William Wenton #1: William Wenton and the Impossible Puzzle by Bobbie Peers

My name is really William Wenton, and I’m the only person in the world to solve the Impossible Puzzle. Of course, I had no idea it would put my life in serious danger. My house was attacked by a robotic creature, and I ended up in an institute for code breakers, co-founded by my grandfather. I had no idea how I reached level four with the Orb on my first day there, passing the other six candidates who had been there much longer. I’ve now learned there’s a supermetal called luridium that bonds with living organisms. It happened to some crazy guy named Abraham, and now he’s after me. I was supposed to be safe at the Institute, and I was safe until Abraham’s robots attacked. Now, I’ve got to find my missing grandfather and the rest of the luridium.

William doesn’t exactly have superpowers, but his code-breaking ability seems like it. His Orb acts as a protective sidekick and seems to know when it’s most needed. I’m not sure why the author chose to describe the Institute and Center for Misinformation as the safest places for William to hide. Abraham had no problem wrecking both locations once he knew William was there. I figured the complexes should have some kind of defense against him. The most enjoyable aspect of the book is the use of robotics. The Institute has all kinds of useless robots, as described by the characters, including one designed to argue and one to go up stairs. There was a whole cybernetic garden full of strange robotic creatures. William bonds with one candidate at the Institute, and I assume she’ll be back in book two. I’m hoping the other candidates will have bigger roles in the sequel.