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A review by katmullen
A Machine Divine by Derek Hackman
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
3.5
Don’t get too comfortable with the happy steampunk uni vibes, stuff goes DOWN. The story ends in a wildly different place it starts.
And it got me. I was so set on the bad guy being this one particular character, and then it wasn’t! And who the bad guy is makes so much sense! But that part of the story can’t be over. No body, no death.
I haven’t read a lot of steampunk type books and I enjoyed this much more than I thought I would initially. I needed to know what happened next.
I did not trust anyone in this book. Everyone was sus. And those who weren’t as sus ended up looking out just for their own in the end. The secret society reflected the corrupt elite of their and our world so well. They thought just because they had the power, they could defy literally the laws of nature.
Asher’s science talk completely went over my head. But kid’s smart and if he can fix this one thing with Cloud I’ll forgive him.
Callie was my fave of the main characters. “Callie had no interest in sports” - me. For the first part she didn’t really do much, but she became really involved in the second half and I’m so intrigued as to where her story will go next. Asher has an obvious path forward in how he can be helpful in the war, but Callie not so much. It will be interesting to see if they continue along their paths of Asher getting involved closely with things and trying to make a lot of friends and Callie keeping herself seperate from everyone else.
Samira was only in the story for a hot minute, but I’m very intrigued by her and where she comes from, so it will be interesting to see where the story goes from here.
Thank you Derek Paul and Book Influencers. com for the copy!
TW: Animal death
And it got me. I was so set on the bad guy being this one particular character, and then it wasn’t! And who the bad guy is makes so much sense! But that part of the story can’t be over. No body, no death.
I haven’t read a lot of steampunk type books and I enjoyed this much more than I thought I would initially. I needed to know what happened next.
I did not trust anyone in this book. Everyone was sus. And those who weren’t as sus ended up looking out just for their own in the end. The secret society reflected the corrupt elite of their and our world so well. They thought just because they had the power, they could defy literally the laws of nature.
Asher’s science talk completely went over my head. But kid’s smart and if he can fix this one thing with Cloud I’ll forgive him.
Callie was my fave of the main characters. “Callie had no interest in sports” - me. For the first part she didn’t really do much, but she became really involved in the second half and I’m so intrigued as to where her story will go next. Asher has an obvious path forward in how he can be helpful in the war, but Callie not so much. It will be interesting to see if they continue along their paths of Asher getting involved closely with things and trying to make a lot of friends and Callie keeping herself seperate from everyone else.
Samira was only in the story for a hot minute, but I’m very intrigued by her and where she comes from, so it will be interesting to see where the story goes from here.
Thank you Derek Paul and Book Influencers. com for the copy!
TW: Animal death
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death