The Nine Pound Hammer
Book 1 of The Clockwork Dark
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
What if John Henry had a son?
Twelve-year-old Ray is haunted by the strangest memories of his father, whom Ray swears could speak to animals. Now an orphan, Ray jumps from a train going through the American South and falls in with a medicine show train and its stable of sideshow performers. The performers turn out to be heroes, defenders of the wild, including the son of John Henry. They are hiding the last of the mythical Swamp Sirens from an ancient evil known as the Gog. Why the Gog wants the Siren, they can’t be sure, but they know it has something to do with rebuilding a monstrous machine that John Henry gave his life destroying years before, a machine that will allow the Gog to control the will of men and spread darkness throughout the world.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bemis, in his debut novel, first in the Clockwork Dark series, attempts to spin classic American tall tales into an epic historical adventure, but undercuts the solid setting and action sequences with some poor character choices and predictable twists. Ray, an orphan being taken south for adoption, jumps the train, thinking his sister will have a better chance of finding a family without him. His adventures in the wilderness bring him to a medicine show traveling on a train called the Ballyhoo. The assorted members of the show have unusual powers, and as Ray talks to them, he learns about the heroic Ramblers and their fight against the mysterious Gog. Encounters with pirates, a siren and a fearsome mechanical beast called the Hoarhound all enliven the book, and the climactic battle is engrossing and well-choreographed, but there's little new in the story itself. Every twist from the inevitable betrayal to the revelation of the Gog's identity to the heroic sacrifice is telegraphed, and along with some awkward racial stereotypes, the action sequences are not enough to sustain the story. Ages 9 12.
