Embers of Destruction

This will post on my blog on 10/22/17.

After Fires of Invention and Gears of Revolution, Trenton and Kallista are back with their mechanical dragons that they are using to fight the real dragons that have infested the earth and are controlling and destroying humans. They've managed to soup up their machines with more fire power, which Angus thinks he can use to kill all of the dragons. When the group comes across the city of San Francisco emerging from the mist, they decide to land and explore, but it is another trap. They manage to escape and get a bit of a view of what's going on. Plucky thinks she sees a girl from Seattle working at one of the factories, and Kallista takes this to mean that her father Leo (who is missing again) is nearby. Sure enough, he has fashioned a ship that he can fly without being detected by the dragons, and the group makes more plans. Of course, Leo ends up in thrall to the monarch, a white dragon with violet eyes, and the group has to work to free him. When they come across a lab from before the time of the San Francisco earthquake in the early 1900s, they uncover interesting information about the genesis of the dragons. Will it be enough to deal with the present day ones and allow humans to once again rule earth?
Strengths: Tweens are saving the world, but it's nice to see parents around. There aren't a lot of books that include tinkering with machines, so that's a nice science/tech bonus. Lots of adventure, flying, shooting great big fire balls at dragons. The story is wrapped up nicely. Great covers.
Weaknesses: Personally, I got tired of killing dragons, and I wasn't entirely convinced things were calm at the end of the book. Also, if I were Kallista, I would have gotten tired of my father disappearing and would probably have given up on him!
What I really think: Very solid, Steampunkish fantasy adventure series. Three is a perfect number to develop the characters and wrap up the story line while still being interesting enough for students to read all of the books. It hurts my feelings a bit when I feel compelled to buy something like Diane Duane's book TEN of a series knowing that only two people will read it!

I was excited to read this title as I have read the first two and looked forward to the ending. Savage did not disappoint. It was easy to fall back in with Trenton and his friends from cove. There was a quick backstory for anyone who had not read the previous installments that would catch them up. The characters were well defined and had very distinctive personalities.
The storyline continued from where it left off, yet sky rocketed into an almost new world in this post-apocalyptic San Francisco. The details about the city were there and gave a clear description of what this conquered city would look like.
The dragons were stepped up as well. There were more varieties with humanistic traits that ruled this city. Their origins were finally revealed and the history behind them was well discussed, leading up to a great moral.
The action was fast paced and well styled. Savage really thought out the ending for his characters. He did research in geography, science, and history to make the whole story come together. This was a great ending to a magical series. The previous installments check out a lot from our library and I am sure our young patrons will be excited for the latest.

EMBERS OF DESTRUCTION, by J. Scott Savage, Shadow Mountain, Sept. 26, 2017, Hardcover, $17.99 (ages 10-13)

Let me begin this review with this warning: If you haven’t read the first two books in the Mysteries of Cove series, stop reading! There are spoilers ahead. You really need to read Fires of Invention and Gears of Revolution before settling in to Embers of Destruction.

Embers of Destruction is the final book in the Mysteries of Cove trilogy. It opens with Trenton, Kallista and their friends — Plucky, Simoni, Angus and Clyde — just outside what used to be San Francisco. The friends are hoping to rescue any survivors from the battle of Seattle, including Kallista’s father, Leo Babbage. They also hope to find something about the dragons that can help defeat them once and for all.

Instead, they happen upon a bustling city where humans and dragons seem to peacefully coexist. Skeptical of this alliance, Trenton and his friends cautiously begin to explore, and run into Kallista’s father in the process. It turns out the humans are working as slaves to the dragons, but they don’t want to be rescued. They may be slaves, but a huge white dragon who lives in a tower above the city keeps them safe and keeps them fed. What more could they ask for.

Even Kallista’s father seems to think the setup is a good idea, and, in a stunning move, turns Trenton and his friends over to the city’s guards. Though they’ve officially been assimilated into the city, the friends are anything but accepting. And they’re not the only ones. Kids from all over the city feel the same way. Together, they track down the source of the dragon’s power and discover how the beasts came to be in the first place.

Though Fires of Invention was the sequel to Gears of Revolution, it had a very different feel than its predecessor. The first takes place inside a mountain, and Kallista and Trenton are in their natural environment. There’s a narrowed focus centered on building their mechanical dragon. In the second book, that scope expands and the two friends are pulled in different directions.

In Embers of Destruction there’s a marrying of both those books. The scope remains large but a renewed sense of purpose pulls at the strings.

As with the other books, there’s lots of steampunk machinery and mixed with fantasy elements. But this time around author J. Scott Savage also focuses on more of the little moments, getting inside Trenton’s head and working through his insecurities. With Embers of Destruction being the third book, Savage could have easily coasted. Instead he continues to build his characters and world. This keeps the books fresh and exciting.

Embers of Destruction is the end of Savage’s trilogy, and yet he lives some wiggle room for more stories later, should he so choose. The end is satisfactory, but it in no way ties up all the loose threads, which some people will hate. For me, though, it mirrors real life, and that’s something I can appreciate.

This is the third book in the series, and can't be read as a stand alone, you really need to read all of the books, to know what is happening in this series. This is a futuristic series, about dragons taking over the Western United States. A well written story, that kept me reading to find out what would happen next. A book about friendships, decisions and trust.

Trenton and Kallista are back with their friends and mechanical dragons, fighting real dragons and looking for Kallista’s father. But when they reach San Francisco things turn nasty really quick, when they encounter more dragons then they have ever seen in one place before, and they manage to escape by the skin of their teeth only to go back and find more disturbing sights, ones they might not be able to fight and win this time, and Kallista’s father, Leo, right in the middle of all of it.

Author J Scott Savage has a flare for the dramatic and he knows right where to put it, I was holding my breath through most of the book just waiting to see if all of our friends, old and new would make it out of that lair of dragons with all of their body parts. And I am not about to spoil it for you now, so you will just have to hold your own breath. But it was an awesome book full of action, adventure and suspense. I hope there will be a spin off series with some of our friends coming back to show us how things can be now. If not I hope Mr. Savage has plans to keep us entertained for several more years to come because I sure loved Ladon.

This is an amazing ending to a great series. I have loved them (although I swore I read the second and upon reading the third I realized I hadn't, but I will!). I loved how everyone learned to work and depend on each other to figure out how to solve the dragon issue and then to execute the plan. They didn't give up when a plan failed. It was the try, try again that we so often forget to do in life. There are hard life lessons that are touched on, and the outcome was the way it needed to be. I highly recommend this book to anyone.