Spit Mechs

Ten-year-old Newton Beam is more concerned about the upcoming school talent show than about what his genius mother is up to in the government laboratory a mile beneath their house. But when Newton and friends Jorge and Jane accidentally interfere with an experiment by coughing on mechanical supersuits powered by alien technology, the suits calibrate themselves to the kids’ DNA, which means that they must use them to take on the Drefts, aliens bent on galactic conquest. Buchly wastes no time setting his Voltron-esque premise in motion, and he keeps the details light, focusing instead on the whiz-bang aspects of this wish-fulfillment fantasy, first in a planned series. (Oddly, he also includes phonetic pronunciations midstory for anime and Jorge.) Aided by Newton’s mother, Newton, Jorge, and Jane confront the aliens at their base in the frigid Canadian wilderness. SF fans will enjoy seeing what the battle suits are capable of, but the plot moves so quickly that it reads more like the scaffolding of a story than a fully developed one. Ages 8–12. (BookLife)