Title: Tapper Watson and the Quest for the Nemo Machine

Written by: Claire Fayers

Illustrated by:

Published by: Firefly Press

Tapper Watson and the Quest for the Nemo Machine is one of the best middle grade science fiction novels I have read for a long time.

Our two 12-year-old reluctant heroes are from very different worlds. Tapper Watson is from Erasia and is the youngest of sixty-eight cousins and has recently become the apprentice to Argo and Belladonna on their submarine at the insistence of Uncle Five. Fern Shakespeare is from Earth and works during the holidays with her volunteer dad in their submarine repair / guided tour shop in Swansea. She has a brilliant plant that talks using Morse code and helps them on their adventures through the Lethe. This is the river that connects the different worlds and contains all the memories of everyone who ever lived. Sometimes the memories in the Lethe appear as Echolings. Fern’s dad is the inventor of the Nemo Machine, which can retrieve these memories from the Lethe. The rivers only drawback is, it can make people lose their memories if they swallow any.

Tapper has an unusual talent that he can hear the Echolings. When one that is the spitting image of Tapper climbs out of the river to talk to Tapper, Argo throws a stone at it and the Echoling explodes, showering water over Fern’s dad who accidently swallows some causing Lethamnesia. His only hope is for restoring his memories is to find the Nemo Machine. Our epic adventurers go on a highly original, fast-paced quest to find the Nemo Machine before it gets into the hands of Cousin Twenty-Three, the claws of the Lobster Mobsters, or the tentacles of the innocent-looking Zymandian octopods.

The plot is action packed but not at the expense of the character development. I particularly liked the friction between Fern and Tapper. Their behaviour and reactions are very different from each other. In fact, every character is well-rounded with their own good and bad traits.  The different aliens were hilarious but my absolute favourite had to be the lobster monsters, Charybdis and Scylla. I liked the contradiction in character in that Scylla dreamed of being a language teacher. And is instead turning people to stone with his Medusa blaster. It was these little character touches that makes Tapper Watson and the Quest for the Nemo Machine such a great book.

I was impressed with how all the different segments of this amazing world and brilliant characters fitted together like a perfect jigsaw puzzle so the plot makes perfect logical sense.

The perfect book for all young sci-fi fans and readers who love adventures. Ideal for fans of another of my favourites, Interdimensional Explorers by Lorraine Gregory. I can’t wait to read more innovative middle-grade science fiction like these.

You can read my interview with Claire Fayers about the writing of Tapper Watson and the Quest for the Nemo Machine, which we did as part of her blog tour here: Blog Tour – Tapper Watson and the Quest for the Nemo Machine by Claire Fayers

You can read my review of Interdimensional Explorers by Lorraine Gregory here: Book Review: Interdimensional Explorers

You can buy copies of Tapper Watson and the Quest for the Nemo Machine by Claire Fayers from your local bookshop, or online at uk.bookshop.org which supports local, independent bookshops.

This review has previously appeared on NetGalley, Goodreads and Amazon. I would like to thank NetGalley and Firefly Press for accepting my request for a digital copy of the book.