I reviewed the first book in this series, Icebreaker, as a Holiday Pick last year. That's when I review at least 25 books over the 25 days leading up to Christmas. My son loved it and became a fan of this series and I asked my library for the sequel after we read the first.
This is the second in the dystopian-set chronicle of a world that has turned it's back on machines and embraced doing things the hard way -- manpower alone.
In the first book, the long-awaited captain of the icebreaker Oyster, which has been churning the waters of the poles hiding from the anti-machinists, turned out to be a robot. The robot boy is now the No. 1 most-hunted / most-wanted dead (are robots alive? or just on?) by the Devouts, the order that took over the world and banished machines.
Petrel, Missus Slink and Mister Smoke, the robot-rats, start on land and are looking for villages willing to learn about machines, like water pumps. Except, the Devouts' iron-fisted control means they're quickly hunting Petrel and her friends, and anyone willing to listen -- much less help.
At the same time, you're introduced to a new cast of sailors, all aboard a smaller boat, a submarine called the Claw. The Claw, captained by Sharkey -- who's been lying to everyone about a mysterious message delivered to him as a boy by two sea creatures -- takes on a Devout spy, Rain, who's scheming to sink it, much like Brother Thrawn planned to do to the Oyster in the first book. She's motivated to try and save her brother, Bran, and sets Brother Thrawn's plan in motion.
But can Sharkey and Rain live with their decisions along the way, after betraying the people who care for them and believe in them?
I won't reveal how it ends, nor too much more, just know that there's a twist concerning Brother Thrawn and Rain's father and the Devouts, which I expect to see developed in the third book of the series.
