I loved this book, and not just because I know the places in Swansea that are talked about in the book. The descriptions brought the people/creatures to life for me. A talking plant, lobster monsters, a submarine, makes this a funny, action-packed, weird story. Brilliant

This is one of the best middle grade science fiction novels I have read for a long time.


This is 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.


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 mechanic 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, the river that connects the different worlds and contains all the memories of everyone who ever lived. The rivers only draw back is it can make people lose their memories if they swallow any.


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 river. 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 to restore his memories is to find the Nemo Machine.


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 and how one dreamed of being a language teacher.


A great book for all young sci-fi fans and readers who love adventures.

An action packed adventure that mixes alternative worlds with trying to understand the one in which you live. There are hints of 20,000 leagues under the sea, mixed with a science fiction element. The author has managed to create a fantastic world and we really get involved; although the idea that people can lose their memory through falling in an underground river is chilling.

With a great many new reads continually coming out, it’s hard to keep track of them all and there will always be some books that get more publicity than others, for whatever reason. While the larger publishers have the advantage of having more resources to push their titles it is going to be up to readers and bloggers to help support the smaller ones and here is one such read that I have seen and heard nothing of at all as yet on Twitter.

In fact, it’s a book that I almost didn’t read at all having scrolled past it several times on Net Galley because it didn’t as yet have a tempting cover to hook me in but after reading and loving the author’s The Accidental Pirates a few years ago, my curiosity eventually won out and after reading the blurb I decided to give it a read. Here is another brilliant adventure – one packed with originality, cracking characters and references to both ancient mythology – which many younger readers will pick up on – and to the science fiction I grew up on – which are likely to go over the heads of children but which I loved.

We meet Tapper within the safety of the submarine the Boldly Goes, travelling through the depths of the river Lethe. This is no ordinary river, however, it is one which winds its way through the universe connecting the planets and its waters contain the memories of every person who has ever lived. Watching from his seat for echolings, creatures temporarily brought into existence from the memories held in the water, Tapper worries about the possibility of the vessel springing a leak – not because he fears drowning but because ingesting any of the Lethe’s water causes irreversible memory loss – worries that are not shared by the two more experienced crew members on board, Argo and Belladonna, whose main concern is the safe transport of their cargo.

At the same time, Fern Shakespeare is playing for time as she waits for her father to return to their Swansea shop to lead a tour to view the only rivergate on Earth that leads to the Lethe but only succeeds in annoying the assembled group who then leave. When a riverstorm hits the Lethe, damaging the Boldly Goes, its crew are forced to leave the river to make repairs and head for Earth, where Tapper is sent to look for help. Finding Fern’s shop, Tapper explains what has happened and keen to earn some vital cash, Fern tells Tapper her father is the best submarine mechanic in Swansea and as his assistant she will come and take a look. When they reach the submarine, Argo recognises the name of Shakespeare and asks Fern if her father is the inventor of a machine to retrieve memories from the Lethe.

Before she is able to answer, strange things start to happen and an echoling that looks like Tapper climbs out of the sea and approaches the submarine’s crew and Fern just as her father appears. When Argo throws a stone at the echoling, it explodes – showering Lethe water over Fern and her father, who unfortunately accidentally swallows some. With Dr Shakespeare’s memory now fading, his only hope is his own invention – the Nemo Machine – but no one knows where it is. As Tapper and the others try to locate it they find themselves pursued by various interested parties on both sides of the law and have no option but to head back into the Lethe to find it. Will they be successful in their mission? And can they find the machine before Fern’s father loses his ability to use it?

Tapper is such an unlikely hero. Packed off by his family to take part in the delivery of the Boldly Goes’s cargo, he has no previous experience of Argo and Belladonna’s business and finds himself continually having to think on his feet as the adventure unfolds. Brought up on the planet Eris, with very different rules of manners and how to behave from Earth’s, he takes an instant dislike to Fern so that while he understands the need to find the machine, and to help her father, he finds it very difficult to tolerate her. She, on the other hand, has no idea why she is so disliked and once on board the submarine finds his attitude towards her bewildering, leading to some great moments between them.

With most of the characters being extra-terrestrials, the author has given her imagination free reign to create some brilliant species which will delight readers young and old; as someone brought up on Dr Who, Star Trek and suchlike I loved the references to these craftily concealed within the text. I really enjoyed this story, not just because it took me back to my childhood but because as well as being a brilliant piece of children’s science fiction, it is a great read that will appeal hugely to those who are already fans of the genre and also those who love adventures and who may well then go on to explore other sci-fi titles.

Perfect for confident readers in Year 4 upwards, I really hope we see more of Tapper and Fern and I’m confident I won’t be alone there. I’m also really hoping that this title gets the publicity and love it so deserves and will be doing my bit to shout about it very loudly. My enormous thanks go to Firefly Press and Net Galley for my virtual advance read. Tapper Watson and the Quest for the Nemo Machine publishes 7th September.