, is stored.

Though Eyelet may not believe it, she is fortunate to discover her father's invention being  removed from the warehouse.  Grabbing hold on the carriage in which it's been taken, Eyelet is taken by Urlick Babbit to the safety of the home he shares with his father in the Ramshackle Follies, a scorned land beyond the limits of the Commonwealth.  Though Urlick is perennially focused on his face of raised purple scars and blemishes that he believes marks him as a monster, Eyelet sees beyond this, curious about the plethora of gadgets, the restrictions he places on her if she is to stay, and the location of her father's Illuminator. 

But both Eyelet and Urlick are keeping secrets and unknowingly creating misunderstandings that may put their relationship and even their lives in danger.  Neither can guess the other's intentions but each is convinced that they do. Readers will celebrate each forward step of Eyelet and Urlick's adventures, all the more so because they demonstrate great strength of purpose but are emotionally weakened by their perceived debilitations.  Fortunately, the intervention by a secondary cast of characters and a little honesty go a long way in bringing Eyelet and Urlick together, emotionally and strategically, to achieve something grand. Urlick's simple kindnesses towards Eyelet and Eyelet's disregard for his facial features will have you cheering for their inevitable romance so charmingly evoked by Jacqueline E. Garlick's rhythmic imagery.

"All the blood in my body tingles.  Not in the cool metallic way it does when I'm falling into an episode, but warm and cursive, like fancy handwriting over fine parchment paper, all loopy and beautiful, seeping in and out of every pore." (pg. 373)

The plot developments in Lumière will keep readers riveted, as will the imaginative gadgetry–a cigarette holder and flame thrower, for example–that enriches the steampunk genre. But, for me, sharing Eyelet's and Urlick's perspectives, usually in alternating chapters, and their witty repartée took me from beginning to end in two short readings.

"Ohmilord, ohmilord, ohmiLOOORD!" I scream.

"What are you doing?" Urlick shouts.

"Saving you?" I gulp as I swing past. "What does it look like I'm doing?"

"Have you lost your mind?"

"No, not yet. But soon, I suspect." (pg. 345)

Book Two in The Illumination Paradox series is set to be titled Noir (another title based on Eyelet's father's notebooks) though there is no ETA for it yet, though I will continue checking Jacqueline E. Garlick's website at http://jacquelinegarlick.com/, as I recommend you do, because Lumière leaves Urlick just about at his end.  And we wouldn't want anything to separate them when he's just found the "only girl I ever believed could understand me" (pg. 204), would we?

Lumière: Book Launch (Sarnia)

Join author

Jacqueline Garlick-Pynaert

 for the launch of her new

steampunk fantasy

Lumière
The Illumination Paradox, Book 1

Amazemo Books

978-0-99216300-6

458 pp.

Ages 12+

December 2013

 ________________________________________
(The following description was retrieved from Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19541871-lumiere)

One determined girl. One resourceful boy. One miracle machine that could destroy everything.

After an unexplained flash shatters her world, seventeen-year-old Eyelet Elsworth sets out to find the Illuminator, her father’s prized invention. With it, she hopes to cure herself of her debilitating seizures before Professor Smrt—her father’s arch nemesis—discovers her secret and locks her away in an asylum.

Pursued by Smrt, Eyelet locates the Illuminator only to see it whisked away. She follows the thief into the world of the unknown, compelled not only by her quest but by the allure of the stranger—Urlick Babbit—who harbors secrets of his own.

Together, they endure deadly Vapours and criminal-infested woods in pursuit of the same prize, only to discover the miracle machine they hoped would solve their problems may in fact be their biggest problem of all.

  _______________________________________

on

Sunday, January 19, 2014

at

 2 - 3 p.m.

at 

The Book Keeper

Northgate Plaza
500 Exmouth Street
Sarnia, ON
Phone: 519-337-3171

________________________________________
Check out her website at http://jacquelinegarlick.com/ or for information about the Limited Edition Collector's Copy of Lumière, go to http://www.lumierethenovel.com/
________________________________________

The Friday Society

by Adrienne Kress

Dial Books (Penguin Group)

978-0-8037-3761-7

440 pp.

