Brightstorm: 1 (The Brightstorm Chronicles)

Product Information

Arthur and and Maudie Brightstorm set off on an amazing adventure to South Polaris to find answers about their father’s disappearance. You guys are such a force for good and I am a passionate supporter of Indie booksellers, so I'm so happy this worked out well (I'd love to know how many books were sold if you have it to hand - it felt like quite a lot! Since I’m not an avid reader of steampunk, I may be complaining about something very common and very popular in the steampunk culture. The airships, especially Harriet’s airship, which I can’t say much about because it would be a spoiler. What follows is a fun and fast-paced adventure reminiscent of a mix of Around the World in 80 Days and Lara Croft (if she was a kid), with mysteries to solve, a race to win, magical beasts, a steampunky world, and personal challenges to face.

Then Arthur and Maudie are taken on as crew by a young captain, Harriet Culpepper, who flies an airship like no other.J’ai été plongée dans un monde dans un univers où la conquête du Polaris Sud passionne le monde, en particulier la société des géographes. Twins, Arthur and Maudie, are told that their father, a famous explorer, has died attempting to be the first to reach the South Polaris, but also must live with the knowledge that he cheated and stole fuel from another competitor's ship, shaming their family's name. Due to societal norms, most of the time the boy is the intellectual, engineer one and the girl is the more dreamy, book nerd. To make matters worse, the Lontown Geographical Society finds Ernest Brightstorm guilty of sabotaging the expedition of his competitor, Eudora Vane, a respected and powerful member of the Society.

The action is fast paced without feeling frivolous and the dialogue was such that she could truly imagine it being a real conversation. Their ship has been sabotaged, and now they've crashed into a wasteland where giant beasts, who apprently attacked their father's crew, prowl through the snow. Tom, Lucy and big sister Charlie were completely taken in by her exciting sky ship stories full of action, peril and touching family moments. The book has many positive messages, and through the characters Hardy makes the reader feel like they can do anything.

Harriet Culpepper, Arthur and Maudie show us an alternative motivation, a motivation that is borne out of the need for the truth and to be able to “see if I can. The sibling bond between Arthur and Maudie was also so cute to see, as was the growing relationship between them and other members of the crew! What they’ve been told about their father doesn’t make sense and they are determined to discover the truth and clear their family name.

Our own twins, Tom and Lucy, both devoured Brightstorm and have found an unusual, lasting connection with the characters – much more so than with other novels they’ve read. I love the crazy stories Maudie cooks up about how Arthur lost his arm, and how the twins work together to tie knots and such so that Arthur can learn several skills. Brightstorm was also selected for Independent Booksellers Book of the Season and Primary School Book Club Reads. Brightstorm is a wonderfully paced, absorbing read that delivers a special feeling of adventure reserved for stories that you just cannot put down. I also loved how Hardy handled Arthur's feelings about his disability and how he overcame his anxieties around it.

The pacing was very well done, as it was neither too fast nor too slow, and it had enough action to keep my interest. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. En bref, un roman jeunesse dans un univers plaisant avec deux jeunes héros attachants et des aventures qui s’enchaînent.