Smasher
Hardcover | Kindle Edition
Written by Scott Bly
The Blue Sky Press/Scholastic, Inc.
Release Date: March 25, 2014
Cover Price: $16.99

“A long, long time ago…” there was a special boy named Charlie, who could feel the Hum all around him. He was learning (secretly) to manipulate it, under the tutelage of his too harsh grandfather. Charlie is bullied, as most unlikely heroes are. A robot girl from the future, Geneva, “smashes” in to save him from those bullies in order to enlist him to help to save the future from “The Future.”

The city of LAnges in the year 2042 is in danger of losing its humanity to a bigger bully, Gramercy Foxx, corporate billionaire inventor. Charlie has to harness the power of the Hum to stop Foxx, who can make everyone he comes in contact with do whatever he wants. “The Future” will expand that to the world. Charlie only has Geneva, the Hum, and a puppy.

Smasher by Scott Bly will keep the YA audience enthralled with this time-traveling thriller.

Charlie and his little crew are the ultimate underdogs, the David to Foxx’s Goliath. The middle school set will be cheering them on to defeat the smaller bullies and the giant “I’m gonna destroy the world” bully in order to save the world. The Hum is reminiscent of the Force, another mysterious power that is all around us to be felt and harnessed for good (and sometimes…the evil likes to harness it too).

It’s a nice read for teens and adults as well. This tale keeps you hooked from “the remote mountain village” of 1542 to the mid-21st Century on the 200th floor of Foxx’s tower. Smasher is a fresh take on the utopian promise, masking the evil of too much technology. Bly is able to craft depth into even his lesser characters without slowing the plot pace, while still keeping the length at 250 pages.

Read it. You’re welcome.