Clem Hetherington and the Ironwood Race by Jen Breach (review)

In this graphic novel, fourteen-year-old Clementine and her robot brother Digory have escaped from the orphanage that's no place for a pair that have enjoyed life on archaeological digs with their renowned mother and the cool vehicles of their engineer father. They're found by Alistair Kilburn, a past colleague of their mother, now turned black marketeer. To acquire money to pay off his debts, he cajoles Clem and Dig to enter their father's souped-up ATV in a no-holds-barred multiday race wherein teams of archaeologists zoom across the west to excavate treasures buried centuries ago by another guilt-ridden black marketeer, Brecht Ironwood. This is just the kind of breakneck adventure that flourishes in comic-book format, and if archaeological technique takes a backseat, the 25th century (give or take a hundred years) road race among contestants of human and alien origin (who need only "a trowel … a car … and a crap-ton of luck") is an action-lover's dream. Clem's a dogged, expressive everygirl whose emotions turn on a dime; brother Dig is a model of reason and sanity on the order of C3PO; and the muscle machines and their hyperaggressive drivers are worthy adversaries. If Breach and Holgate have further adventures in the pipeline, fans will surely await. Who can resist the premise "Archaeologists! Start. Your. Engines!" EB