Guardians of Porthaven | CM: Canadian Review of Materials

Volume XXVII / Issue 41 - June 25 / 2021

Guardians of Porthaven

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Guardians of Porthaven

Author:

Shane Arbuthnott

Victoria, BC: Orca, September, 2021

329 pp., trade pbk., pdf & epub, $10.95 (pbk.)

ISBN:

9781459827042 (pbk.)

9781459827059 (pdf)

9781459827066 (epub)

Grades:

Grades 5-9

Ages:

Ages 10-14

Review by:

Tara Stieglitz (Reviewed from Advance Reading Copy)

Excerpt:

He leapt—lower this time, keeping to street level as he moved east. He could hear the telltale sounds of battle—glass breaking, metal tearing, the basso thud of his aunt breaking the sound barrier. He rounded a corner running and then stopped.

There they were. Really there, in front of him, between two rows of tall glass-fronted buildings. Three klek. Two on the ground in front of him, and one climbing the building to his right, its feet embedded in glass and concrete. He froze. He'd seen videos of them, of course, and the meticulous digital recreations in Eric's latest movie. But never for real. He'd studied so much about the klek that for a moment he couldn't process their actual presence. They were things on screens, not part of the actual world.

These were big ones. You never knew how big the klek would be when they showed up. Sometimes you got a swarm of klek the size of small dogs. Sometimes you got one gargantuan machine the size of a building. Always the same shape though. The silvery, bulbous bodies with no openings—no visible lenses or sensors of any type. The five multi-jointed legs, many times longer than the body itself.

On his fifteenth birthday, Malcolm Gravenhurst finally gets what he has been preparing for his whole life. Like generations of Gravenhursts before him, he gets to join his aunt, uncle, and cousins as a Guardian of Porthaven. The members of Malcolm’s family all have various superpowers that they use to defend the city of Porthaven from regular incursion of robotic aliens known as klek. Malcolm’s family has also used technology salvaged from the klek to amass immense wealth and power. Having grown up sheltered and coddled by this wealth and power, Malcom has never known anything else and has never questioned his family’s place in the city or the control they wield. When Malcom wanders away from his family home and meets some teens who inexplicably fear him, he learns that not everyone admires his family or considers their work to be to the city’s good. Malcolm begins his own investigation and discovers some dark secrets that raise questions about everything he has held to be true. Before long, Malcolm must choose between loyalty to his family or loyalty to his new friends, with the future of the city at stake.

Guardians of Porthaven is a fun read full of superhero-type characters demonstrating their powers and fighting exciting battles. The novel also acknowledges the damage done by these types of battles; several times Malcolm expresses a concern for innocent bystanders that is not shared by other members of his family. Much of the novel focuses on power and privilege and the disparities that exist in society. Malcolm grapples with his place of privilege and the responsibility of having public trust and the consequences of abusing that trust. Malcolm questions the status quo and does not back down when his family refuses to question or reconsider its place of privilege in the city. Guardians of Porthaven uses a science fiction setting and superhero characters to comment on societal issues of wealth, privilege, and abuse of power, making for an enjoyable and thought-provoking read. Fans of comic book heroes and science fiction will enjoy Guardians of Porthaven.

Highly Recommended

Reviewer:

Tara Stieglitz is a librarian at MacEwan University in Edmonton, Alberta.