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the inventory

Winter Storm (The Inventory 4) by Andy Briggs

13th February 2018 by Jax Blunt Leave a Comment

We’ve been reading and enjoying the Inventory series by Andy Briggs since Small reviewed book 1 (read that review here). It seems only fitting that we are taking part in the blog tour for book 4, Winter Storm which finishes the series, and I’m very happy to give you a taster of the book by hosting an extract – read on to enjoy Chapter 1.

Book cover - Inventory 4 Winter Storm showing repeated stylised green figures with circuit board details

“Revolutions start with the tiniest of moments.” Onslow Winter stopped pacing the stage, extended his arms then slowly drew them together until his index fingers were touching. It was a touch of showmanship the technological genius had brought to every presentation over many years. “And we have the most awesome small there is!”

The thousand-strong crowd of technology journalists leaned forward in rapt anticipation like the star-struck fans they were. From the moment Winter had become a telecoms billionaire with the launch of his revolutionary mobile phone, he had been a technology superhero, and fan devotion to him had only grown over the decades. Even his wrinkles and saggy jowls had become trendy.Every event at Winter Tech was like a pop concert, and secrecy about each new project launch was absolute.

“With our revolutionary nanotechnology, we will reinvent how we invent!”

The lights in the auditorium dimmed. A single spotlight stabbed down centre stage as Winter gestured to a box on the floor, one that the audience had assumed was a speaker. It started to change shape, extending into a vertical column like a hundred years’ tree growth in time-lapse. As it stretched two metres tall, the audience oohed in appreciation, then burst into applause. Winter waved his hand to encourage them to keep going.

“Nanobots. You’ve all heard of them before. Some of you have seen them. Tiny mechanical robots that can work together for a greater task. But these. . .” He paused for a moment to admire the black monolith that had formed onstage. It was so matt black that it seemed to suck the illumination from the spotlights pointed at it. “These are something else. They are not tiny robots. No. What you are looking at are the first bio-bots. Like you, like me, this column is built of living components, each a millimetre long, that have been engineered into a

programmable living swarm.”

You could have heard a pin drop in the auditorium as the assembled crowd tried to work out what he meant. That was the trouble with being Onslow Winter: his mind worked far ahead of most people’s. The corners of his mouth twisted into a smile as gasps of astonishment slowly rippled through the crowd as the audience began to understand.

“It’s something more than a robot or a cyborg. Capable of adapting to its environment and shaping itself with almost limitless possibilities! It’s a living bioborg. I call it Winter Storm.”

With that, the smooth monolith suddenly whirled like a tornado, with a sound like a billion marbles clattering together, before finally taking the shape of a towering arm that pivoted and waved at the crowd. By now the applause was deafening. People had taken to stomping their feet on the floor in admiration.

Still the whirlwind turned – and the resulting construction made everybody freeze in silence. It was a seven-foot-tall humanoid. A matt-black robot formed of smooth contours. The head was in the shape of a sleek futuristic biker’s helmet. Although it was featureless, people felt their skin prickle as the head turned side to side to study them. The lack of eyes didn’t mean they couldn’t feel the living machine’s gaze bore into them.

With a soft clump that sounded like it was walking on bubble wrap, the humanoid stepped forward – then raised its fist in triumph.

On cue, the crowd went wild with cheers and thunderous clapping. The applause was so loud that it almost drowned out the explosion above them.

A circular section of ceiling blew away in a shower of smoke and plaster dust. People began scrambling for the exits, only to find them blocked by menacing thugs wearing body armour, their faces concealed behind black plastic shields like hockey masks. They wielded peculiar rifles with a white central chamber from which a faint mist steadily poured. With a twitch of the trigger, one of the men shot a blast of frigid air across those nearest him, immediately encasing them in ice.

“Do not panic,” boomed a voice from above, and a figure slowly descended from the hole in the roof. There was a faint whirl from the antigravity boots he wore as they carried him to the stage, where a shocked Winter stood. “You will not be harmed.”

The frozen people suddenly shattered into countless ice shards. The villain sighed and gestured to the broken pieces.

“Correction. Nobody else will be harmed if you just cooperate.”

Onslow Winter was nothing if not a performer. With the frightened eyes of hundreds of people on him, he raised himself to his full height and approached the newcomer. Behind him, the Winter Storm humanoid mirrored his stance, acting as a towering bodyguard. Winter stared at the figure’s eyes, which were white, with no pupils. They were unnerving, to say the least.