Ages 12+

2012

The Friday Society ushers in a new world of steampunk, in which three young ladies from very different backgrounds join their non-traditional forces to defeat evil machinations in very traditional turn-of-the-century London.  And if I read Adrienne Kress' ending correctly, The Friday Society is just the first in a series of books that will star these new heroes.

Our three heroes, all about 17-years-of-age, are Cora Bell, the personal and lab assistant to parliamentarian-inventor Lord White; the overwhelmingly beautiful Nellie Harrison, magician's assistant to the Great Raheem, a caring and wise surrogate father; and Michiko Takeda, former samurai student and current fight and self-defense instructor under the abusive Sir Callum Fielding-Shaw.  After a gala attended by Cora and Lord White at which the Great Raheem and Nellie perform, and Callum and Michiko demonstrate, the three girls finally cross paths.  Nellie and Cora, sharing a carriage home, come across Michiko who has been knocked unconscious after discovering the deserted carriage and decapitated head of another performer at the gala.  Dr. Welland had demonstrated the power of a new gravity-defying metal called cavorite in a mechanical bird that flew about the hall.  Now he has been murdered, the cavorite is gone and Michiko is determined to find the man, who she calls Fog, and fight him again to restore her honour.

Although now acquainted, the three young women still seek answers on their own.  Michiko seeks Fog, while teaching a young boy, Hayao, to be a samurai in return for his teaching her to run and jump across wide chasms.  Nellie is determined to discover  more about a poisoned man who died in the home she shares with Raheem.  Her inquiries take her to the Medical and Scientific Institute where she makes the acquaintance of the creepy Dr. Mantis and learns of the Society of Heroes, a secret group of scientists. Meanwhile, Cora is dealing with the amorous Mr. Andrew Harris, the handsome new lab assistant, toiling over a complicated new device, and mourning the death of a former friend, one of several flower sellers murdered recently.

Without obvious contrivance, Adrienne Kress knits the network of story-lines and mysteries into a powerful plot enriched with vivid characters (no matter how incidental they may appear to be), atmospheric settings, and complicated encounters, both emotional and physical.  And the humour in The Friday Society!

Dr. Mantis took a step toward her. "Do you know the difference between you and me?" he asked in that quiet voice of his.
"Aside from the fact that I have hair?" (pg. 392)

Adrienne Kress subtly blends contemporary language with the formalities of Victorian England with rousing success, effecting wit and levity in dramatic and tragic circumstances.

"Sir," she said, turning around abruptly and aiming her small pistol between his legs, "I am not the police.  I am not here to make a scene, nor to report any activity to anyone.  I am merely here to find my boss and bring him home so he can prepare for an event this evening for which it would be best if he were sober.  You have been most unhelpful, and if you don't let me take care of my business, I can assure you I will do away with yours." (pg. 17)

Even her recently uploaded trailer for The Friday Society (posted on our book trailers page here) ends with this playful wit.

Humour, mystery, action, strong female heroes, weird and wonderful contraptions, and the promise of romance - The Friday Society has all the right components for a highly-effective and sure-to-trend debut of a series.

The Friday Society Gala: Book Launch

Readers of all ages are invited
by 

hosts Penguin Books, Small Print Toronto, and the Gladstone Hotel

to attend

a gala of modernity and lively entertainments 

(their words, not mine)
 

in honour of Adrienne Kress' new steampunk book,

THE FRIDAY SOCIETY
 

on Friday, December 7, 2012
Doors open at 7:00 p.m., with the reading at 7:30p.m.

at
The Gladstone Hotel 

1214 Queen St. West
Toronto, ON

The evening will include:

• A reading by Adrienne Kress
• A demonstration of Bartitsu, the latest technique is self defense, by the Riot A.C.T.
• Displays of the latest in modern technologies by Messrs Smith and Bodine
• A screening of the book trailer

For an interesting touch, guests are invited to feel free to wear Steampunk! For ideas on how to put together a steampunk outfit from your own closet, visit Adrienne Kress' website here.

 

Island of Doom: The Hunchback Assignments IV

by Arthur Slade

HarperCollins

978-1-55468-360-4

264 pp.

