Zak Corbin: Master of Machines

Zak Corbin: Master of Machines

All young Zak Corbin wants is a robot -- in a time when nearly everyone has one. But there is great fear of the Corbin name. Doctor Elias Corbin was regarded as a famous builder of robots until he unleashed an attack on a military factory. Branded a madman and a traitor, Zak's uncle was sentenced to spend the rest of his days on Penitentiary Island. When fifteen-year-old Zak tries to build a robot of his own, mostly to get the attention of pretty sophomore Lisabeth Ryan, it leads to an adventure of gigantic proportions. Zak builds one of his uncle's banned robots, which he dubs Pogo, and he quickly discovers the machine goes far beyond what ordinary robots can do. But when Zak wishes he could set his uncle free, Pogo breaks Doctor Corbin out of prison, leading to a confrontation with a secret weapon: a terrifying giant war machine. Set in a retro-futuristic era, ZAK CORBIN: MASTER OF MACHINES is a tale of family loyalty, pursuing the things you love, and being careful about what you wish for around a robot! Publishers Weekly Review from 2012 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest for Young Adult fiction "This fun, fast-paced story of youngsters having adventures in an alternative-history past, a time when robots are commonplace, hits the mark dead-on. Young Zak Corbin is the nephew of the brilliant creator of the world's most advanced robots, Dr. Elias Corbin - who has been imprisoned as a war criminal. His robots and even the use of their parts have been banned ever since he defied the U.S. military's orders to build robots for combat. Zak shares his uncle's gifts for science and machinery and longs to discredit Elias's undeserved reputation as a madman and a traitor. He corresponds with his imprisoned uncle using a secret code to learn how to make an invaluable "disassembler" and, eventually, a fully-functional Corbin robot, in secret defiance of the law. Corbin robots are self-aware, however, and no self-aware robot with a mission can stay secret forever. Sci-fi purists may wish that the book held closer to its initial alternate-50s "transistorpunk" world-building instead of eventually involving computers, night-vision, and the like. But anyone with a spirit of fun and a yen for strong characters will find much to love here in the adventures and tribulations of Zak and his core group of friends. Streamlined, straightforward, and packed with action, this manuscript promises 300-odd pages of teenagers-with-robots fun, and it delivers as unerringly as one of its own thinking machines. A clear winner." TONY RUSSO was born in Queens, New York. First published in Aboriginal Science Fiction magazine, Mr. Russo was a contributing author for West End Games, LLC, license holder of the official STAR WARS roleplaying game system. He appears in TALES FROM THE EMPIRE, published by Bantam Books. He took 2nd prize in the 2003 New Century Writer Awards for Novels. In September 2012, his science-fiction detective adventure, THE PRINCE OF TROUBLE, will be available on jukepopserials.com, a website dedicated to revitalizing serial fiction. His latest effort, ZAK CORBIN: MASTER OF MACHINES, was a semi-finalist in the 2012 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards for Young Adult fiction. Find Tony Russo on http: //tonyrusso.rocket9studio.com.