"Kingship, Tales from the Aether Book One: Brotherhood of the Strange" by Michael T. Richie & Grant S. Wilson

The book I read for today was a YA Steampunk novel. It had an interesting concept; a member of the Brotherhood of the Strange has created a device that will transport a person into the future. Once the time sought is selected and the device activated, it will take the driver to that time. It cannot, however travel backwards, so there is no way to return to the time one left or to travel into the past.

While some members of the Brotherhood remain true to a desire to improve things for humanity, more and more of them seem to be coming under the influence of a group known as the “Hand of Paris.” The inventor of the time travel device, Degory Priest, has realized that if his new invention falls into the hands of this group that only evil will follow. He seeks to destroy any chance of others recreating his invention, but misfortune brings him and it directly into the hands of the leader of the Brotherhood, who is also the head of the Hand of Paris. In an act of desperation, Degory sends the leader of the Brotherhood one year into the future, hoping to be able to find a way to save the rest of them before the evil that is coming can return.

During the course of the next several months, while he manages to gain the trust of some, it becomes clear to him that he is likely to fail in his desire to save the Brotherhood. An evil monk by the name of Grigori has too many of them under his thrall. Degory has a plan to try and stop it all, and as a precaution has left instructions with his niece should something happen to prevent him from stopping the Hand of Paris. When his brother who is a member of the Hand of Paris shows up looking for Degory, Cordelia must escape and seek out the Aethership “Kingship” in order to stop what had been set in motion and to save both her uncle and the rest of the world.

It was an interesting story, though a few spots could have used a little more editing. I did enjoy reading it, though I suspect younger audiences will enjoy it even more than I did. (It was written for Young Adults after all, so I’m not really it’s target audience, even though I did enjoy reading it.) While it doesn’t exactly end on a cliffhanger, there are a good number of plot points that are left hanging. As this is the first book in a series, those who wish to know what comes next will need to hunt down book 2. I will likely seek out the next book as I am curious as to how it will end, though unfortunately that may be a bit as I have a number of other books that I need to read before I can return to this series.