Ages 12+

July 17, 2012

In a November 30, 2011 post, I briefly reviewed all three books in Arthur Slade's phenomenal The Hunchback Assignments series from HarperCollins, having read them before I had even started this blog.  One of the few steampunk series for younger readers by Canadian authors, The Hunchback Assignments has been honoured with a variety of regional, national and international nominations and awards, including the Saskatchewan Young Adult Book Award (2010), the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award (2010 and 2011), YALSA Best Books for Young Adults (2011), and France's Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire (2011).  And, now, with Arthur Slade's final volume in the series, set for release tomorrow, it behooves me to revisit the earlier books in the series before tempting you with its newest and final offering.

Modo, the hunchback of the title, is a deformed young man who as a babe was abandoned and travelled with a circus show before being rescued by the mysterious Mr. Socrates.  Learning of the boy's ability to transform his appearance, Mr. Socrates has Modo trained in the physical and intellectual arts to act as an agent for the Permanent Association and thwart the nefarious schemes of the Clockwork Guild.

In the first book, the Clockwork Guild, directed by the mysterious Guild Master, has the mechanical-armed Miss Hakkandottir recruiting Dr. Hyde to build a machine powered by the anger of children.  During his assignment, Modo meets another young agent of Mr. Socrates, Octavia (Tavia) Milkweed, in whom he becomes interested.

In the second book, The Dark Deeps, Modo and Tavia's investigation has them playing married and looking underwater for the activities of the Clockwork Guild.  A beautiful French agent, Colette Brunet, sent on a similar mission, cooperates with Modo, and the two develop a fondness for one another.

In Queensland, Australia, Modo, Tavia, Mr. Socrates and others head for The Empire of Ruins to attempt to discover the nature of the God Face, an ancient temple harbouring treasure and the power to drive people mad, before the Clockwork Guild gets its mechanical hands on it.

With each book, Modo has endeavoured to complete his assignments effectively but, as he matures, he begins to question his relationship with Mr. Socrates and others.  The adventure in The Empire of Ruins has left Modo with many questions, especially after he is relegated to virtual house arrest in their new safe house in Montreal, as punishment for ignoring Mr. Socrates' orders to deliver the native people (who had accepted Modo's facial deformities as beautiful) to their battle deaths.  Moreover, while Tavia is tutored and trained daily, Modo considers Tavia's reaction to him when he showed her his true face.  While Tavia did not look away (as Colette Brunet had in The Dark Deeps), it had been difficult for her to meet his eyes, especially as he knows she is looking for a handsome prince.

Thinking about his relationships with Mr. Socrates and Tavia has Modo eager to pursue a missive from Colette Brunet indicating that she has found his French parents who are in danger.  Colette has discovered that members of the Clockwork Guild, specifically Lime, a thin, metal-toothed character, and Typhon, an obedient monster of a man with greenish-hued skin and numerous stitches, have been looking into Modo's heritage as well; in fact, Lime and Typhon kidnap Modo's mother and remove her by Miss Hakkandottir's airship to a secluded island.

Mr. Socrates calls Modo and Tavia back to Montreal and they all travel westward by train to a top-secret facility located within a naval base at Esquimalt.  Here Mr. Socrates unveils to them the 7th Dragoons Regiment of overgrown boys (saved from Dr. Hyde's machine of angry children) on steam-powered legs, with armoured bodies, and standing twelve feet tall! And, once Mr. Socrates' agent Footman learns the location of the Guild's island and Dr. Hyde's work is in resurrecting the dead and recreating them into indestructible monsters, like Typhon, they're on their way to save Modo's mother and stop the Clockwork Guild once more.

Though Arthur Slade expects readers to say good-bye to Modo in this last of The Hunchback Assignments books, he hasn't taken the easy way out with a finale in which all loose ends are tied up, all mysteries solved.  If you're expecting stars and balloons and pats on Modo's hunchback for a job well-done, you will be disappointed.  However, if you expect nothing less than another tension-filled adventure, with mechanical and surreal inventions, evil-minded characters, and some soul-searching by Modo and Tavia, then you will completely enthralled with Island of Doom.

