Guardians of Porthaven

by Shane Arbuthnott

On his fifteenth birthday, Malcolm Gravenhurst is preparing to take on the mantle of Guardian, like many Gravenhursts before him. The Guardians are tasked with defending the city of Porthaven, and his family is the only one to possess the superpowers necessary to battle the frequent alien invasions of robotic klek. But power has brought the Gravenhursts more than just responsibility―it has also brought them fame and wealth. When Malcolm meets some teens living and working in secret, he learns that underneath their heroic facade, the Gravenhurst family is hiding some very dark secrets. With the threat of annihilation on the horizon, soon Malcolm must choose between family loyalty and doing the right thing.

Praise for Dominion and Terra Nova:

"Arbuthnott's debut novel is the first part of an original, fascinating tale that offers an unusual, magical spin on how far human beings will go to gain dominion over the world...Feisty young Molly will keep [readers] grounded in this page-turning mystical adventure."― Kirkus Reviews

"What a fabulous read! There are elements of Airborn and The Golden Compass there...and there was also a huge welter of originality, a charming band of characters―including some truly horrible baddies―and, well, all the ingredients to make it an extraordinarily imaginative first novel. What a poignant plea for our environment, not to mention a stirring indictment of slavery in all its myriad forms. A truly moving book. I hope there are many more to come."―Tim Wynne-Jones, award-winning author of The Emperor of Any Place

"Arbuthnott creates an intriguing steampunk world with a smooth combination of technology and magic...A fast-paced read with a strong female lead, this will leave steampunk and adventure fans looking forward to a hinted-at sequel.”― School Library Journal ★

"In this sequel, Arbuthnott elevates his story...allowing this imaginative steampunk fantasy to slowly build...This spectacular sequel takes steampunk into new territory." Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Sometimes a book comes along that rocks you back on your heels, smacks the self-pity, the selfishness, and ignorance out of you, and makes you ashamed of your own timidity. And sometimes that book happens to be a kids' book. Read Dominion, and then read Terra Nova. Read them for you. Read them for your kids. Read them to your kids. Let your kids read them and ask you questions. I don't care how you do it; I'm just asking you to do it."―Sci-Fi & Scary blog

Genres: Science Fiction, Superheroes, Middle Grade, Young Adult

336 pages, Paperback

Published September 14, 2021

About the author

Shane grew up in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and now lives in Ontario with his family. Dominion, his first novel, was published in 2017 by Orca. His short fiction has previously appeared in On Spec and Open Spaces. When he is not writing, he can be seen chasing his three adventurous children, trying to convince them to occasionally eat green things. For more information, visit www.shanearbuthnott.com.

Reviews

[Kathie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to the publisher for an eARC of this book.

I’m a big fan of the author’s two previous middle grade novels, DOMINION and TERRA NOVA, so I was very excited to get an eARC of this upcoming science fiction book that comes out on September 14, 2021.

Malcolm Granvenhurst turns 15 and joins his family as the newest Guardian to protect the city of Porthaven from alien invasions. Malcolm has waited years to be a Guardian, but he also wants to use his superhuman powers to fight crime in the city. When Malcolm helps stop a crime in an unfamiliar area of Porthaven, he discovers that his family aren’t the only people who have powers. As he starts to help these teens uncover the mystery of their missing friends, he learns that beneath the fame and fortune of the Gravenhurst family is a deadly secret that threatens Porthaven’s existence. Malcolm needs to decide if his loyalty lies with his family or if he’s willing to betray them for the city’s good.

I particularly liked the family drama in this book. Malcolm’s parents died when he was young, and his aunt and uncle raised him. There is competition with his older cousin, Eric, and a distance between Malcolm and his grandfather. I also like the teens he connects with and how they support him as he makes mistakes while navigating his path away from his family. I found the story moved quickly, and there was a lot of action to keep readers engaged. I would love to see a sequel to this book, as I feel there are other secrets waiting to be revealed, such as the truth behind the death of Malcolm’s parents.

I would recommend this story for Gr. 6-8 and hand it to readers who enjoy superhero stories, as well as science fiction. I also really like that this is a Canadian author, and there is a need for science fiction stories with male protagonists.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Malcom is a guardian. He just became one, and will help defend the city of Porthaven from alien robots called kleks, that appears about 60 years ago when the intersteller gate came. His family gained the powers then, and defeated the rest of the invastion, when they destroyed the gate. But the robots keep coming back, and the family keeps defeating them. The same power that creates the kleks also gives his family powers. And the powers and the tech that goes along with them is only in the city of Porthaven.

