Invisible Things

November 1, 2010
Readers unfamiliar with Davidson's The Explosionist (2008), in which she introduced Scottish teenager Sophie Hunter, the orphaned daughter of two physicists killed in 1923 in an explosion in Alfred Nobel's munitions factory, may flounder in this continuation of Sophie's story. Set in 1938 Copenhagen, in Niels Bohr's Institute for Theoretical Physics, this ambitious sequel is also fantasy disguised as historical fiction. Davidson aptly conveys the excitement of scientific research in the late 1930s, but many may find it challenging to wade through the plethora of scientific theory and historical background and feel invested in Sophie's pursuit, suspenseful though it is, of her family history (which involves Nobel himself). The language is often dense, with cumbersome, information-heavy sentences that develop neither plot nor character; the buildup of the romance between Sophie and her impulsive Danish sweetheart, Mikael, is frustratingly laid-back. The climactic Part Three turns decidedly into fantasy as Sophie travels north by reindeer-drawn sleigh to the ice castle of a foreboding Snow Queen, in a journey reminiscent of Lyra's in Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass, and—somewhat unconvincingly—finds personal freedom at last. Ages 14–up.

November 1, 2010
This sequel to The Explosionist (2008) initially sags under the weight of the explanation required to bring readers up to speed on the first book's intricate plot, in which events of world history are reimagined with alternate outcomes. The story finds its stride, however, in the further adventures of 16-year-old Sophie Hunter, who has escaped Scotland and found refuge at the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Denmark, where mysteries and apocalyptic menace continue to plague her. Aided by her loyal friend Mikael and her cat Trismegistus, Sophie takes on nuclear conspiracy and a Snow Queen straight out of Andersen. Davidson weaves elements of science fiction, philosophical inquiry and real historical figures--Alfred Nobel, Niels Bohr, Paul Dirac, Ludwig Wittgenstein--into the verbose third-person narrative. The number of unanswered questions still standing at the abrupt ending leaves no doubt of a continuation. (Alternative history/fantasy. 14 & up)

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November 1, 2010

Gr 8 Up-Set in 1939 Denmark, this story uses the same alternative history device as Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan (S & S, 2009), but it doesn't work here. Instead, the book is a confusing mishmash of characters with the history and science not fully explored. It is a novel more of explanation than action. Sixteen-year-old Sophie, an orphan living at a scientific facility operated by Niels Bohr, has been smuggled out of Scotland for her own safety. She's hoping to speak to Alfred Nobel about the death of her parents. After a gas and pellet attack at Bohr's birthday party and the subsequent invasion of Denmark, Sophie, her friend Mikael (undergoing some strange personality changes due to the gas), and a few of the scientists from the institute evacuate to Sweden where they stay in the same boarding house as Mikael's brother. After a rather surreal meeting with Nobel, during which she finds out that her father had successfully designed the atomic bomb, she gets confirmation that she is Nobel's granddaughter and heir. She is sent on a long journey to negotiate plans for the weapon, and to rescue Mikael, who has been hypnotized into following Elsa Blix, a weapons dealer and also an illegitimate child of Nobel's who only wants recognition of her paternity. Few readers will stick with Invisible Things to its unsatisfying and rather sudden conclusion.-Suanne Roush, Osceola High School, Seminole, FL

Copyright 2010 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2011
Sophie travels north from Kxbenhavn, Denmark, with her sweetheart, Mikael, to ask Alfred Nobel what he knows of her parents' death. She learns that their fate is entwined with that of a Snow Queenlike nuclear physicist who has psychically wounded Mikael. In this alternate history that evokes 1930s northern Europe, cumbersome prose muffles a promising premise and a colorful setting.

(Copyright 2011 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)