As in our world, there's always some evil bent on abusing the vulnerable and keeping good people from their just rewards.  In Island of Doom, the evil is embedded in Arthur Slade's fantastic characters for whom he has crafted such defining natures: the heinous Lime and Miss Hakkandottir whose metallic body parts illuminate their heartless natures;  Dr. Hyde, the brilliant scientist who creates violence from metal and death; and the Guild Master, whose bespectacled unimpressive morph hides his destructive nature and drive for power above all else.  And yet, those characters with whom readers continue to empathize, specifically Modo and Tavia, with their bleak beginnings, always questioning their motives and abilities, will enjoy the opportunities to continue to become even better versions of themselves.  In a steampunk world, Arthur Slade has created the recognizable within the unimaginable, a fantastic feat in itself.   That said, I am ever naively hopeful that, with the ending that Arthur Slade has constructed here, we may revisit Modo, perhaps far beyond the deeps, ruins and doom of his life's mission thus far.

The Friday Society: Cover revealed

Adrienne Kress, author of Alex and the Ironic Gentleman (Scholastic Canada, 2007) and Timothy and the Dragon's Gate (Scholastic Canada, 2009), revealed on her blog today the cover for her upcoming steampunk novel, The Friday Society, due out in November, 2012 from Dial, Penguin.

Voilà!

The blurb on the back cover of The Friday Society will intrigue any lover of strong female characters, adventure, mystery and danger, all within a steampunk milieu.

Be Your Own Hero . . .

Set in London at the turn of the last century, the novel follows the stories of three intelligent and very talented young women, all of whom are assistants to very powerful men: Cora, lab assistant to a member of parliament; Michiko, Japanese fight assistant to a martial arts guru; and Nellie, a magician's assistant. The three young women’s lives become inexorably intertwined after a chance meeting at a ball that ends with the discovery of a murdered mystery man.

It’s up to these three, in their own charming but bold way, to solve the murder—and the crimes they believe may be connected to it‐‐without calling too much attention to themselves.

Told with Adrienne Kress's sharp wit and a great deal of irreverence, this Steampunk whodunit introduces three unforgettable and very ladylike--well, relatively ladylike--heroines poised for more dangerous adventures.

(Retrieved from http://ididntchoosethis.blogspot.ca/2012/04/cover-reveal-for-friday-society.html?m=1 on April 3, 2012)

 In Her Words

Reading Adrienne Kress' blog (http://ididntchoosethis.blogspot.ca), I was especially curious about her take on the cover and what she especially loved about it.  With her permission, I share her words with you here:

What I love about this cover:

1.  The three girls.  Let's meet them shall we?  From left to right - Nellie Harrison (magician's assistant), Cora Bell (personal assistant/lab assistant to a member of Parliament), Michiko Takeda (fight assistant to a self defense guru).

I've already talked about what I like about how the girls look (though I should add I also adore their outfits . . . and weapons).  What's also fantastic about them, is the way they are posing.  They look tough.  They look like they have agency, that they can take care of themselves. Which is good.  Because they do and can. :)

2. The pinwheel effect.  Okay, note to self, adding a pinwheel automatically makes stuff look awesome.  It's subtle, but present.  It both draws the eye into the middle of the page, and explodes out in fantastic fun times.  It adds a wonderful sense of energy.  Love it.

3. The London skyline.  Because it's the London skyline.

4. The grainy effect.  Look up close, the picture has been made to look slightly weathered. Cool?  Yes, yes it is.

5. The font(s).  Font, to me, is often far more important than any other element on a cover.  It can make the difference between whether a cover is seen as professional or not.  And it can dictate the intended audience for the book.  I love both the fonts on this cover.  I love the title, I love how strong it looks, how cool, both contemporary and classic.  And I love my name.  I mean, I love seeing my name on a cover of a book in any font really (it's kind of overwhelming every time when you do see it - and maybe just maybe I got choked up seeing it on this cover for the first time), but this font is also just plain cool. I don't know why, but I love that the A isn't pointy.  Yeah, I know, but I do.

6. The border.  Now I have had the honour of being bordered by many a great object.  With ALEX we had octopus tentacles.  TIMOTHY we had a dragon:

And this time, well this time we get a supremely kick-ass Steampunk mechanical piece.

That border might be just about my favourite part of the cover.  Not quite my fav, we'll get to that at 7.  But still.  Yes it is all kinds of Steampunk amazing, but what I love about it the most is that it really looks mechanical, like a real machine where one piece influences the other, and not just like there are some random gears hanging out together 'cause, you know, they're gears and they've got that in common.  I also love how the border makes the whole cover have a kind of movie poster vibe.  And as a fan of movies, you can understand why this would make me happy.