At least, that is what Malcom has been told all his life, until, when he decides one day to go out on patrol, and he meets someone who is not his family, who has super powers as well. That chance meeting gets him questioning everything he knows about his family and the legacy they have of fighting the kleks.

Very fast paced story, which I devoured in about two days. I kept thinking I knew what was going to happen, and then I didn't, s full of suprrises.

Great story.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

[Markymark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty cool story. I haven't come across a kids chapter book about people with "superpowers" so this was a refreshing change of pace. I'm sure I'm not the only one who grew up wishing I had superpowers as a kid. I loved my 90s superhero animated cartoons such as Batman the animated series, The Amazing Spider-Man, X-Men, etc. The story brought me back to those days. You had all the essentials for a superhero story. Characters tasked with being guardians of a city. Check. Characters who may not be what they appear. Check. A bit of story parallels to Amazon Prime's "The Boys". I thought I had the main family figured out, but not quite. However, I did feel like I could see where the story was going. That doesn't mean the book wasn't fun, but I did have to take away one star.

[eve.lyn._.reads · Rating 2 out of 5]

🌃🌉🌇Guardians of Porthaven🌇🌉🌃
Malcolm Gravenhurst grew up as a privileged rich boy meant to take on the mantle of being the protector of Porthaven. The Gravenhursts are the only humans with super powers, who fight against the alien robot klek. Malcolm has dreamed of being a superhero, but can't help but be afraid of fighting the klek, or notice his weaknesses compared to the other Gravenhursts' strengths. When he makes his debut, he discovers many things that turn his whole world upside down. Where is the orgin of the klek? Is his family really the only ones with power . . . and if there are others, what happens to them? Now Malcolm struggles between the truths that he has discovered, and the family he has loved all his life.

*Every single person in this world can view a work of literature and have completely different thoughts and opinions. My opinion is not meant to offend you. If you do not want to see a review criticizing your favorite book (or a book you enjoyed), then I recommend not to proceed with reading this review.
I'm part of the 5% that gave this two stars. This is my first two-star read of the year, and in a way I don't mind. Reading two-star books helps me know my own personal tastes better; what I like and don't like. I really need to work on dnf'ing books when I don't enjoy reading them. However, I still appreciate seeing a story where an author put hard work into writing, and reading what others enjoyed so much about the book.

I want to experiment with a different format of writing book reviews, so here it goes:

What I liked:
-The synopsis (The overall concept intrigued me)
-Kazue and Blair . . . their relationship was so sweet and both of them, as individual characters, were likable.
-Malcolm was a nervous and shy main character who was kind and caring. His internal struggle between family vs his own people was interesting.
-The cover (love seeing all the characters side by side!)

What I didn't:
-What I liked about the story wasn't strong enough to make me like the book. This book was okay for me.
-The pacing is sometimes irregular.
-I managed to predict most of the plot twists (which could just be me), but it definitely ruined the "wow factor." The climax of the plot twist felt flimsy . . . Once the characters found it, there were a lot of "How could they?" "I can't believe this!" Then Malcolm came to terms with the whole thing, but didn't necessarily do anything to stop them until later on.
-There was a situation where Malcolm should have just told other people a piece of information but decided not to . . .and it led on to this whole plotline that didn't add much to the story.
-I felt like the story was limited to the protagonist's head. Rather than expanding the world with heavy world-building, and finding more about the antagonists, the story settles on keeping us in Malcolm's head. While a story is normally told from a protagonist's perspective, the protagonist would normally give us information or explore the world more so the reader can better understand it on a wider scope. Malcolm spends most of his time in two places and other than that . . . there was nothing that made the concept feel any different to something similar to that.
-The klek felt a lot like they were going to be a bigger part of the story, only to dwindle into the background once a plot twist was revealed.
-The story talks a lot about how several people died because of the klek but it is never shown. I would love to see more of the devastation and destruction the klek causes for the people. I would also love to see a positive thing about the klek introduced, to add more of a complicated conflict rather than making the klek just be flat antagonists. (Could the klek be doing something that is actually beneficial to the world? Has a klek attack benefited a group of people/or people in a situation?) I would also love to see why the Gravenhurst did what they did.

Overall a okay read for me, but I don't regret reading it!
🆗PLOT
⛔PLOT TWISTS
⛔🆗CHARACTERS

[Joana · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all I want to thank the publisher and Netgalley for sending me this E-Arc in exchange of an honest rewiev.

This book was a fast-paced easy middle grade book. Honestly I adored this book and all of the characters. 

