Review – Embers of Destruction (Mysteries of Cove, Book 3) by J. Scott Savage (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Middle Grade
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 352 pages
Publisher: Shadow Mountain
Release Date: September 26, 2017
ISBN-13: 978-1629723396
Stand Alone or Series: 3rd volume in the Mysteries of Cove series
Source: Bought
Rating: 4/5 stars
“Arriving in San Francisco and investigating the area in secret, the young riders are reunited with Kallista’s father, Leo Babbage, who reveals that the humans in the city are working as slaves to the dragons, but that they don’t want to be rescued–himself included. He says they are being protected by their new master: a huge, powerful white dragon who lives in an impenetrable tower fortress overlooking the city. Kallista is stunned by the news. Why would her father ever willingly want to work for dragons?
Trenton and his friends are confronted by the guards and their mechanical dragons are seized. Evading capture, the young riders escape and begin looking for a way to break the white dragon’s hold over the city–and over Leo. Working with the kids from the city, the young riders track down the source of the dragon’s power to an underground chamber that is accessible only through an underwater passageway below the tower fortress.
With the white dragon watching their every move, Trenton and Kallista will need every bit of creativity and ingenuity they can manage to find a way to retrieve their stolen dragons, enter the tower fortress, and take down the dragons once and for all.”
This was a well done conclusion to the Mysteries of Cove series. Again this volume was more about a dystopian society than any sort of steampunk society. This time our heroes journey into a city run by an immense white dragon. All the humans in that city seem perfectly pleased to slave away providing the dragons with food and shelter.
Trenton and friends are eager to figure out what is going on with this new town and to find Kallista’s father once and for all. However, everyone seems to be so content in this new city that they don’t know if there really is anything wrong going on here. Eventually they do find a small group of rebellious kids to help them uncover the truth.
There are alot of wonderful fight scenes between dragons and some new and interesting inventions introduced. There are some light steampunk elements in here, but this is again mostly a dystopian novel.
Things are well wrapped up but the story does end a bit abruptly. I had some issues with how all the problems were resolved; it just seemed too unbelievable and too neat.
Overall this was an entertaining and well done middle grade dystopian trilogy. Each book introduces a new dystopian society and a new invention that the kids have to build to help them through their journeys. I would recommend to kids who enjoy adventure fantasy books.
This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Goodreads Reading Challenge
