Have you ever thought the world is unfair? Well our world is nothing compared to the world of the Juggernauts. Do you like a book about character development, action and adventure in a steampunk setting? Then World Shaker is the book for you!

Meet Colbert Porpentine, grandson of the leader of the Juggernaut known as “World Shaker”. He wakes up in the middle of the night to a noise outside his room and some guards inform him that a “Filthy” (primitive humans living at the bottom of the ship) has escaped to the upper decks. He then looks under his bed and surprise! Two eyes are staring back at him. The Filthy girl, Riff, refutes everything Col has ever known about the people at the bottom of the ship, that they can talk, make civilisations and most importantly, that they are just poor humans who had been exiled so they do not mix with the rich people. The main characters in this story are Col, the grandson of the leader of the ship and Riff, the Filthy girl who escapes to the upper decks.

I really enjoyed World Shaker despite its slow start due to the captivating writing and setting of the book, as well as the likeable characters who change a lot over the course of the story. I also really like the alternate timeline it was set in, with major countries creating movable cities and the smaller villages being crushed underneath because it created a sense luck inside me. I personally would hate it if I was stuck inside a city for the rest of my life with basically no way to leave safely. It wouldn’t be any better if I lived inside one of the villages as the juggernauts would pay no attention to our area and chances are I would be crushed. The character arcs in the story really helped me to understand the characters, from Col learning how to fight and basically becoming a Filthy himself, to Riff accepting that not all rich people are horrible and unkind. World Shaker ended with the story being tied up, but also leaving room for a sequel.

Overall, I recommend this book to anybody who has an interest in dystopian, steampunk books and enjoys reading about a lot of action and adventure. I would rate “World Shaker” by Richard Harland a 4 out of 5. Will. B., Year 8

……..

Picture a world where mechanical mountains ruled over land and sea, travelling at crazy speeds and also being a home for many wealthy families. This is the setting for the bestselling book ‘World shaker’. The story of the book follows Colbert, a teenage boy around 17, who is just about to be made the successor to the Supreme Commander of the juggernaut. But something goes terribly wrong…

‘World shaker’ is a story set in the Victorian era and the characters we meet live on a giant metal juggernaut that goes across land and ocean called ‘World shaker’. The only time that the juggernaut stops is to refuel every 18 months in ports around the world. The main characters in this story are Colbert Porpentine and Riff. These two characters are complete polar opposites of each other. Col is a prestigious young man living with his wealthy family in the upper floors of the ‘World shaker’ and Riff is a filthy that escaped captivity living on the lowest floor of the juggernaut down the food chute. Col was always taught that filthies were savages, didn’t know how to speak and they were not smart like the propers. These teachings were all wiped away when he finds that Riff is really smart and not a savage like he was told.

During the book Col is destined to be the successor to his grandfather and be Supreme Commander of the ‘World shaker’. He was informed of this at a family gathering in the Porpentine hall room. Some events during this book make this choice a very hard one for Col. Col’s family is an extremely wealthy family and their surname is Porpentine. Col has one older sister who does not like him one bit. She thinks that he is a spoiled brat who always gets his own way. Her name is Gillabeth, but to be fair she does have a point… Colbert has indeed led a very nurtured life. He does not know many things about the outside world nor does he have any real curiosity. He is told things about the filthies and menials that aren’t true to make them appear as objects for them to use. But the moment that he meets Riff, everything was about to change…

I really enjoyed ‘World shaker’ because it has many qualities about it that not many other books have. I like that kind of uniqueness to the book, as you would never expect those genres to go together but Richard Harland pulled it off extremely well. However, the start of the book was very slow and made me quite bored during the first few chapters but after that, things are happening left and right and all becomes very entertaining. But the reason I enjoyed it so much is because you really felt for the characters. You really wanted Col to make the right decision and you also want Riff to show him what filthies really are and how menials are ‘made’ and treated. I would recommend this book to people looking for something new, that hasn’t been done before and that are between the ages of 13-17 and most likely boys would enjoy this book but I’m sure there are many features of this book that girls would enjoy as well.

Ronan O. Year 8