Panning centuries back about a mechanical child destined to complete his predetermined goals in mind brilliantly excels at being a wonderful way to start off a book. Published in the year 2014, Icebreaker by Liam Tanner is the first part of the trilogy that explains the entire storyline. The book is an excellent thriller story about adventure where friendship prevails innately. The main protagonist, Petrel is a kid who is a complete outcast to the people around her. Born on an icebreaker ship that has been roaming around isolated for 300 years, the harsh conditions outside force her to adapt to the interior of the ship. Memorizing areas unknown by most and surviving by living in dark areas of the ship. Within 300 years the purpose of the ship was long forgotten and unrest happened creating three new tribes. The engineers, the officers, and the cooks. Petrel is called the “nothing girl” because she is not in any of these tribes. The ship later discovers a mysterious (mechanical) boy frozen on an iceberg, they take him inside not knowing what true intentions he has. Petrel wants to befriend him although he has bigger plans in mind, as he has been sent by unknown people designed to destroy the true secret in the ship. Although the book itself was amazing there were some flaws to be critiqued. I found that at the start of the book, the storyline felt sort of added on too fast and had a worse pace compared to the rest of the book. Sometimes there were too many characters being introduced, leading me to feel confused and puzzled about who the author was talking about. The book then wastes some of your time on one or two chapters where no new information is being added and it just feels like nothing is being progressed. But the plot is phenomenal and the new conflicts that happen make you want to read more. The second half of the book creates new surprises that influence the storyline greatly. When the mechanical boy is introduced, the story starts to excel, going on an upward slope to keep you more interested. The characters were funny and had great dialogue that shaped their personality traits and who they were. They are not useless at all and influence the storyline creating new interesting twists that the protagonist goes through. The book raises issues such as wars and conflicts where the tribes are separated and do not trust each other. However, some matters are left out such as the emotional impact of those conflicts and why those conflicts happened in the first place. I believe the book is a great read but isn’t revolutionary. I would pay attention to the character development and see the important shifts within the pages. I would say to everyone who likes young-adult and fantasy books to read this book. But for anyone who hates books that are a little confusing and have some parts that continue for a while, at least read the first pages before immediately deciding whether or not you want to read the story.
Aven W.
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