In the meteor-scarred lands of the Merrow Kingdom, a 13-year-old scrapper named Piper longs to find a new life as a machinist in a big city. After a meteor shower destroys a caravan passing through town, Piper rescues a girl from the wreckage with no memory of who she is beyond her name, Anna. Their only clue is an elaborate dragonfly tattoo on her arm: the mark of the Dragonfly king. When a dangerous man comes looking for Anna, the two girls escape on a train and embark on a thrilling cross-country adventure.
A careful blend of sci-fi, fantasy and steampunk, this book holds plenty of magic and surprises. Readers will root for its memorable characters as they thunder through a landscape of bandits, mentalists and cosmic dust. Those looking for a plucky heroine or danger-tinged adventure will eagerly lose themselves in this novel, as smart as it is imaginative. --Julia Smith, blogger and former children's bookseller