Bolts, a Robot Dog, is not so much an aberration from the
Consolidated Mechanical Men Company as he is an improvisation. They even shave
his electronic brain down a bit to fit his unusual skull. Ordered by Commander
Bridgewater Brown and his grandson Bingo for a special urgent mission, he is
stolen by a cadre of enemy agents who mistake him for the new Super-Thought
Machine before he can even be delivered. They are quite surprised to open his crate
and find a somewhat addled mechanical dog determined to make his way home to
his real owners and willing to fight to do so.
So begins
an adventure that leads from the depths of a cave in Mexico to the dark side of
an asteroid. Along the way Bolts learns his specially altered brain can communicate
with animals, that he can walk under water and see in the dark, and that
perhaps there’s a reason not to use his Number Three Bark too often.
Bolts
is considered the third in Key’s ‘Little Robot’ trilogy, although it shares no
characters and few elements from the first two books except for the
Consolidated Mechanical Men Company and ‘Mongolian’ agents. The copy I got is
ex-library (Eastwood Junior High School), illustrated by Key himself again, and
has all the charming character you would expect in a gently used library book
from 1966. So, after fifty years (or so), I finally finish the series. What’s
next? The Forgotten Door? The Golden Enemy? A copy of Escape
to Witch Mountain? Who can say if or when the mood will take me?
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