Storm at the Edge of Time, by Pamela F. Service, for Timeslip Tuesday

Storm at the Edge of Time, by Pamela F. Service (1994), is the first book by this late 20th/early 21st century author of children's fantasy/sci fi that I've read.   Her first book, Winter of Magic's Return, was published in 1985, when I was in college and not reading much for pleasure...And then the 1990s were a difficult time reading-wise for me--I would go to libraries and bookstores and not find anything that looked good.  It was so wonderful when the internet happened, and my tbr pile never looked back.  But in any event, this evening I finished reading Storm at the Edge of Time.

Three young teenagers, Arni (a Viking), Jamie (a contemporary American girl), and Tyaak (a half alien from the far future) are all on Orkney in their different times when they are pulled back to the ancient past by a magician desperately trying to save the universe from destruction.  The magician spent most of his own power 6000 years ago in the past, and the three staffs that were once joined in a single tree of protective power were scattered.  The three kids are descendants of the magician, and have inherited some of his power, and so they are pitted against the forces of darkness, desperately search for the staffs in their own time periods.  

They are not a natural team, they have no idea what they are doing, they are time travelling (1 person in their own time, the other 2 not), and powerful agents of darkness, who do know what they are doing magic-wise, are trying to get the staffs themselves.  Unfortunately, the book is too short to do justice of all of this, and the Three Time Travel adventures ended up feeling sort of skittery and surface level, with the occasional elements of good description and emotional depth making the reader (me) want the whole thing to be more...

The part that I actually enjoyed best was the bit where Jamie is introduced--dragged to Orkney by birdwatching parents, she's annoyed and isolated, and desperate to see a ghost so that she can have something that is special about her....This very introspective, character focused section is a sharp contrast to the adventures in time.  The two boys each get their own introductory bit too, but these are short and don't quite make their characters three dimensional, especially that of the half alien from the future, who is just an unpleasant grump for most of the book.  

All this being said, I didn't mind reading the book at all, though I do wish it had pushed a bit more past the adventures into the characters.  And I will certainly pick up Pamela Service's New Magic series and stand alone books if they come my way, though probably not her Alien Agent and Way-To-Real Aliens books....

Witchwood, by Kalyn Josephson

 

Witchwood, by Kalyn Josephson (October 2024, Delacorte Press), is the third in the Ravenfall series, middle grade fantasy about a magical hotel on the boarder of our world and the realm of magic.  I very much enjoyed the first two books, Ravenfall and Hollowthorn, so it was a great treat for me to return to this world (and I am wondering what took me so long....).

Anna is the youngest child of the family who tend to Ravenfall, a magical, sentient being in its own right. And soon she will be the only one--her older sisters are headed off to college.  But at least Colin, whose story of magic and murder and growing powers as a Raven (one who keeps magical creatures that are dangerous to ordinary people in check) was integral to the first too books, has come back to visit.  And she's thrilled when the two of them get to set off on a Raven mission of their own  

But it turns out not to be the straightforward, relatively safe mission her parents agreed on. And when there's a strange attack on them, that they can't explain, they are forced to seek out Anna's aunt in the town of Witchwood, a magical community they've never visited before.  There they find the same attacks have been happening in this town where almost everyone is a witch; people have been disappearing, and no one knows just how or why.

Finding out that she herself is a witch, getting to know her aunt and the Jewish heritage of this side of the family, and wondering why her cousin is so hostile is a lot, but Anna and Colin are also determined to solve the mystery of the disappearances.  And in doing so, they are faced with ethical questions that make figuring out what to do even harder.  Should ordinary people be protected against magic, or should magical creatures and practitioners be protected against ordinary people?   

And will they be able to survive the incredibly powerful woman who will stop at nothing to make sure she is so powerful that no one can stand against her, who wants to harness Anna's own powers for her cause?  

There are lots of the lovely magical details that I enjoyed so much in the earlier books, and a climactic adventure of epic proportions in a legendary realm, linked to Jewish mythology, of incredible danger.  The questions of identity and ethical responsibility add depth, making the book thought provoking as well as exciting fun.  (My one personal quibble is that I love the Ravenfall house so much I wanted to spend more time there, even though the village of Witchwood was interesting too....)

I love how each book is its own complete story, but that doesn't stop me from looking forward to the next book lots!

 

The Isle of Ever (Isle of Ever, #1), by Jen Calonita, for this week's Timeslip Tuesday

The past month has been a heard one for me, leaving no time for blogging, but I'm back with The Isle of Ever (Isle of Ever, #1), by Jen Calonita, for Timeslip Tuesday! The Isle of Ever is the sort of book that makes me glad I didn't start "Time Travel" Tuesday, because there isn't any time travel of the ordinary sort happening here.  But time is very slippy indeed.  

This isn't a spoiler--the book begins with a 19th century Long Island girl, Evelyn, visiting an island that doesn't show up on any maps, and that only she and a few other kids are aware of.  On the island she meets a 17th century pirate, so clearly the island is not obeying the ordinary rules of permanent temporal and spatial placement!  

Then we cut to Everly, known as Benny, an ordinary girl, living in ordinary modern times, whose world with her single mom is one of constant moving and financial anxiety.  Her life is upended when she finds she's inherited a fortune and a Long Island estate from her many times great-grandmother, the Evelyn of the 19th century.  But to claim her inheritance, she has to solve the clues Evelyn has left that will lead her, if she succeeds, to the island that doesn't exist.  

And so, alongside two new friends, Benny races against time from one clue to the next, desperate to figure out the island's secrets....not the least of which is the slippy-ness of its place in time.

The inheritance part is great wish-fulfilment for all of us readers who long for such a legacy! Benny's new estate is all a young reader could ask for.  And the making of friends is also wish-fulfilment for lonely Benny.  The mystery is intriguing with plenty of nice twists along the way (include a rare Blood Orange Moon, a deadly yellow fever epidemic, and unexpected family connections and betrayals. The hunt is interspersed with Evelyn's diary entries, which both help Benny along the way, and deepen the wonderous, terrible, magic of the island. It's great middle grade reading (and gripping for adult readers too!).  

My only disappointment was with the ending, which is in fact another beginning.  It will be a long wait for book two!