Monstrous Devices

Alex has time to add only a brief message to the note he and his grandfather leave for his mother. There’s a race to St Pancras and thereafter to Paris, for Alex’s latest gift from his grandfather, an old, ugly tin robot is wanted. What is this gift? Who wants it and why? Furthermore, the nature of those who hunt them down is something terrifying; it’s like they’re Monstrous Devices. They’re charged with knife-edged mini drones, or fliers, as Alex’s grandfather informs him. There are life-sizers, too.

There’s a lot that Alex’s grandfather hasn’t told him, such as the history of the robot, the treasure hidden within, and the unsettling familiarity of the tall man and the girl who chase them. Alex knows nothing of a golem!  However there is Alex’s silence about the unexpected attachment to the robot. Somehow he feels its sensations and has some sort of communion with it. Could it have something to do with the cut sustained when investigating his grandfather’s gift? Certainly, the world begins turning strangely at that point, from the essay he doesn’t remember completing, to a strange ability to control Kenzie’s attack. What is going on?

Monstrous Devices is a tremendous adventure story. It’s a race against time, against those who desire power, whose very physicality is something reminiscent, yet horrific, torn and damaged. Bookwagon recommends this tale highly for adventure lovers, for those who love stories of complexity, daring, history and conflicted loyalties.