The White City

July 15, 2011

With The Clockwork Dark series drawing to a close, author Bemis has saved the best for last.

Readers are plunged into the action as Buck is captured and comes face to face with the evil Grevol, a.k.a. Gog. At the same time, Ray and Jolie are attempting to find his sister Sally as she desperately seeks their father, hoping he can help complete their task. Other members of their band, including Conker, son of John Henry, are headed to Chicago, the site of the 1893 World's Fair, and an ultimate showdown with Gog, his all-powerful Machine and the Darkness he uses to control those who do his bidding. Bemis continues to connect larger-than-life characters of American folklore to new adventure. As he concludes the series at the point where the country is set to embrace a mechanized modern society, the heroic figures battling the evil Gog are forced to face what might be a losing battle. "And the world ahead, it would change. That was inevitable, just as the Magog had said. But it wasn't inevitable that it would be a world that would turn people into the ashen-faced slaves that Grevol desired. Mankind might still hold on to its humanity."

With a plot as intricate as the Machine at its center and a page-turning pace, this unique, ambitious American fantasy comes to a satisfying end that would please even John Henry. (Steampunk. 9-12)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

August 1, 2011
Grades 7-10 The Clockwork Dark series draws to a smashing finish (literally) with this third volume of American folklorebased fantasy action. In proper climactic fashion, all of our heroesRay, Conker, Buck, and a dizzying array of othersbegin separated but slowly come together as they converge upon Chicago's famed White City of 1893, which is the new hiding place of the Gog's evil machine. Newcomers will be thoroughly baffled by the byzantine plot, but those who have traveled this far with Ray will find this a fitting conclusion to one of the more refreshingly curious steampunk offerings out there.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2012
In this installment, set at the Chicago World's Fair, the characters seek to destroy the Magog and his evil machine. As each person overcomes his or her own "black clockworks," they build the strength and resolve to defeat the villain together. Bemis continues to unite Southern folklore and steampunk fantasy as readers are carried along on a journey of suspense and intrigue.

(Copyright 2012 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)