Smasher

Bly debuts with an uneven tale of time travel and magic, in which a youth from the year 1542 is brought five centuries into the future to help save the world. Geneva, a robot designed to resemble a teenage girl, chooses Charles for his aptitude with magic, what he calls “the Hum,” taking him to 2042. There, enigmatic CEO Gramercy Foxx is on the verge of unleashing a product known as “The Future,” which will allow him to enslave humanity. Only by working together, with Charles mastering both the Hum and 21st-century tech, can they foil Foxx’s plan. While Bly’s computer technology experience shines in the scenes set in the future, his choices to use contemporary language and to show almost nothing of Charles’s home era make it difficult to buy into aspects of the story. Charles’s complete lack of culture shock and rapid adjustment make him feel much more like a modern teen than a recruit from the reign of Henry VIII. The story suffers from too many elements with too little development, and a nebulously resolved climax. Ages 10–14. Agent: Deborah Warren, East-West Agency. (Apr.)