In the Albion empire, dragons are ruthlessly outlawed, and every citizen has a set path, fated by the stars and interpreted by the Celestial Physicists. Thirteen-year-old Paisley has been eagerly awaiting details of her destiny, so she's stunned to learn that she is doomed to die before her fourteenth birthday. She keeps this news from her beloved younger brother, who has his own secret: he is among the cruelly hunted Dragon Touched, sporting a scaly leg and twisting talons. To further complicate matters, their physicist mother disappears after her latest experiment suggests that fates can be altered. It's up to the siblings to change their own fates as well as that of the world, saving all they love in the process. Avery's fast-paced and inventive novel features an alternate London that runs on clockwork and dragon fire, an Amerika where dragons still roam, and independent boroughs floating above the cities below. The history and philosophy of the empire are astonishingly detailed, and a cliff-hanger ending will send readers scrambling for a sequel.

A girl with not enough destiny and her brother, who has too much, must rescue their mother.In an alternate London, Mechanist priests preach from the Blueprints about how the Chief Designer "forged the looping golden tracks of the Celestial Mechanism" that tell people's fates. Thirteen-year-old Paisley Fitzwilliam finally learns her stars' track-and discovers that she'll die before she's 14. Meanwhile, Dax, her younger brother, who is publicly perceived as disabled, actually wears his uncomfortable leg brace to hide the fact that he is Dragon Touched. The Dragon Touched (the others are girls) all have dragon scales somewhere on their bodies. They are feared and hunted thanks to the prophecy about a male Dragon Lord who will bring back the Great Dragons. After the kids' scientist mother performs a seemingly impossible experiment that shakes society's foundations, she meets with an accident-but Paisley and Dax learn she's not dead and that it was no accident. Teaming up with their mother's apprentice, they set out to save her. In an alternate viewpoint, thief Roach serves the villainous Dark Dragon, showing readers what the heroes are up against and why. The characterization runs shallow, with didacticism from heroes and villains alike delivered in expository monologues, and the climax relies upon an underbaked deus ex machina. Most characters default to White; uncomfortably, the sole explicitly brown-skinned character calls Dax her master and pledges to give up her life for him.A promising concept that fails to deliver. (Fantasy. 8-12)

In an alternate London where the rule of Great Dragons has been displaced by Celestial Physicists-scientists who bend space and matter to their will-white 13-year-old Paisley Fitzwilliam awaits to discover which -track- destiny has in store for her. Though most children are told their fates in childhood, gaining a pattern of constellations on their wrist that maps out their future, Paisley has so far gone unmarked. But finally, she learns a horrifying truth: the stars foretell that she will die before her 14th birthday. As her time ticks down, Paisley must find a way to keep her younger brother Dax, who is Dragon Touched, safe from being hunted as a -half-breed.- Meanwhile the Dark Dragon, an ancient evil, works to bring back the reign of dragons-seeking to destroy all that Paisley holds dear in the process. Avery-s debut paints an imaginative portrait of steampunk London, complete with floating boroughs and aerocopter transport. Though flat worldbuilding sometimes undercuts the fast-paced narrative, and a lone brown-skinned character is presented as more icon than nuanced being, Paisley-s warmth and intelligence shine through this exploration of fate-s inevitability and the conflict between science and magic. Ages 8-12. Agent: Helen Boyle, Pickled Ink. (Feb.)