The White City

Gr 6–9—The final volume in John Claude Bemis's "The Clockwork Dark Trilogy" finds Ray and Sally and their strange assortment of friends and foes in Chicago during the 1893 World's Fair. In the shadow of the famed Ferris wheel, Ray's quest to reunite with his sister and find their father comes to an end when they discover him in the Gloaming. Ray's nemesis, the Gog, is about to unveil his Dark Machine and change the world forever for the worse. This story of good vs. evil and man vs. machine is very lengthy and somewhat difficult to follow. Beamis incorporates characters from tall tales such as John Henry with sirens from Greek mythology as well as real people like Buffalo Bill Cody. It is hard to keep track of this unwieldy and disparate cast of characters, partly due to the lack of constant definition of their voices by John Mayer. Consider only where the previous volumes are popular.—Joan Kindig, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA