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Adventures of the Steampunk Pirates #1
The Leaky Battery Sets Sail
Wanted: Dead or Alive! (Or smashed into little bits and delivered in boxes.)
Causing chaos wherever they sail, the robotic Steampunk Pirates are roaming the high seas, hunting for gold! But the evil Iron Duke has other ideas… He's determined to capture the pirates in return for a handsome reward from the King. Can the mechanical marauders stay one wave ahead of their enemy?
This hilarious new series from Gareth P. Jones, author of Ninja Meerkats, is sure to delight young readers with its madcap humour and larger-than-life robot pirate crew.
Causing chaos wherever they sail, the robotic Steampunk Pirates are roaming the high seas, hunting for gold! But the evil Iron Duke has other ideas… He's determined to capture the pirates in return for a handsome reward from the King. Can the mechanical marauders stay one wave ahead of their enemy?
This hilarious new series from Gareth P. Jones, author of Ninja Meerkats, is sure to delight young readers with its madcap humour and larger-than-life robot pirate crew.
- GenresSteampunk
160 pages, Paperback
First published February 2, 2015
About the author
Gareth P. Jones
84 books154 followersGareth first started writing when he was very young but it wasn’t until he was in his early twenties that he completed his first novel. Having had it universally rejected he wrote a novel for children called Who Killed Charlie Twig, which received an equally unimpressed reception and remains rightly unpublished to this day.
Some years passed during which Gareth met his future wife, Lisa and began a career in TV, working on shows such as The Big Breakfast and Richard & Judy. Then one day he found himself having lunch at the offices of Bloomsbury. He mentioned the unpublished book to a nice lady called Sarah, who politely suggested that he should send in the first three chapters for her to look at (and most likely dismiss, she thought to herself). Gareth returned home and excitedly told his wife this news, who gently explained that the book he had written actually wasn’t very good, but reminded him that he had recently begun work on a much better idea. This turned out to be good advice. In 2007 Bloomsbury published the first of four books in the series The Dragon Detective Agency and have since published The Thornthwaite Inheritance, Space Crime Conspiracy and The Considine Curse. He has also written a shorter story, Perry’s 5, published by Barrington Stoke and a series of books called Ninja Meerkats, published by Stripes.
Gareth now divides his time between writing books, producing TV programmes, spending time with his wife and son, Herbie and playing the slightly ludicrous number of stringed instruments in his front room.
NOMINATIONS & AWARDS
The Dragon Detective Agency: The Case of the Missing Cats was shortlisted for the Waterstone’s Book Prize.
The Thornthwaite Inheritance was shortlisted for eleven local book awards and won seven of them.
The Considine Curse was voted Blue Peter Book of the Year 2012.
Some years passed during which Gareth met his future wife, Lisa and began a career in TV, working on shows such as The Big Breakfast and Richard & Judy. Then one day he found himself having lunch at the offices of Bloomsbury. He mentioned the unpublished book to a nice lady called Sarah, who politely suggested that he should send in the first three chapters for her to look at (and most likely dismiss, she thought to herself). Gareth returned home and excitedly told his wife this news, who gently explained that the book he had written actually wasn’t very good, but reminded him that he had recently begun work on a much better idea. This turned out to be good advice. In 2007 Bloomsbury published the first of four books in the series The Dragon Detective Agency and have since published The Thornthwaite Inheritance, Space Crime Conspiracy and The Considine Curse. He has also written a shorter story, Perry’s 5, published by Barrington Stoke and a series of books called Ninja Meerkats, published by Stripes.
Gareth now divides his time between writing books, producing TV programmes, spending time with his wife and son, Herbie and playing the slightly ludicrous number of stringed instruments in his front room.
NOMINATIONS & AWARDS
The Dragon Detective Agency: The Case of the Missing Cats was shortlisted for the Waterstone’s Book Prize.
The Thornthwaite Inheritance was shortlisted for eleven local book awards and won seven of them.
The Considine Curse was voted Blue Peter Book of the Year 2012.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 11, 2025
A great starter story for the series and I can’t wait to see where their adventures take them.
November 1, 2015
This review was originally posted on www.talesofyesterday.co.uk
"Surrender you English Mummy's boy or we'll fire up the cannons and blast more holes in your ship than you'll find in a barrel full of Dutch cheese, so we will"
Wow! Right you salty sea cogs! I don't normally start my reviews with a quote, but I felt it necessary for this one! I am a huge fan of anything to do with pirates! So I was very excited to be asked to be a part of the blog tour to celebrate the release of this book. I love pirate books, films (especially Johnny Depp), theatre productions...well mainly Johnny Depp.....I mean pirates really! I love them and their swashbuckling ways and this book certainly did not disappoint and all with a slight twist on the "normal" type of pirates we meet *whispers not Johnny Depp*.
You see the Steampunk Pirates in this book are made out of metal and were created with the intention of being robot slaves! Steam powered, self governing automatons created by the celebrated inventor Mr Swift to be precise. One day a young girl called Penelope sets them free and they start their adventures on the high seas as pirates!
"Steampunk Servants no more" said Mr Clockhart. "We be Steampunk Pirates!"
Wanted Dead Or Alive and lead by mutiny hating Captain Clockheart, he and his mighty crew, including First Mate Mainspring, Quartermaster Lexi, Mr Gadge and a robotic bird called Twitter soon make an enemy in the Duke and venture on a quest to find the man who can turn their rusting metal into gold - goldify them! Yes goldify is now my favourite new word! Although I have been warned....
"That's what I call it, goldifying. That's my own word, too. Any two-bit author who wants to use it in the future will have to pay me"
*The writer of this review would like to thank Mr Gareth P Jones for his kind permission for the use of the words goldify and assure his estate that the cheque is in the post*
(If you have read the book you will probably laugh at the above disclaimer...if you haven't....well you probably think I owe the author a lot of money! I hopefully don't as the author may replace my brain with a bucket of mouldy seaweed if I'm not careful...but really you just need to READ THIS BOOK IMMEDIATELY! :-)
Now in fear of the Steampunk Pirates getting hold of me and dangling me by my bootlaces and offering me to the sharks I read this book in virtually one sitting! Well that was mainly because I enjoyed it not out of pure fear really *gulps*. Straight from the offset you get drawn into the Steampunk Pirate world with immediate action, with cannons firing and climbing aboard another ship Gareth P Jones introduces these fab characters with a bang and all with catchy pirate songs throughout!
Whilst I loved all of the Steampunk Pirates the English tea loving Duke gave me a few good chuckles along the way too with one memorable moment when the Duke and many men are in a small boat and he decides some have to go! Into the sea! He selects a large man, who stands up to give his last farewell speech....
"Tis a far better thing that I do now than ---- "
"Oh get on with it," interrupted the Duke
"Yes Sir" The large sailor jumped off.
This book is full of humour which was right on my wave length! The illustrations in the book are just beautiful and perfect and act as a source of humour also! I especially loved the picture of Mr Goldman...oh how I would love to meet him in real life! Even the pages of this book were wonderful with the page number surrounded in cogs.
I also loved the way the author takes time to speak directly to the reader often before writing a flashback to how the robot slaves became pirates or change of scene and then again speaking direct to the reader in a humorous way to bring you back to the action. I've not read any other Gareth P Jones books (my son has) so I'm not sure if this is his normal style, but it really worked and just kept me entertained throughout. I will definitely be raiding my sons book shelves for more Gareth P Jones books asap.
Although this 1st book in what I hear is a series details the Steampunk Pirate origins and is basically an introduction to them and their world I do not think this affected the action or plot of the book and the Leaky Battery, the Steampunk Pirates boat, definitely set sail in style! The Steampunk Pirates learn that working together is the key and learn that it doesn't matter what your made of everyone is the same on the outside ...a beautiful message to send out to many children and adults that will read this book.
I would love to one day meet Captain Clockheart and his mighty crew again (I hear I will in May when book 2 is out!), but in the meantime I may take to the high seas and become Chelley The Pirate who everyone will fear!!!! Hmmmmmm...... I think I have as much chance of survival as a rat who has made his home in the barrel of a cannon!
*Takes long walk on short plank and causes a very BIG splash!*
For more reviews and more please visit www.talesofyesterday.co.uk
"Surrender you English Mummy's boy or we'll fire up the cannons and blast more holes in your ship than you'll find in a barrel full of Dutch cheese, so we will"
Wow! Right you salty sea cogs! I don't normally start my reviews with a quote, but I felt it necessary for this one! I am a huge fan of anything to do with pirates! So I was very excited to be asked to be a part of the blog tour to celebrate the release of this book. I love pirate books, films (especially Johnny Depp), theatre productions...well mainly Johnny Depp.....I mean pirates really! I love them and their swashbuckling ways and this book certainly did not disappoint and all with a slight twist on the "normal" type of pirates we meet *whispers not Johnny Depp*.
You see the Steampunk Pirates in this book are made out of metal and were created with the intention of being robot slaves! Steam powered, self governing automatons created by the celebrated inventor Mr Swift to be precise. One day a young girl called Penelope sets them free and they start their adventures on the high seas as pirates!
"Steampunk Servants no more" said Mr Clockhart. "We be Steampunk Pirates!"
Wanted Dead Or Alive and lead by mutiny hating Captain Clockheart, he and his mighty crew, including First Mate Mainspring, Quartermaster Lexi, Mr Gadge and a robotic bird called Twitter soon make an enemy in the Duke and venture on a quest to find the man who can turn their rusting metal into gold - goldify them! Yes goldify is now my favourite new word! Although I have been warned....
"That's what I call it, goldifying. That's my own word, too. Any two-bit author who wants to use it in the future will have to pay me"
*The writer of this review would like to thank Mr Gareth P Jones for his kind permission for the use of the words goldify and assure his estate that the cheque is in the post*
(If you have read the book you will probably laugh at the above disclaimer...if you haven't....well you probably think I owe the author a lot of money! I hopefully don't as the author may replace my brain with a bucket of mouldy seaweed if I'm not careful...but really you just need to READ THIS BOOK IMMEDIATELY! :-)
Now in fear of the Steampunk Pirates getting hold of me and dangling me by my bootlaces and offering me to the sharks I read this book in virtually one sitting! Well that was mainly because I enjoyed it not out of pure fear really *gulps*. Straight from the offset you get drawn into the Steampunk Pirate world with immediate action, with cannons firing and climbing aboard another ship Gareth P Jones introduces these fab characters with a bang and all with catchy pirate songs throughout!
Whilst I loved all of the Steampunk Pirates the English tea loving Duke gave me a few good chuckles along the way too with one memorable moment when the Duke and many men are in a small boat and he decides some have to go! Into the sea! He selects a large man, who stands up to give his last farewell speech....
"Tis a far better thing that I do now than ---- "
"Oh get on with it," interrupted the Duke
"Yes Sir" The large sailor jumped off.
This book is full of humour which was right on my wave length! The illustrations in the book are just beautiful and perfect and act as a source of humour also! I especially loved the picture of Mr Goldman...oh how I would love to meet him in real life! Even the pages of this book were wonderful with the page number surrounded in cogs.
I also loved the way the author takes time to speak directly to the reader often before writing a flashback to how the robot slaves became pirates or change of scene and then again speaking direct to the reader in a humorous way to bring you back to the action. I've not read any other Gareth P Jones books (my son has) so I'm not sure if this is his normal style, but it really worked and just kept me entertained throughout. I will definitely be raiding my sons book shelves for more Gareth P Jones books asap.
Although this 1st book in what I hear is a series details the Steampunk Pirate origins and is basically an introduction to them and their world I do not think this affected the action or plot of the book and the Leaky Battery, the Steampunk Pirates boat, definitely set sail in style! The Steampunk Pirates learn that working together is the key and learn that it doesn't matter what your made of everyone is the same on the outside ...a beautiful message to send out to many children and adults that will read this book.
I would love to one day meet Captain Clockheart and his mighty crew again (I hear I will in May when book 2 is out!), but in the meantime I may take to the high seas and become Chelley The Pirate who everyone will fear!!!! Hmmmmmm...... I think I have as much chance of survival as a rat who has made his home in the barrel of a cannon!
*Takes long walk on short plank and causes a very BIG splash!*
For more reviews and more please visit www.talesofyesterday.co.uk
April 20, 2015
Both of my boys (10 and 8) really enjoyed this. We read it as a bed time story, but I can't say as it's a relaxing, preparation for bed kind of story!! There's great humour in it, and it is very exciting (so I'm told). They were both interested to see that there is another book in what I assume will be a series, and have asked me to get it for them!!
The type-face is easy to read - we took it in turns to read parts of it. Neither of my sons are particularly keen on reading, but they were happy to take their turns (although I think I probably still read the majority of it - but I'll let them off, considering it was right before bed time!!). Both boys said that they'd recommend it to their friends!
The type-face is easy to read - we took it in turns to read parts of it. Neither of my sons are particularly keen on reading, but they were happy to take their turns (although I think I probably still read the majority of it - but I'll let them off, considering it was right before bed time!!). Both boys said that they'd recommend it to their friends!
December 24, 2014
I was able to read this story through NetGalley for my blog, Daily Geekette. This was a really cute story about steampunk servants turned pirates. I loved the illustrations, the humor, and the "moral." However, it was definitely an origin story. I can't wait to read more! This series can only go up!
August 6, 2015
This junior fiction book is a long list possibility for the 2016 Surrey Libraries Children's Book Award. I found this funny, but not forced and not in your face. Humour that children would understand and a fast paced, interesting plot. There were good illustrations and the songs at the start and end are catchy.
June 1, 2015
A robot pirate crew search for a way to protect themselves from rusting.
Not a bad story but not a classic.
Not a bad story but not a classic.
September 15, 2015
This is a great book.
October 27, 2015
WOW it's a thrilling adventure book and it's really a page Turner again WOW
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews