Book Review: The Tinker King

Series are all over the YA age group...and you have to try to read them close together...I had a hard time remembering this series, so in the future, I need to read them one after the other.

The Tinker King

Tiffany Trent

Goodreads Summary:  After Vespa, Syrus and Bayne defeated the Grue and restored order to their world, they thought their future was secure. Empress Olivia, committed to peace and equality for humans and Elementals alike, was a fair and just ruler. And the Creeping Waste had vanished for good, giving them hope for the first time.

But rebellion is brewing in the far-off city of Scientia, and dark Elementals are plotting war in the ruins of New London. When a wave of unimaginable terror threatens to destroy everything in its path, Vespa, Syrus and their friends are plunged into a new swamp of intrigue, deception and magic---and the cost of survival may be more than any of them are willing to pay.

This whole series is set in the "Steampunk" genre, which I have a lot of respect for.  They generally combine magic with science/invention, and it is, in general, a really cool aspect of literature.

This series struggles a bit, I think, to be continuous.  This may be because I read the first story so long ago.  The story is told from a first person narrative of one person, and a third person narrative of the rest of the characters.  This varies from chapter to chapter and makes the general story hard to understand and stay dedicated to reading.  However, this narration style is also helpful to the story, because you see behind the mind of Syrus, the Tinker.  You understand his past, what he has gone through, and the feelings he tries to hide from Olivia.  It was a gamble from the author to do this, and I think if you concentrate on the story, the narrative will not be a big deal to you.

I do like this story because there IS magic combined with science/invention.  The four main characters work together using their different talents to overcome the Darkness and the Spider people. There is a lot of action and mystery involved in this plot, and I think teens interested in this genre, or even high fantasy or SciFi will be impressed with this book!