Bloodstone, by Allan Bouroughs

Bloodstone, by Allan Bouroughs  (Pan Macmillan; Main Market Ed. edition, December 1, 2015) is a steampunkish adventure that sends its characters on a dangerous mission to find the lost treasure of Atlantis.  It's the sequel to Ironheart (Sept. 2015), but works just find as a stand-alone.

In a world where the Great Rains have wrecked havoc, a girl named India is apprenticed to great tech-hunter Verity Brown, and together they travel the globe, scavenging for lost technology to sell.  But in Sing City, things go badly wrong.  They've attracted the unpleasant and dangerous attention of Lady Fang, the criminal overlord of the City, and India is falsely accused of attempting to assassinate the leader of an order of Recycling Monks.  When a treasure-seeking zealot antiquarian, Professor Moon, seeks to recruit them on a wild and  impossible mission to find Atlantis in Antarctica, it's their best and fastest way out...but the Monks and Lady Fang are both unpleasantly anxious to track them down, for Professor Moon has come into possession of the monk's piece of an ancient, and powerful, stone--and this piece of the Bloodstone has  magically joined itself to the one he already had.  If the third piece is found and rejoined with the others, it will become the key to unlocking the fabled lost tech of Atlantis that Professor Moon is convinced exists.

So what follows is a madly dangerous trip south, in which India and Verity are pursued by enemies and beset by sea monsters.  And when all three piece of the Bloodstone are rejoined, and "Atlantis" is in fact found, beneath an extinct (?) volcano, things get even more hair-raising, with near-certain death narrowly avoided time and time again.

This is one for older Middle Grade/younger YA readers who love dangerous adventures, in which every twenty pages seems to bring in new ways to die!  Lots of shooting of interesting weapons, lots of desperate attempts to get technology to work, strange creatures and adventures, and a truly extraordinary discovery at the end of it.  The adventures are given a human element by the character of India, who is a truly loyal friend and perseveres bravely despite the odds.

Give this one to fans of the Copernicus Legacy series--they will love it!  It was not exactly my own cup of tea (me not being a frantic danger on every page person, and me also being un-enthused by Oriental villain lady crime bosses like Lady Fang), but even I found it a page turner, especially once the expedition reaches Atlantis.

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher