Aquanauts (Robo-Runners) by Damian Harvey
When Bookbag last saw the Robo-Runners, they'd escaped the Razorbites and were heading on to play Powerball. They've also crossed The Ghost Sea, and here in book six in the series, they're coming face to face with the Aquanauts. What is the mysterious underwater city? Will they fall foul of their nemesis Gore? Will they ever reach the paradise of Robotika?
| Aquanauts (Robo-Runners) by Damian Harvey | |
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| Category: Confident Readers | |
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Reviewer: Keith Dudhnath
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| Summary: The sixth book in the Robo-Runners series keeps everything ticking along nicely - this time they find themselves in an underwater city. It's an enjoyable read, but the episodic nature of the books may grate slightly with some readers. | |
| Buy? Maybe | Borrow? Maybe |
| Pages: 112 | Date: June 2009 |
| Publisher: Hodder Children's Books | |
| ISBN: 978-0340944943 | |
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Aquanauts keeps the series ticking along at a fair old pace. There's plenty of action and adventure, and confident readers will keep turning the pages until they've devoured the whole book. It's also ideally suited for slightly less confident readers, as the plot never lets up, so it'll keep them hooked as they work their way through it. It's all very readable, with clear and simple vocabulary.
The episodic nature of the books is an issue with any series, rather than specifically this one, but it does apply here. Aquanauts feels more like a lengthy chapter, rather than a book in its own right. The Robo-Runners arrive in a new city, get into two scrapes, escape them, and head on to the next place. It's well-written, and thankfully you don't need to be familiar with the previous books to enjoy this one, but there isn't any real character development from book to book, nor a greater story arc beyond the ultimate goal. The longer a series continues without those, the more likely it becomes that all you need to do is read the first book and the last book. To be fair, that's not really any different from any other series, but it is more noticeable when everything is so plot-driven.
If you're looking for a series to immerse yourself in, Aquanauts and the other Robo-Runners books are worth a look. The cast of robot characters are lots of fun - with my particular favourite being the lumbering, strong and loyal Grunt. My thanks to the publishers for sending it to Bookbag.
Slave Girl by Jackie French is an excellent read - Viking raids might not be entirely analogous with robots on the run, but there's a great adventure in there. Dot Robot by Jason Bradbury is a high-tech action story with plenty going for it.
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