“Onslow Winter, I am here for your wonderful Winter Storm.” The newcomer gestured to the humanoid. “Hand it over, or I will freeze your adoring fans, one by one.” He gestured to the audience.

Winter licked his dry lips and finally found his voice. “Wh-who are you?”

“I am your biggest fan.” The figure’s smile was absent of humour. “But you may call me the Collector.”

***

You’re hooked aren’t you? Just in case you want a tiny bit more, here’s the blurb:

In the fourth and final book of this gripping series, all the Inventory’s secrets are revealed.

Having learned a troubling truth about himself in the Black Zone of the Inventory, Dev is called back into action to defend the world’s greatest store of futuristic tech – and he’ll need all the help he can get from his friends. The Collector is back and as menacing as ever, and now he’s stolen Winter Storm, a swarm of powerful biobots, which he is using to infect and control people. Who can be trusted now?

Now I’ve got you 🙂 I guess you’ll want to know a little more about the practicalities. The book came out on 1st February, and is available from Amazon here (affiliate link) as well as other bookshops. The cover (up top) fits beautifully into the rest of the series, which shiny green writing and a futuristic picture (they really look great together on a shelf).

And don’t forget to check out the other posts on the blog tour. blog tour banner listing stops

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Filed Under: Book club Tagged With: Andy Briggs, extract, Scholastic, the inventory

The Inventory 3: Black Knight by Andy Briggs.

22nd April 2017 by Jax Blunt 6 Comments

Buy at Amazon (affiliate link)

Dev and his friends are back with more mind-bending tech in this third instalment of the Inventory series. This time they are tasked with training new recruits to defend the Inventory’s incredible inventions. But will they be ready for action before Shadow Helix’s next strike?

First of all, why not catch up on Small’s thoughts on book one and book two of Andy Brigg’s The Inventory series? Now that you’re all set, you’re ready to hear what he thought of book three, Black Knight, aren’t you?

We’re going for a slightly different format this time around. Small is currently up to his neck working on a game for a competition submission so I’m trying a Q & A format on him.

Me: Tell me a positive about the book.

Him:

Me: OK, that was a bit too unspecific wasn’t it? Let’s try a different tack. Is there a sense of continuity from the previous books? Or do they stand alone?

Him: There’s no need to scan back – the required details are explained that you can just pick up and go without reading the previous books.

Me: Would you recommend this book to a friend?

Him: I would, but I would suggest reading the first two first to get the full story, it’s worth it.

Me:

.

. You have coding to do don’t you? Off you go then.

Hm. Not sure that worked an awful lot better than locking him in a room to write a review. Sorry Andy! if it’s any consolation, next child is nearly old enough to take over reading this series… (contemplates trying to get Smallest to write reviews. Cries.)

Anyway, to make it worth your while being here, a giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Filed Under: Book club, current, giveaway Tagged With: Andy Briggs, Black Knight, MG, Scholastic, the inventory, UKMG

Gravity by Andy Briggs

28th October 2016 by Jax Blunt Leave a Comment

gravity-blog-tour

gravity

Buy from Amazon here

We very much enjoyed being part of the blog tour for Inventory: Iron Fist last spring, and I leapt at the chance for Small to read the sequel, not least because I love his reviews.

I think you’ll agree with me that he has not disappointed 😉

I tried to go into Gravity with an open mind. While I had somewhat mixed (though generally positive) feelings towards the original, I was hoping that the second book in the The Inventory series would be an improvement. Thankfully, I was not disappointed. The sequel manages to go in a much more interesting direction than the first book did, now focusing more on the characters and plotline than the technology within the inventory (which is a good thing, because the technology isn’t plausible enough to be interesting by any stretch of the imagination). Speaking of the characters, it goes much further in developing them than the first book did, making them much more interesting (except the main protagonist Dev. Dev is overpowered and boring), and creating a much more interesting book to read as a consequence. The series will still likely not appeal to people who prefer hard Sci-Fi, as the technology only continues to be ludicrously absurd and impossible (funnily enough, Andy Briggs’ previous series about superheroes actually pulled itself off in a far more plausible manner than The Inventory does), but I can safely say that I recommend this book, moreso than I recommended the original. (The fact that a word counter lists the three most used words in this review as “Book More Interesting” in that order should be a testament to that.)

