The Cubit Quest Blog Tour

The Cubit Quest
Trevor Leck
Genre(s): Fantasy, Middle Grade Young Adult
Published: March 2nd 2017
Pages: 299
Rating: 3 stars

“Twelve-year-old Charlie Watkins could have inherited his dad’s massive intellect. 
He got his massive feet instead. 

Perhaps if Charlie had that intellect he might have been able to figure out why so many men in suits were suddenly following him or where his dad hid the Cubit - a mythical object that men have sworn to protect and even more have died trying to possess - before his so-called accident. 

If starting yet another new school wasn’t bad enough, Charlie meets Mr Leopold, a disfigured, mind-reading lunatic and discovers that he alone must find the Cubit if he is to save his dad. The Brotherhood, however, have other ideas. Led by the ruthless Draganovic, they will stop at nothing to get their hands on it. With the help of Mr Leopold and fellow new boy Elvis, Charlie sets out on The Cubit Quest. 

Hunting for the Cubit, playing football, lessons with the dreaded Funeral Face and unsuccessfully avoiding school bully Grimshaw by day, Charlie finds his nights no less complicated. Stalked in his dreams, he’s soon immersed in a world of power struggles, battling dragons and duels to the death. With the Brotherhood hot on his heels and as the bullets begin to fly, there are no guarantees that Charlie, or anyone else, will make it to the end in one piece.”

A copy of this book was provided by Authoright in exchange for an honest review as part of a blog tour. This in no way influenced my thoughts.

The Cubit Quest is a fun read. Perhaps a fun read that's far too young for me, but that didn't stop me from enjoying the story and rooting for the main character to succeed.

It's difficult for me to say what genre this is exactly, as it has elements of quite a few and feels like another entirely. If I had to categorise it, I'd say it's an urban fantasy with paranormal elements that feels almost dystopian. I'd also class it as middle grade rather than young adult, with an age rage of confident eight year old readers to fourteen year olds who perhaps aren't that interested in books. The writing is simple enough to follow but there are instances of complexity through certain word choices, and while it's not a long book at 299 pages, there are no pictures or large fonts to make it even shorter.

The writing wasn't perfect, however. Most of the time it jumps from one place to another with no indication, such as a new paragraph or chapter. One minute you're at school with and then within the same line you're back in the park with a completely different character. This isn't helped by the fact that for the first 130 pages nothing is explained in any great detail. That isn't to say that the story doesn't progress in this time - it does, you just have a lot of questions that aren't necessarily answered.

Thankfully, as you near the 200 page mark, you get a lot of answers. The Brotherhood, Draganovic, Charlie's dreams, his dad's accident, and more are explained and the fantasy side of things really starts to kick in. It almost become reminiscient of Percy Jackson - kids on a quest and all that - just without all the Greek elements that may confuse a younger audience. There's a big focus on friendship and helping each other, despite hesitations, which I really appreciated and felt made this much more enjoyable than if it had just been Charlie stumbling along on his own.

Overall this isn't a bad little book. Too young for me, that's for sure, but good fun nonetheless.

Trevor Leck 
Living in Telford, Shropshire, Trevor Leck has been dabbling in writing for over fifteen years. Always a fan of gripping adventure stories he has taken inspiration from his favourite authors, including John Grisham and J K Rowling, and the towns and cities he grew up, especially North Shields, to create his Young Adult series.

The Cubit Quest can be purchased from Amazon UK

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