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  • Fires of Invention: Volume 1 by J. Scott Savage book cover
  • Fires of Invention: Volume 1 by J. Scott Savage book cover
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Fires of Invention: Volume 1

by J. Scott Savage

Invention beneath the mountain

$10.27 USD
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AlbakiReads Editorial

Invention beneath the mountain

Cove’s steam-powered machinery keeps the city running, yet its leaders treat creativity as dangerous. That contradiction shapes Trenton Colman’s partnership with Kallista Babbage, a repair technician whose father’s death has become a warning against invention. Clues connected to Leo Babbage’s unfinished project draw the two young mechanics into building a machine whose implications challenge the city’s accepted history. The setup brings steampunk engineering together with questions about who controls knowledge and how a community’s founding beliefs are maintained. As the first volume in a series, it introduces a tightly bounded world where technical ingenuity is both a skill and a source of conflict.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • For readers ages 9–12 interested in steampunk settings and mechanical inventions.
  • For young readers who enjoy stories about questioning rules and uncovering secrets from the past.

Themes

Creativity and controlInvention and technologyTruth and accepted historyTrust and collaboration

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

Trenton Colman is a creative thirteen-year-old boy with a knack for all things mechanical. But his talents are viewed with suspicion in Cove, a steam-powered city built inside a mountain. In Cove, creativity is a crime and "invention" is a curse word.

Kallista Babbage is a repair technician and daughter of the notorious Leo Babbage, who died in an explosion--an event the leaders of Cove point to as an example of the danger of creativity.

Working together, Trenton and Kallista learn that Leo Babbage was developing a secret project before he perished. Following clues he left behind, they begin to assemble a strange machine that is unlike anything they've ever seen before. They soon discover that what they are building may threaten every truth their city is founded on--and quite possibly their very lives.
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