(If you would like Small to read your book, be aware that he will be brutally honest about it. Feel free to get in touch.)

Thanks very much to Andy for the chance to be included in the tour.

Andy Briggs

Book info

Title: Gravity (The Inventory #2)

Author: Andy Briggs

Release Date: 6th October 2016

Genre: MG Sci-Fi

Publisher: Scholastic

Format: Paperback

Find it on Goodreads. Buy from Amazon here

Disclosure: amazon links are affiliate links, we were supplied a copy of the book in return for an honest review.

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Filed Under: 2016, Book club, It's where it is, Small steps Tagged With: Andy Briggs, blog tour, Gravity, MG, Scholastic, the inventory

The Inventory: Iron Fist by Andy Briggs (review with giveaway)

13th May 2016 by Jax Blunt 24 Comments

Iron Fist blog tour bannerWhen Big was around 12 or 13 she read pretty much constantly, often books I was interested in – we’d rush to be first at a new YA, and wait impatiently for the other to finish so that we could discuss it.

Small is a different kettle of fish. Although he is an extremely competent reader, his first pleasure is gaming – anything with a screen. He does read, but it takes something a bit special to tempt him away from his games. Having said that, he goes to bed every night with an audio book, and discovering that we can borrow them from the library was a massive relief – there’s only so many times even the most ardent HP fan can listen to the dulcet tones of Stephen Fry.

Andy Briggs

This was how we found Andy Briggs (twitter and website) – via his hero.com and villain.net books. (Do authors get PLR on audio books? I do hope so!) Which meant that when I was offered the start of his new series for review I leapt at the chance, on Small’s behalf of course. The book’s arrival tied in beautifully with a weekend away at Kentwell Hall, which meant no audio books or gaming as we were caravanning.

Small employs a first chapter rule on assessing books – that’s the minimum he reads to decide whether he’ll go on. After a few minutes reading, I asked how it was going. “I’m on page 37” was the reply – first chapter rule passed with flying colours. He read the whole book in two evenings, and really enjoyed it.

Writing reviews isn’t his favourite activity – but I asked him to supply a paragraph anyway, so here you go.

I’ve read and enjoyed previous books by Andy Briggs, so when I was given The Inventory: Iron Fist I was definitely interested. The first thing I thought about it was that its concept is very similar to the SCP Foundation Wiki or Warehouse 13- A location or organization dedicated to containment of unusual objects. In The Inventory’s case, it’s made to store highly advanced technology deemed too much for the world to deal with (whereas Warehouse 13 is dedicated to practically anything weird and SCP Foundation by definition studies anomalous objects), which, as an occasional reader of SCP Foundation myself, I found slightly disappointing- The idea’s been done before, and it’s not massively outlandish on its own, so this book definitely doesn’t get many points for originality. The character types used aren’t particularly new either- super-genius, stupid bully, and popular girl. But whether or not it’s original it’s still quite an entertaining read and got several laughs out of me.

I’m going to go with that being a positive response 🙂 (He’s 12. Enthusiasm is not his middle name!)

So are you interested?

The blurb:

The Rules: if you find a secret inventory of utterly deadly battle tech.

1) Do not try it.

2) Do not tell anyone.

3) Do NOT let thieves in behind you.

What’s more secret than top-secret? The Inventory. Home to the deadliest inventions the world isn’t ready for. Invisible camouflage. HoverBoots. Indestructible metals. Plus a giant creature of chaos: war robot Iron Fist. No one has ever broken past the state-of- the-art AI security system. (Seriously, most bad guys have no idea this stuff is even there.)

Problem 1: the security robot wasn’t ready for a gang of kids wandering in.

Problem 2: they’ve ONLY brought the ruthless Shadow Helix gang in behind them. Seriously dumb, but it’s a bit late for ‘sorry’.

Say hello to trouble: the Iron Fist is in the wrong hands!

If you are, I’ve good news for you. I have a copy to give away! Entry via the rafflecopter widget below – good luck.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Iron Fist

And if you’re not lucky, you can buy via Amazon (affiliate) Iron Fist (The Inventory) or other on and offline retailers, like Hive.

Disclosure: we were supplied with a copy of Iron Fist for review, links may be affiliate links.

Listed with The Prizefinder. Find more competitions here: Competitions at ThePrizeFinder

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Filed Under: Book club, giveaway Tagged With: Andy Briggs, blog tour, Iron Fist, MG, Scholastic, the inventory

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