The White City

Book 3 of The Clockwork Dark

By: John Claude Bemis

Narrated by: John H. Mayer

In The Nine Pound Hammer, John Bemis introduced middle-grade readers to a whole new approach to epic fantasy, founded on characters and themes from American mythology and lore, including the legend of John Henry. Now in the third and final book, the heroes come together at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago for a final confrontation with a businessman and tycoon who is in fact an ageless evil known as the Gog. With his Dark Machine, he intends to bend the world to his ruthless vision of progress and efficiency. It's man versus machine all over again, fighting for the soul of humanity in front of Ferris's Wheel. For fans of adventure fantasy like Percy Jackson and Peter and the Starcatchers.

Critic reviews

Kirkus Reviews, July 15, 2011:
"With The Clockwork Dark series drawing to a close, author Bemis has saved the best for last...With a plot as intricate as the Machine at its center and a page-turning pace, this unique, ambitious American fantasy comes to a satisfying end that would please even John Henry."

VOYA, June 19, 2011:
"This third book focuses the complicated plots of the trilogy into a consistent conclusion that forces the reader to consider nature’s strength and technology’s dangers....The first two volumes’ middle school fans who are now in junior high will find more than enough action and thought for their maturing tastes."

Tom Angleberger, author of The Strange Case of Origami Yoda:
"A rigorous adventure set in our own country’s folkloric past, when the sons of John Henry and Little Bill fought a desperate, fantastical battle for the soul of America. A series which any self-respecting middle school book nerd would wolf down eagerly."