Customer Reviews

The Nine Pound Hammer (The Clockwork Dark, Book 1)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am in the sixth grade and I read a few books every day and this book I got and finished yesterday is a rare find. It was fantastic and I would recommend this to anyone who loves a mysterious, magical and lively adventure. While reading this story I really felt like one of the characters in that place and time. This book is different from the fairy tale magic we are used to, it is more realistic and is about the magic in ourselves. I will reread it often while waiting for the next book in the series.

Fantastic adventure that all ages can appreciate. A book to read to, and with your kids, while learning about some of the stories at the roots of American folklore. Can't wait for book 2!

As a mother who screens everything her 11-year-old daughter reads, I had been congratulating myself on being pretty well-versed the different myth and legend traditions popular among middle-schoolers. I was pleasantly surprised to find something new in "The Nine Pound Hammer" by John Claude Bemis. It reminded me of the Brer Rabbit stories I had read when I was little and took me on a thrill ride not unlike Disney's Splash Mountain. The book is a lot of fun and a promising start to (yet another!) new series. I kept picturing the travelling con artists like the two in the movie "Pete's Dragon" - and I loved how the book touched on the Orphan Trains that transported orphans from the East Coast to families in the Midwest. The incorporation of faerie myths and a Chinese girl as one of the secondary characters was interesting as well: we'd just watch an old movie about the first documented Chinese woman in Idaho, and it was hard not to visualize her while reading this book. I am looking forward to more from Mr. Bemis! In the words of said daughter:

"The first book in the series, `The Clockwork Dark', `The Nine Pound Hammer' by John Claude Bemis was an interesting and great read. It had just enough action, adventure, mystery, magic, friendship, humor and even a little bit of romance tossed in to make it the book it is.

"Ray Cobb and his sister, Sally Cobb - though they go by Ray and Sally Fleming - are regular orphans in the Wild, Wild West of the USA who possess a magical, metallic stone that tells them more or less where to go. But then Ray goes off on his own and discovers other kids with magical powers or possessions: will he finally discover who his father was? And does Ray have enough `Rambler' in him so that he is able to take on the Gog, the good Pirate Queen - and Jolie the siren?? (Ramblers are the stuff of legends. Have you ever heard of John Henry? He was a mighty good Rambler and the father of one of Ray's friends. Guess who!)

"My favorite part was definitely when Ray finds Jolie for the second time and she is all-defensive about how she freaked the first time they met. But, thank goodness, they become the best of friends eventually and even risk their lives for each other as good friends should and, hopefully, would.

"I would give this book five stars: one for being funny, two for being very adventurous and two for being a good book about friends and destiny. I sure hope the a sequel is soon!!"

This first book in the Clockwork Dark series has characters that you connect with, a world little explored in children's novels (American mythology) and an ending that glues the book to your hand. Great for read alouds. I can't wait for the second book.

I just read the book in a few hours, it was such a great read. I loved the local southern folklore given an otherworldly twist. My only regret is that I did not wait for the other books to come out to read the whole set, because it will be hard waiting for the others to come out!

We've had very good series based on Greek, Roman, Norse, and Welsh legends and hero myth cycles. We've done every variation on Middle Earth. We've had all kinds of variations on the Harry Potter cycle. Lots of these are very good; there is a reason so many of the original stories survived for so long.

But, this is the first book I've seen, (apart from the originals), that incorporates American folktales as an important part of the plot and structure.
There is, however, good news and bad news.

The good news is that the American tales work. John Henry is front and center in this book. There's a sort of Pecos Bill angle. There is Gullah folk practice. There's a clear sense of Southern and Appalachian deep magic and forest knowledge. There's a bit of woodlore.