The book follows Malcolm, who is part of one of the most important families in the city of Porthaven. His family has superpowers and they defend the city from the kleck (that is the way that they call the aliens). Malcom dreams of being a superhero, like the ones he sees in the comics. One day he decides to go and patrol the city alone and discovers another person with powers that is not part of his family: Drew. Later on Malcolm discovers that there are other people like him and that his family doesn't know about them. Each of the other people he gets to know has a special hate/fear towards his family. Malcom discovers that his family might not be as good and as great as he always thought. 


I started reading this book with not many expectations and it surprised me in a very good way. Malcolm is a very relatable character, most of the choices he made are similar if not the same as the ones I would have done. I really liked how the book includes LGBTQ characters without being their entire personality. The same thing with plus-sized characters. My favorite character of the book is Kazue and I hope that we will get more of her backstory in the next book (because it can't end in the way it ends). I also hope that we get more backstory on Malcolm's grandfather, I think that he is a very interesting character. Having superheroes in a book is a strange thing and it's normally not done very well, but in this book it was amazing. Something I would have liked more of is the way Kazue, Briar and Drew interact with each other since they enter into the found family trope. 

The writing was easy to understand, but I had a little bit of trouble understanding Malcolm's powers in the beginning of the book. Also I would make it clear that the book is set on earth, because it was a bit confusing.


In general this was a very enjoyable read and I would definitely recommend this book if English is not your first language and you want to start reading in English. It was a four out five star book for me.

[Molly Em · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed Shane Arbuthnott’s previous books, Dominion and Terra Nova, so I was excited when I found out he had a new book coming out about super heroes. Thank you to NetGally and Orca Book Publishers for allowing me to read an ARC of this book.

This book felt like a mashup of The Boys and The Umbrella Academy - but for middle grade readers! The main character, Malcolm, is the youngest in a rich and powerful line of super heroes. The story begins with Malcolm’s introduction to the world as the newest Guardian - complete with news interviews and social media coaching. From Chapter Seven: “Being a Gravenhurst was sometimes more like being part of a business than part of a family, but he’d managed to ignore that stuff so far.”

The Bad Guys in this book are mysterious robotic aliens that only seem to attack the city of Porthaven, via portals. The actual city of Porthaven has also been affected by these alien attacks because the Gravenhursts have learned how to use the scraps of alien technology to create new tech that doesn’t exist in any other city in the world. The Gravenhursts are also affected by this alien tech - it’s how they got their super powers. I thought this was an interesting setting for the book and a way to keep the story contained to this one specific anomalous city.

Malcolm wants to do more with his powers and ends up stumbling upon a secret the Gravenhurst family was trying to keep hidden from him. From here he meets a a fun group of characters and the rest of the action packed story unfolds.

Malcolm often comes across as a little bit too dopey and I felt that the words ‘um’, ‘like’, ‘uh’, and ‘yeah’ were a bit overused. Malcolm says ‘like’ A LOT. Even his aunt uses “like” in a sentence where it wasn’t really necessary and seemed, like, out of character. ;)

Other than that small annoyance, this was a fun book that would be perfect for middle grade readers who are into super heroes.

[Kelly (VanIslandCircus) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to @orcabook and @netgalley for this ARC of Guardians of Porthaven written by Shane Arbuthnott for an honest review.

I was intrigued from the moment I saw the cover art, and by the time I read the opening paragraph of the synopsis, I knew that I wanted to read this book!

“Malcolm Gravenhurst is about to become a Guardian, working with his family to defend the city of Porthaven from alien invasions. All Guardians come from the Gravenhurst family, the only one in the world with superpowers. But before he can take on his new role, he learns some shocking truths…”

Aliens! Superpowers! A dark secret! Ahh, you have my attention, hook, line and sinker. This story did not disappoint. From the very beginning, our introduction to Malcolm, his family and the city of Porthaven was alive with detail, fantastical imagery and a fast-paced story that kept you turning the pages to see what would happen next!

The more I read, the more I was drawn not only into the city of Porthaven, but I was also drawn into the lives of those that lived there. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the characters and their backstories. I enjoyed watching them evolve, not only in their own personal growth but also as friends and a newfound family.

I anxiously await the next installment from Arbuthnott and hope that more of Kazue’s backstory is shared.

All in all, there is a little bit of everything for everyone in this book, and I was continually guessing till the very end, which is a rare occurrence and a most pleasant surprise!

Guardians of Porthaven releases September 14th, 2021, from Orca Book Publishers, and it is a must-read for the Fall!

