Content levels
Positive tags
Hero archetypes
Heroine archetypes
Protagonist archetypes
Synopsis
After a personal tragedy, Professor Alistair Quill left his life as a technological crimes investigator behind for a comfortable life in academia, only to be drawn back into a dangerous world of intrigue when an intercepted smuggling operation ends in a deadly explosion. He is joined by Professor Kimberly O’Neill , a trailblazing scientist whose revolutionary work on steam-based learning machines has been twisted into a weapon capable of reshaping the modern world. Their pursuit carries them across the Gilded Age American Midwest, over lakes and borders, aboard airships, and into clandestine factories. Every answer exposes a deeper plot. Someone is building an empire of manipulation and blackmail behind the curtain of modern telegraphy, and will kill to protect it. Hunted by a brilliant but unhinged assassin with a taste for fire, and entangled with a powerful industrialist whose interests may not be what they seem, Quill and O’Neill must risk everything to stop a technology that could unravel democracy itself. A sweeping steampunk mystery of intellect, adventure, and the perilous cost of progress.
Tags
Is The Stockman Nodes Affair: A Steampunk Adventure appropriate for my child?
Suitable for most readers 13 and up.
This steampunk adventure contains moderate action violence including explosions, assassination attempts, and deaths. A villain with pyromania creates threatening situations throughout.
What to know going in
This book has moderate violence, no sexual content, and mild language. Content notes include murder, death, and grief (see the full list above).
Publisher ages reflect reading level; our rating reflects content maturity — they can differ.
Who'll love this
Teens will enjoy the clever detective duo, airship chases, and race to stop a dangerous technology from destroying democracy.