The bad news, although "bad" is a little strong, is that the writing ranges from good down to serviceable. Bemis is better at mood and exposition, and to some extent dialogue, than he is at action. That's OK by me because I don't think fight and action sequences add a lot to this kind of book, but be aware. The other weakness is the characters. There is variety, and some creative touches, but the main actors are still pretty sketchy. The villain is particularly thin, (although you have to love the name "Gog").I guess there's a trade-off here, because the book is a quick read, and I'm willing to forego some character development in the service of that quick read, but if you like lots of character detail you may be disappointed.

If nothing else, the writing is at least as good as most of the other fantasy/quest books now current, (by Riordan, Nix, Delaney, Flanagan, etc.), so it might be fun just to "buy American" for a change of pace.

In the first book in Bemis' Clockwork Dark series, a kind of folklore Jedi called Ramblers once walked the country, righting wrongs. But the Ramblers were taken down one by one, defeated by an evil abomination known only as the Gog. Now a new group of young heroes---including a girl with a magic hand that can lead her through any maze, a boy with the size and strength of John Henry, and their leader, a boy with a special connection to the earth---must do what their more experienced parents and mentors couldn't do. Filled with steamboat pirates, medicine shows, swamp sirens, and mechanical monsters, The Nine Pound Hammer is a steam-driven American fantasy with one foot in myth and the other in adventure.

This is a great book for your Harry Potter lovers. This wonderful adventure story is right on and would be great for your middle school students/kids.
If you love tall tales with a fractured fairy-tale twist- this is for you!
The young boy-on-the-run narrator "Ray"'s voice is both unique and believable. This is really something special.

John Claude Bemis obviously knows and loves American tall tales, and he brings that passion and knowledge to The Nine Pound Hammer, the first novel of what is supposed to be a quintet of fantasy novels for the juvenile crowd. His premise of, What if John Henry had been a real person fighting against great evil in the world, captured me from the beginning. I loved the cover and Bemis writes excitingly and descriptively enough that I stepped right into that world revealed in that image.

The story centers on Ray, an orphan (are there any other kinds of juvenile heroes in the world these days?), and his younger sister as they're on a train bound for what will hopefully be better lives. However, Ray knows that he's too old for most couples to adopt. In order to give his sister a chance at a better life, he jumps from the train. Guided by a magical lodestone given to him by his father, Ray enters the forests and a series of hair-raising adventures.

I enjoyed the way Bemis sets the world on its ear in this book. Instead of setting the story in today's world, he leaves it in place about a hundred or more years ago, back when the United States were still young and the tales didn't come any taller. The traveling medicine show was unique and fun, and I would have liked to have seen more of it.

What I found the author excelled at most was the sheer liveliness of the tale-telling, the way he blended so much American folklore into a new tapestry that fit perfectly everything that had gone on before. There were several good settings that possessed a lot of color and depth, and I had a blast with the gamut of characters he presented (a blind sharpshooter! A pirate queen on the Mississippi River!).

But I have to admit that I got lost along the way at times. The villain isn't really clear cut for me even at the end of this first novel, and there were instances that I wasn't sure what it was Ray was supposed to do next. I think it would have helped if the story had been more streamlined and Ray had been given more solid information along the way. Still, this was a first book and I like the subject matter a lot.

Bemis has a good ear for dialogue and a good grasp of his characters, though I expect they'll grow and be more fleshed out along the way. I don't quite understand his decision to take them all away from the train at the end of this novel, though. Railways were what really made the United States what it was at that time, and I would have loved to stay aboard the Ballyhoo to continue seeing new things.

I don't know when the second book comes out. This is a new release. But I'm looking forward to seeing what mythology Bemis wraps into his next offering. Can Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox be far behind?

The Nine Pound Hammer was a wonderful debut for Mr. Bemis. It is obvious that he works with young adults and knows how to capture their attention. He has made his main character a strong, intelligent, capable young person. Who among his age group would not want to travel along with him on his amazing quest? I read this book before I gave it to my 11 year old grandson. I do this with almost every book I recommend to him. I must tell you The Nine Pound Hammer is one of those books written for young people that will also take adults on a "wonderful train ride"! Stay tuned as Mr. Bemis continues this brilliant series.