What’s it all about?:
The Rules: if you find a secret inventory of utterly deadly battle tech. 1) Do not try it. 2) Do not tell anyone. 3) Do NOT let thieves in behind you. What’s more secret than top-secret? The Inventory. Home to the deadliest inventions the world isn’t ready for. Invisible camouflage. HoverBoots. Indestructible metals. Plus a giant creature of chaos: war robot Iron Fist. No one has ever broken past the state-of-the-art AI security system. (Seriously, most bad guys have no idea this stuff is even there.) Problem 1: the security robot wasn’t ready for a gang of kids wandering in. Problem 2: they’ve ONLY brought the ruthless Shadow Helix gang in behind them. Seriously dumb, but it’s a bit late for ‘sorry’. Say hello to trouble: the Iron Fist is in the wrong hands!
What did I think?:
First of all, many thanks to the lovely Faye for organising this blog tour and asking me to be part of it and to Scholastic Press for providing me with a copy of The Inventory: Iron Fist in exchange for an honest review. I’m really enjoying the amount of high class middle grade fiction that is out there at the moment and The Inventory is another fine example of an exciting story that will capture the imagination of younger readers all over the world.
Our unlikely hero and main character is Devon (or Dev as he prefers to be known) who hasn’t had the most conventional of upbringings and doesn’t have the most “normal” of homes. As far back as he can remember, Dev has lived with his uncle Charles Parker on a farm where strict rules and regulations are of the highest importance. You see, it isn’t an ordinary farm that Dev lives on – the sheep that live outside are actually robotic and a necessary cover for a huge underground system, The Inventory that stores the most amazing inventions that the world has ever known.
Imagine things like Hover Boots, black holes (makes escaping from risky situations a lot easier, you know?) x ray glasses, cars that run on air and then your more deadly weapons that have the potential to obliterate your enemy into mere particles. Each invention is placed in a certain zone depending on how dangerous they are, for example, The Red Zone houses the most lethal equipment which also has the maximum security surrounding it. Dev has access to a few zones by means of a special hand scan but even he does not have access to things in The Red Zone. The World Consortium which oversees the top secret Inventory has decided that all of these inventions are things that the world is not ready for or that they could be used for evil/threatening purposes. I mean, can you imagine actual X ray glasses or even worse, a deadly weapon in the wrong hands – it doesn’t bear thinking about?!
Dev’s uncle is the guardian of the Inventory along with his top class security system, a female robot called Eema. However, security can always be breached when you get a persistent individual like The Collector, who is determined to own a very special invention housed in The Red Zone, known only as The Iron Fist. When his ruthless gang of Shadow Helix soldiers manage to penetrate the facility, they are not prepared to face Dev and a couple of his school friends who although trapped there by mistake, will stop at nothing to protect his uncle and the Iron Fist from getting into the wrong and very unpredictable hands.
As I mentioned before, this is a really exciting story and it was a pleasure to read it. It’s a fast-paced adventure that will appeal to a number of children as the vivid imagination of the author and the thrilling nature of the inventions means that there’s never a dull moment. I found it very easy to tear through this story and was pleasantly surprised by the number of twists and turns that the narrative took – I certainly never anticipated that Dev was going to be a character who is so much more than what he originally seems….say no more! I was also happy that the finale of the book was quite open-ended, hopefully that means we are going to hear much more from Dev and The Inventory in future books and I look forward to the next in the series.
Would I recommend it?:
But of course!
Star rating (out of 5):
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Andy Briggs is a screenwriter, producer and author of the Hero.com, Villain.net and Tarzan series. Andy has worked on film development for Paramount and Warner Bros, as well as working with Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee and producer Robert Evans. With a strong social media following, Andy tours the UK regularly, doing festival, school and library events.
Website: http://www.andybriggs.co.uk
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/aBriggswriter
A huge thank you to everyone involved in this blog tour, I’ve had a great time doing it. Why not check out the rest of the stops on the tour where you’ll find some fantastic reviews from my fellow bloggers? The Inventory: Iron Fist was released by Scholastic Press on 5th May 2016 and is available from all good bookshops now.
Goodreads Link: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29919809-the-inventory
Amazon Link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Iron-Fist-Inventory-Andy-Briggs/dp/1407161792