Lastly I love the accidental continuity.  That I get to be border girl!  All my books have borders (despite being published by different publishers and being different genres), and I love borders, and I love my books.  So it's like such a love fest man.

7.  And my number 1 (which I guess is number 7 for some reason) thing I love about this cover is . . . wait for it . . .

This:

??

This is a screw.

There are four of them, one in each corner of the cover.  Making the cover look like it's been screwed onto the book.  It might not be grand, it might hardly be noticeable at first glance, but it's this kind of small detail I absolutely adore.  It demonstrates care, and I think wit as well.  The cherry on top of the sundae. 

 * * *

November seems like a long time from now, doesn't it?

The Hunchback Assignments

A recent posting from author Arthur Slade (thank you!) shared the sad news that the fourth book of this series, due out in the summer of 2012, will the final instalment in Modo's story. Gasp! To postpone the imminent feeling of loss I will definitely feel after reading that book, I'd like to share reviews of the first three books in this series, and urge you to get your hands on these great steampunk adventures.Official Hunchback Assignments website

The Hunchback Assignments
by Arthur Slade
HarperCollins Canada
978-1-55468-354-3
275 pp.
Ages 12+
2009

The Dark Deeps: The Hunchback Assignments II
by Arthur Slade
HarperCollins Canada
978-1-55468-357-4
256 pp.
Ages12+
2010

Empire of Ruins: The Hunchback Assignments III
by Arthur Slade
HarperCollins Canada
978-1-55468-358-1
256 pp.
Ages 12+
2011

In the first book, The Hunchback Assignments, Modo, the hunchback of the title, is rescued from a travelling show by the mysterious Mr. Socrates, who learned of the boy's unique ability to transform his appearance.  At Ravenscroft where Mr. Socrates has deposited Modo, he is trained in all skills, physical and intellectual, under the care and tutelage of Mrs. Finchley and Tharpa, his combat instructor.  Unfortunately, Modo also learns that his appearance can be frightening to others, but he becomes deft at manipulating it. At 14, Modo is abandoned by Mr. Socrates on the streets of London to undertake his first “assignment” involving a dangerous secret society, the Clockwork Guild.  The Guild, directed by Miss Hakkandottir, has recruited the evil Dr. Cornelius Hyde to help harness the anger of children to power a machine.  (It’s actually quite horrible when you think of it, but the horror is riveting.) During his assignment, Modo makes the acquaintance of Octavia (Tavia) Milkweed, another agent of Mr. Socrates, whose acting and daring impress him as much as her curiosity about him.

Modo continues to grapple with his deformity in The Dark Deeps while struggling with his growing need for companionship, brought on when he and Octavia must act as husband and wife to investigate the activities of French spy Colette Brunet and something called Ictineo. Without revealing too much, Modo uncovers an underwater steamship, a burgeoning underwater community, and an invisible saboteur.

In Empire of Ruins: The Hunchback Assignments III, Modo, Octavia, Mr. Socrates, Tharpa and Mrs. Finchley travel to Queensland, Australia to discover the nature of the God Face, associated with an Egyptian temple filled with treasure but attributed to driving men mad. In their ship, the Prince Albert, Modo and company, including the crew led by local balloonist, Lizzie, must deal with the Clockwork Guild in their airship, the Prometheus, and their arsenal of weaponry which now includes vicious mechanical birds capable of poisoning. The quest for the temple and the God Face may direct the plot, but it is the relationships between friends and foes and natives that fuels it.

Arthur Slade’s foray into steam-punk provides a brilliant vehicle for merging the sensibilities of Victorian England and the riveting science of the future while sharing the passage of Modo from a pawn but highly-skilled agent of Mr. Socrates to a young man who discovers (creates?) his identity, one solidly based in moral obligation and kindness.

And if those details aren't enough to make you delve into The Hunchback Assignments, then the deficiency is in my telling of their stories. Maybe the trailers created for Books I and II (see below) will sway your attention.

Uploaded by slade67 on Nov 10, 2009 on youtube.com 

Uploaded by slade67 on May 14, 2010 on youtube.com