[Jonathan Pongratz]

DNF @44%

Unfortunately I didn't complete this read, but I didn't hate it by any means. I simply stopped because I wasn't resonating with it enough to continue forward.

To sum things up, this book is about a young man Malcolm. He's enjoyed the finer things in life due to his family being the only superpowered people in the city of Porthaven. But when a chance encounter on the streets leads him to other superpowered individuals, Malcolm embarks on a quest of discovery that will challenge everything he knows.

Okay, so I really loved the premise. The city of Porthaven is futuristic with some really cool dystopian elements that I liked. The Gravenhurts as a family were something of an enigma, and that created a mystery that needed to be solved that really pulled me in. There's also a scifi element behind the powers of the family that was refreshing, but I don't want to spoil anything so I'll leave it at that.

That being said, I didn't completely connect with Malcolm as a character. He's kind of your average teen with superpowers. He's curious, adventures, and brave, but his reactions to some of the developments felt too sugar-coated for me. I wanted to feel the horror and astonishment on a more visceral level.

The plot was fun and moved at a brisk pace, but I actually think the superpowered action scenes could've been slowed down a bit and given more detail. They just moved a bit too fast to enjoy them as much as possible.

Despite all this, I still enjoyed myself. If you're a big fan of superheroes it's worth trying this book out to see if you connect with the story. Who knows? It could be your next favorite!

[Pam Withers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Told in third person from Malcolm’s point of view, this novel is a brilliant, totally gripping read with fantastic technology and diverse, relatable characters who sweep you up from the start.
There’s a perfect balance of dialogue, action and brief breaks in the intensity. It’s a sophisticated superhero story with all the trappings sci-fi fans will love: futuristic drones, attacking alien robots, space-tech armour and super powers. Our hero has the ability to fly, battle enemies and leap to the tops of skyscrapers. There are tiny robots that repair damage, a spaceship that crushes his home, and nanotechnology even the geekiest geek will find satisfying.
A form of martial arts plays heavily, as does Malcolm’s heart-tugging dilemma of whether to stand up to his powerful family once he realizes it’s evil. The story is rich in adrenaline-pumping battles, and of course there are the friends with super powers (two of whom are LGBTQ+) that Malcolm must join, lead and protect. Start reading it early in the day, because you won’t be able to put it down till the explosive finish.
To quote the characters, “The universe isn’t boring.” And “Let’s go kick some alien butt.”
This review also appears at www.YAdudebooks.ca

[A.A. Blair · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful tale with inspiring characters. A timely story about privilege and the agency that is needed to drive change. Fans of Arbuthnott's previous works will enjoy how seamless he shifts between steam punk and science fiction. His world building is excellent and the gadgets he creates are so much fun and filled with personality.

[Liander (The Towering Pile) Lavoie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book!! Is so good!!

The ending left me desperately wanting a sequel, though.

[Catrina LeBlanc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Guardians of Porthaven was my first ever eARC received through Netgalley thanks to Orca Publishing. While it was gifted to me, my review is fully my own thoughts.

If I had to give a sort of this meets this type of line for this book it would be Legend meets Pacific Rim: The Black meets the naivety of Percy Jackson wrapped into a sci-fi package. Guardians of Porthaven follows 15 year old Malcom Gravenhurst as he becomes a Guardian, taking up the mantle like the Gravenhursts before him. Guardians are people with powers which protect the city from invading aliens known as Kelk, but like in any good dystopian/sci-fi, the Guardians aren't all that they're cracked up to be.

This novel brought back a nostalgia for my favourite 2010s dystopians but it just felt better. This novel being Middle Grade, which I didn't even realize until after finishing this book and going to write this review, contained far less violence than the YA dystopian/sci-fi novels which it reminded me of, but despite this it still focused on a lot of hard hitting topics and conversations. This novel for me really focused more on the realization of our own biases and privileges (including being white and rich) and really showed a full character arc and growth of Malcom's character leaving it with a very satisfying ending. Along with the growth arc of Malcom this book allows you to see growing friendships and trust building between unlikely companions, heartwarming until the end with a bit of banter and tough love.

I suggest this book to anyone looking to jump into a bit sci-fi, and while it is a middle grade novel, I think it's actually fantastic for anyone to pick up. While younger people in the 9-12 age group can appreciate the conversations and maybe be inspired to start some of their own, even in my 20s I found this a refreshing way to see sci-fi, especially the lack of violence which I feel is so common place in older novels. This book really let me appreciate the world and what was happening it without bogging me down with unnecessary fight scenes, all of the scenes within the book felt like they were helping to move the plot and not just fill time and pages.