I recently reviewed the first book to J. Scott Savage’s Cove series, “Fires of Invention,” knowing I’d soon get the chance to read the second one, “Gears of Revolution.” WARNING: If you don’t want the first book SPOILED, come back to this review later. That said, I highly suggest you read the first book before thumbing through this one.
“Gears of Revolution” begins where the first book ended. In a steam-punk alternate history, Trenton and Kalista are on an adventure in the dragon-infested world, looking for her father. They continue to pick up on the smallest of hints to find the underground city of Seattle (Mr. Savage uses some actual history from the Washington city, which I enjoyed.) 🙂
You get to see Trenton’s capabilities as he gets to work with machinery and new creations. Additionally, he’s given a leadership opportunity to build on bigger scales with a team.
Unfortunately, from there, I lost interest. I saw the twist coming and wanted to skip ahead to the moment of revelation. Do I think middle schoolers will see it coming? Probably not.
My other issue is after their whole adventure, they end up pretty much back where they were from the beginning. Interesting new inventions and cultures are explored, but the plot of their real battle didn’t move forward much.
I gave the first book a 3.6, and this one took a step back at ***2.6 Stars**. I am still interested in the next book though, as the characters are ready to move forward in the way I anticipated after the first book.
C. Rae D'Arc 