Hermium Goodspeed has something that thousands of kids his age want: an acceptance letter to one of the elite Seven Thunder military schools. However, Hermium is more nervous than he is excited; he doubts he’ll fit in at the school, because he\u2019s scrawny, shy, and tends to sleepwalk. He\u2019d much rather stay home and tinker with household objects and tools, turning them into little contraptions like a cow-milker and a bedmaker; he even makes things while sleeping. Hermium\u2019s school troubles begin before the transportation ship even sets sail when he\u2019s given a second acceptance letter, changing his placement from the Hammerfeld academy, where he\u2019d learn to wield a deadly Woe Hammer, to Glimmeroc. There, he\u2019ll train as an airjock and learn how to fly with a pair of wings called an Aeriatis. A second acceptance letter is unheard of, and it sets Hermium apart from the other students\u2014and not in a good way. As he undergoes the rigorous summer bootcamp, he finds himself under intense scrutiny from Glimmeroc\u2019s faculty and his peers and becomes more determined than ever to earn his place. However, there are monsters at Glimmeroc\u2014and they\u2019re hunting Hermium. Desperate to understand why, the preteen learns that his destiny is very different than he thought. Jaime\u2019s series starter is an intriguing coming-of-age story in a magical steampunk fantasy setting. Readers will be enthralled by the author\u2019s meticulous and detailed worldbuilding. Hermium is clever, snarky, and brave, even as he copes with health issues\u2014chronic headaches, the aforementioned sleepwalking, and frequent nightmares. The supporting characters are also intriguing and well-developed, including Hermium\u2019s new friends Tayori Keelaroo and Duma Petalborn, the antagonistic Cadet Sgt. Neffery Iggsworth, and even a group of demigods. Some fall into very familiar types\u2014Duma as the academically driven know-it-all, Tayori as the loyal best friend, and Wuvi Wuvain as the bully with a well-connected father\u2014but the novel remains an exciting read, nonetheless.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hermium Goodspeed has something that thousands of kids his age want: an acceptance letter to one of the elite Seven Thunder military schools. However, Hermium is more nervous than he is excited; he doubts he’ll fit in at the school, because he\u2019s scrawny, shy, and tends to sleepwalk. He\u2019d much rather stay home and tinker […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4283,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4282"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}