Book Review: One Trick Pony by Nathan Hale

 One Trick Pony by Nathan Hale

Three kids are scavenging a post-apocalyptic landscape when they find a robotic horse buried in a tunnel. The tunnel turns out to be an elevator shaft, down which they go. At the bottom they find a room full of electronics, screens, and robots. They turn on some stuff, which turns out to be a bad decision. The pipers come. The pipers are giant, odd-looking creatures who steal technology by forming bubbles around the equipment. The pipers seek out active machines and electronics. The kids flee on the horse, hoping to lose the pipers and make it back to their village. The village is a mobile town with minimal electronics. It's always on the move and always collecting choice bits of technology. The villagers are trying to save human knowledge in hopes that the apocalypse will end at some point and civilization can be restored.

The story is intriguing and a different take on the post-apocalyptic genre. Hale's art is very similar to his Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales series, with minimal colors. The humor is very similar too, though this is a bit more of a serious story and is based on a story his grandfather told him.

Recommended.