Review Detail

In an alternate 1870s where First Nations people compose a large portion of the country, Archie's parents are librarians for the Septembrists, a group dedicated to making sure that the Mangleborn (giant beetle like evil doers who have been controlled for centuries but are roused by use of electricity). The Mangleborn attack Archie's parents and steal them away, and Archie ends up in the company of one of Edison's assistants who has realized that the inventor is evil and wants to release the menace. With the help of Mr. Rivets (his parents' robot helper), Fergus and Hachi, he assembles a team of seven adventurers who follow the formula for all good Septembrist groups (tinker, etc.) through the ages. Can they manage to control the Mangleborn threat and find out secrets of Archie's past?

I really enjoy Gratz's work: The Brooklyn Nine,and Prisoner 3087 were awesome. I appreciate that he thought about all the things that he would have thought were cool in books when he was ten and included those sorts of things in a good introduction to Steam Punk. There are plenty of gross moments in this, plus cool clockwork robots.