Monstrous Devices
by Damien Love
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Pub Date 19 Mar 2020 | Archive Date 17 Mar 2020
Oneworld Publications | Rock the Boat
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Description
‘I enjoyed everything about Damien Love’s debut—its title, its breakneck action, its sly sense of humour. I wish my first novel had been as imaginative and assured.’ Anthony Horowitz, bestselling author of the Alex Rider series
When twelve-year-old Alex receives an old tin robot in the post, the note from his grandfather simply reads: ‘This one is special’. But as strange events start occurring around him, it doesn’t take Alex long to suspect that the small toy is more than special; it might also be deadly.
Just as things are getting out of hand, Alex’s grandfather arrives, whisking him away from his otherwise humdrum life and into a world of strange, macabre magic. From Paris to Prague, they flee across snowy Europe in a quest to unravel the riddle of the little robot, and outwit relentless assassins of the human and mechanical kind. How does Alex’s grandfather know them? And can Alex safely harness the robot’s power, or will it fall into the wrong, wicked hands?
Advance Praise
‘I enjoyed everything about Damien Love’s debut—its title, its breakneck action, its sly sense of humour. I wish my first novel had been as imaginative and assured.’ Anthony Horowitz, bestselling author of the Alex Rider series
'Raiders of the Lost Ark meets Toy Story.' Publishers Weekly
Available Editions
| EDITION | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9781786077523 |
| PRICE | £12.99 (GBP) |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Amy G, Reviewer
What an interesting book! I had heard a lot about this book before the lovely guys at Netgalley and Rock the Boat granted my request to read this and I wasn’t disappointed.
Alex receives a postcard and a parcel from his grandad who is away in Prague, in this parcel is a curious little metal robot. This robot looks a little different from the other Alex has collected and his grandfather’s postcard says it’s special.
Alex has a good look at the robot and it nicks his finger causing it to bleed, he wipes away the blood on the robot and thinks nothing more of it until strange things start happening.
Alex falls asleep before finishing his essay and when he wakes up it’s already done and printed off, a bully that torments Alex gives back the robot when Alex asks him to and has a vacant look on his face. Alex begins to wonder if this robot is indeed very special.
His grandad arrives back home and notices the curious behaviour around Alex and decides to take him away on a trip to Paris to find an old friend to show the robot to. Needless to say their journey is not a smooth one and they encounter some bad people that Alex’s grandad has crossed before. They are on a deadly mission to destroy the robot and what it contains while fighting off robots as small as dragonflies with deadly knives all the way up to robots that are the size of people.
It’s a break-neck adventure story that, once you get into it, leaves you breathless with the action and audibly gasping at things that happen in the story. Alex’s grandad is a beautifully eccentric character and is full of charm whereas Alex is your typical confused teenager, thrown into a situation he doesn’t know how to handle and must learn everything on the way.
It’s nothing like anything I have ready in a long time, it’s a brilliant debut from Damien and I cannot wait to read more of his work.
What a story! It’s a European road trip filled with robots, danger, deceit, salt, death, mystery and history. Absolutely wonderful!
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